The Flame of Recognition
By Michael Erlewine
And ‘one taste’ is the result of the collapse of the duality which feeds Samsara, which is what Mahamudra and Dzogchen, which culminate in non-meditation are all about.
How to actually trigger the collapse of the duality or difference we have always maintained our entire life so that the two dissolve into one. This marks the invocation of Insight Meditation that is necessary for Mahamudra or Dzogchen to arise.
We can try everything we know to cause or initiate this collapse, so that, as the poet wrote, “The dewdrop slips into the shining sea,” yet we don’t know what it would take, which is why a root guru is required to point out to us how this is to be done, and that’s why we have the classic Pointing-Out instructions as to the actual nature of the mind, which is called Recognition.
For reasons which apparently we cannot understand, we have no idea how to stop being just a spectator (dualistic) and slip into non-duality. It is because for some reason we cannot do this on our own and require an authentic guru to point out how this is done.
This is why a particular authentic dharma teacher becomes and is called our ‘root guru’, because they alone successfully point out to us the actual nature of the mind so we, for the first time, understand and accomplish this; we accomplish Insight Meditation, a particular kind of Vipassana that is essential for Mahamudra’s non-meditation to take place.
In my own case, I had the pointing-out instructions given to me a number of times by very high lamas, only to have me not be able or not be ready to receive them and I remained unchanged.
Then some years later, during a particular 10-day intensive (one of 31 yearly 10-day intensives on Mahamudra I attended), this one on the union of Mahamudra and Dzogchen, I understood what I had been doing wrong all the time, and this launched three years of intense meditation practice that finally prepared me for Insight Meditation.
Yet even then it took a perfect storm of outside events, some of them personal and crushing, to pull me off my high horse down to the level of the ground where I could finally recognize the actual nature of the mind, which event is called in our Kagyu lineage ‘Recognition’.
I’m saying it took all of these conditions to prepare and ready me to experience and realize the actual nature of the mind and how it works. I could not have done this on my own (I had been unable to so far) plus I would never willingly undergo the untoward events that I suffered to get my actual attention into the right frame of mind for recognition. To sum this up:
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If we are serious about dharma practice, then by now we know the Common Preliminaries (The Four Thoughts That Turn the Mind to the Dharma), Lojong (Seven Points of Mind Training), the Extraordinary Preliminaries (Ngondro, which I had to do twice), our Deity Practices (several sadhanas) and finally the Special Preliminaries (varies, but I spent three years just on the Common Preliminaries before I took up Mahamudra actively, which requires Recognition).
There are a large number dharma practitioners that are busy waiting for recognition. I think those who are jockeying to receive the pointing out instructions as to the true nature of the mind know that we alone are unable to pull this off because we have NO IDEA what the nature of the mind is actually about, much less have we had the experience of it, much less again the realization of that experience.
We are not going to just luck into that Recognition, no matter how smart, gifted, or lucky we think we are. We have to stop thinking that we can do this on our own when we don’t even know what recognition is from actual experience.
It’s not something that can be thought. It’s not something we can imagine or we would have by now. Keep in mind that not only have we not experienced Recognition in this life, but we also have been unable to achieve this for innumerable lifetimes since time began. That concept is worth a thought or two.
And it’s not that we had recognition and lost it. We have just never been able to achieve it, so be kind to yourself. And if you are unable or too shy or whatever to seek out an authentic dharma teacher, then this may not be the time or lifetime to attempt this. Then again, you might be ready to take this on in this life. Perhaps you have nothing else to do.
Regardless, we have to do something different this time, this lifetime, and that involves breaking habits and us reaching to search out to find an authentic dharma teacher. That is required and you will know the dharma teacher when you meet him or her.
Yes, you will know them when you meet, and they introduce you to the nature of the mind. There is no other way I know of and I have looked.
[Midjourney graphic prompted by me.]
EMAIL Michael@Erlewine.net Note: If you would like to have access to other free books, articles, and videos on these topics, here is the link: SpiritGrooves.net.
As Bodhicitta is so precious,
May those without it now create it,
May those who have it not destroy it,
And may it ever grow and flourish.
