Delusion

By Michael Erlewine

The Ven. Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche wrote:

“Delusion is simply not knowing, not understanding. When Khenpo Gangshar says that delusion “is the lack of recognizing one’s essence,” this means that we don’t clearly see what this is.

“Since we do not recognize the nature of our minds, we do not understand how things really are; delusion prevents us from seeing the nature of things.

“Through not knowing this nature, our delusion gets stronger and then we become more envious, angry, or greedy. Other afflictions can also arise.

“In and of itself, this dullness is not particularly strong and not such a great fault; however, since it causes all the other afflictions to develop, it is the root of all our faults, problems, and difficulties.”

End of Quote

Delusion and ignorance, our ignoring the nature of things, as Thrangu Rinpoche points out, the nature of the mind, needs to be understood. It’s a big deal to recognize and use and embrace the nature of the mind, but we also have to have some basic idea of understanding what we have to understand, which is a Catch-22, IMO.

In other words, there is the actual recognition as to the true nature of the mind, but as mentioned above, there is also somehow first getting in the ballpark as to what that recognition is supposed to be. We don’t even know what to look for.

You can’t get it from books, poems, or writing like this, other than perhaps a flavor or a whiff of the reality. I spent years on this problem and found that a whole lot of nothing is still nothing. That’s the whole point!

Obviously, there’s no button I know that a guru can press and we all see the actual nature of our own mind. There are an untold number of pages and books, and I have read and studied many of them, trying to get inside, and have an insight into how to recognize the nature of the mind. Effort cannot do the job.

I finally had to go to stop my personal effort, and walk to the end of the line, and do what the good books and teachers say, which is to get live help from someone who has had the experience themselves and knows what they are talking about.

The nature of the mind has to be pointed out to us. Period. End of story.

Even then, it took years and many attempts at having it pointed out to me by authentic teachers for me to actually understand what is involved in this process. One has to relax and have it pointed out to us, not matter how ‘smart’ we think we are.

We can’t see our own eye, except in a mirror and event then it is reversed. As they say, best to give up, meaning in an upward direction. Let go, which allows the mind to relax.

Only then does the legendary city of Atlantis rise from the waters of our ignorance.

[Midjourney graphic prompted by me.]

EMAIL Michael@Erlewine.net

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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.