The Pool of the Non-Dual

Michael Erlewine -- Archivist Popular Culture

4 min readFeb 1, 2024

By Michael Erlewine

Attachment means friction between reality and Samsara’s misapprehensions and the friction of that duality is the sign of karma accumulation. Samsara is that accumulation.

And so, we try to slide or travel down the tube of time without touching any of the walls, so to speak, without creatin the friction of attachments. Of course, unless we are a Zen sensei or dharma master, we leave a trail of sparks (karma) banging against our attachments which make up the walls of time.

It is the nature of Samsara that we create more karma each day than we resolve or remove. We just pay karma forward. Clinging to attachments, reifying, and layering up reality, what is called “gilding the lily,” results in a massive accumulation of karma that is blinding. Historically, we are used to accumulating karma as we go along. The dharma texts we have never (not ever) been without it.

Lessening or removing that karma is difficult to almost impossible, despite all of the duality dharma practices to efface it. Inevitably karma will ripen in time and express itself. A careful reading of the dharma literature will support this. However, the non-dual dharma practices can deconstruct Samsara.

Aside from not creating karma in the first place, once we have mastered the dharma preliminaries (Common and Extraordinary Preliminaries, Lojong, and the like), the key to removing or breaking down karma is training in the non-dual, non-linear dharma teachings like Mahamudra and Dzogchen, fueled internally by Insight Meditation working with Tranquility Meditation. Even conceptually, the non-dual forms of meditation, which are non-meditation are impossible to put into words or understand without actual experience with them. We have never known that.

As mentioned, while working with the dual forms of dharma training, the Common Preliminaries, Lojong, the Extraordinary Preliminaries, and the Special Preliminaries, which we can accomplish on our own, with a group, and with a variety of teachings and teachers, eventually we have to master the non-dual meditation practices which are said to be ‘non meditation.”

However, the transition to the ‘non-dual’ forms of dharma training, such as Mahamudra and Dzogchen, is a different story. We cannot do it by ourselves or even in a group. It depends on having an authentic teacher with whom we can work and who is willing to work with us on a one-to-one basis.

In fact, there is a large pool of practitioners who have gone as far as they can with the duality dharma practices mentioned above.

I am reminded of the way migrating salmon school in deep pools while going far upstream. I have seen them. In a similar way, this large pool of practitioners wait for an introduction to the nature of the mind and perhaps are unable to locate and mix their minds with an authentic teacher who can guide them to deconstruct duality enough to immerse themselves in the actual nature of the mind. Becoming familiar with the nature of our own mind is what advanced dharma teachings are all about.

And this next step cannot be grandfathered to us, bought, or found on our own, because there is a singular requirement. Nor is there a work around, bypass, or backdoor way into the nondual dharma practices.

And it is here that many diligent dharma practitioners sit and wait, like the salmon in a pool, for the missing ingredient, an authentic master and guide who can introduce them to the nature of the mind so that they can become familiar with it enough to work it themselves.

It is like learning how to drive a car. Usually someone who can drive a car instructs us how to do that. It is the same with being introduced to the actual nature of the mind. We have to be instructed, the technical word is “introduced” and that means finding a teacher willing to work with us, from whom we can naturally learn, and this is often not an easy task.