The Wild Horse of the Mind

By Michael Erlewine

Is it a natural gift innate from birth we have or is it something learned that comes from resting in the mind just as it is. It’s more the latter, IMO, something learned that can be taught.

We just have to have an authentic teacher, someone we are willing and able to respect plus someone who sees something in us. And I don’t mean to suggest here that something is taught. No need for that, it’s already there for each of us. But rather, what is needed is respect by us to behave and honor the instructor and the instructions, enough for us to settle down into a deep relaxation, so that we can hear for ourselves the music of the dharma.

Something more worthy than just our reified Self and our own interest.

There comes a point in our life, in our discovery of dharma and submission to training, where an authentic master points out the nature of our own mind to us so that we actually first recognize it. And this event is appropriately called “Recognition.” Anyway, Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche, my Root lama, said in this particular teaching, and I quote:

“ ‘Recognition’ is like a herd of wild horses thundering across the plains. At some moment, if we are fortunate, it is pointed out to us so that we recognize it, one particular wild horse in the herd, a stallion perhaps, and as Rinpoche put it ”… covered with dirt and unkempt hair, and of this color and not that color, with this amount of wildness and not that, and so on. This recognition point is when we first realize that this particular wild stallion is OUR wild stallion, and that we and we alone must tame it, and that we have this stallion to ride now. That is the idea or point of Recognition.”

And Khenpo Rinpoche said further:

”To start with, in other words, it is important to have a recognition of your mind’s nature through its being pointed out and so forth. However, you must not think that gaining that recognition is the culmination of the path. It is the starting point of this phase of the path.

“Remember, recognition of your mind’s nature when it is pointed out and realization of your mind’s nature are different. Recognition is the starting point of the practice of resting in your mind’s nature. The culmination of that is realization.”

The quotation continues:

“For example, imagine that someone owns a horse but for many years that horse has been allowed to run wild and free. After many years, even the owner would not recognize it, but the herder points out the horse to the owner and says, ‘This is your horse. This is the horse that you had and lost track of so many years ago.’ That is very much like the situation of somebody who has had their mind pointed out to them. That which was always yours but had been unrecognized has now been pointed out or introduced to you.”

“However, just as in the case of the horse, simply knowing that this wild horse is your horse is not enough to enable you to ride it. You have to methodically tame the horse and get it to where it can be useful to you, where you can actually ride it and ride it safely. In the same way, simply having your mind pointed out to you is not enough. It having been pointed out to you, your mind is still wild, still habitually prone to distraction”

” Therefore, beginners must cultivate a recollection or mindfulness that is free of distraction. In order to continue to work with your initial recognition of your mind’s nature, you must intentionally cultivate the state of undistractedness, and you must intentionally meditate. As long as the wild horse of your mind has not been tamed, you have to continue to tame it diligently through the enforcement of undistractedness.”

“Just as would happen if you simply got on top of an untamed horse once it was pointed out to you and would either not be able to get on it in the first place or would be thrown off it and perhaps injured. In the same way, if you do not tame your mind, if you do not cultivate undistracted recollection, then you will be thrown off of the recognition of your mind’s nature by the habit of distraction.”

End of quote.

I don’t know how to put it as well as Rinpoche did. It took all of us by surprise, and at some point, I took it to heart and did something about it.

I even ended up volunteering to do the ‘Extraordinary Preliminaries’ (Ngondro), those medieval exercises, all 555,555 of them (111,111 refuge prayers, 111,111 full-length prostrations, 111,111 100-sylable mantras, 111,111 mandala offerings, and 111,111 guru yoga practices).

And even then, when I finally finished all of the above, ‘The Ngondro’, and told Rinpoche I had finished, and asked should I start the deity practices, his response was this. “Do you want to know what I would do if I were you?”

Of course, I said yes. And Rinpoche then said, “I would do another whole round of the ‘Extraordinary Preliminaries’ practice,” another ‘Ngondro.’ And Margaret and I did just that, because we trusted that Rinpoche knew what we needed. And that he did.

What am I saying here? I’m saying that every road goes two ways and it is one thing to find authentic dharma instructions and quite another for us to rise to the occasion and live up to them.

Yes it is hard to find a dharma instructor that we respect enough to meet them halfway, and just as difficult ingest the instructions and complete them without undue effort rather than good-hearted joy. Every forced effort will just have to be walked back farther on up the road.

As for me, I finally got to a point where I could no longer stand my own pussyfooting around as to whether I’m going to jump in and be counted on, or quibble on the outskirts until my life runs out. I jumped in, did my best, which was not enough, took another run at it and did OK, and still had to walk back more than I care to admit. Still doing that.

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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.