Recognizing the Familiar
By Michael Erlewine
[I first learned to recognize the actual nature of the mind and how it works through close-up photography, creating photos like these, and not by sitting on my meditation cushion. Technically, in Tibetan dharma this is called Liberation by ‘Seeing’.]
We are very much a victim of what we know (and don’t know), and this is true about anything, any study or topic. I know what I know, yet I don’t know all of it about anything. There are a few things I know quite well, enough that I could teach them. These would be astrology, photography, music, rock n’ roll concert posters, archiving popular culture, and probably nature study. I could also teach a course in being an entrepreneur, yet I doubt many could do the homework for that.
I also know something about dharma and have studied it for many decades now, yet I don’t consider myself a teacher of dharma. I like to share dharma with others. And I know a few parts of dharma training quite well, but I am a sharer of dharma, not a teacher. I can be a dharma friend.
In other words, I don’t have a PHD in dharma because I only know my own path, the particular thread that has led to me as I am now. And I’m not interested in knowing everything about dharma just for the sake of knowing it. Then I could teach it. Rather, as mentioned, I just want to take the next step in the path of dharma that works for me, yet I want to help others on their own path.
So, with dharma, I can’t say to readers, do what I do, because that makes no sense. What I know is just too personal and unique to me, my path. The best I can say is that we each should do something to get to know the actual nature of our own mind. By all means, become familiar with your mind. It’s right there now.
Of course, with dharma practice we can talk about what are called the ‘Common Preliminaries’ and even the ‘Extraordinary Preliminaries’, what is called ‘The Ngondro’, and Lojong, because these practices are dualities and can be talked about. And we can talk (but it would make little sense) about the various deity practices that come after the above, which practices are very detailed. Yet, information on what I mentioned above is readily available in book, video, and in-person teaching format.
What’s NOT available and yet what I do talk about is the pivot from the dual or relative forms of dharma training mentioned above to the non-dual dharma practices like Mahamudra and Dzogchen.
This is a big switch and remains a mystery to many because all (or any) of the nondual dharma practices can’t be put into words. They are ephemeral and these topics result in an abrupt halt to ordinary thinking and are a ring-pass-not. We can’t just pass through to them. I write about them, yet I know how difficult that is (from my own experience) to make sense of.
The non-dual dharma practices are not something we know or have ever known up to now. We have no idea what the non-dual experiences are like, much less their actual realization.
And my writing about the nondual dharma practices also is, for me, a way of clarifying all this for myself. There is nothing more subtle or difficult to negotiate that I know of. Also, I know of nothing more important to communicate than how to make the transition between dual and non-dual dharma, particularly because, as mentioned, it can’t be done with words alone.
Yet, many of us interested in the dharma continue to use words (or try to) to get as close to understanding the non-dual as possible. I’m using them here right now. And why I don’t stop doing this, talking about what can’t be talked about, is the belief that at the very least, some bit of insight might rub off.
And there is a long history of dharma teachers (and sharers) throwing everything including the kitchen sink at this problem. Zen Buddhism has a long tradition of jolting, shocking, upsetting, and doing whatever to a student necessary, trying to jog or jolt them out of their dualistic rut and into non-dualism, which once achieved is irreversible.
Realization is realization. It has the word “real’ in it and that for a reason. When we ‘realize’, there is no going back to unrealizing. For example, when we realize how to turn on a light switch and get light, that is not something we forget next time. We realize it once and for all.
Yet, there is a vast difference between realizing how to turn on a light compared to realizing the true nature of the mind, our own mind, yet the principle is the same. Realization.
And so, when someone realizes the nature of the mind, their own mind and how it works, this makes a profound difference in our lives, and, as mentioned, once realized, there is no unrealizing it.
It’s exactly like the light switch and turning it on. Once you realize how to do this, you can turn on the lights at will!
It’s the same with realizing how the mind works. We suddenly become familiar with the nature of the mind, meaning we can work it. Like realizing how to drive a car, we can then drive it.
We have never known how to ‘drive’ the mind, how to use and work it. We first must become familiar with our mind before suddenly we can. It’s no longer a mystery. After that, there is nothing standing in our way toward enlightenment other than our own effort.
[Photo by me.]
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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.