Mind Over Mind

By Michael Erlewine

The Ven. Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche:

“Sometimes our awareness is very strong and clear, and at such times there is no danger of mixing up karma, cause and effect. But sometimes when we do not clearly distinguish the confusion of mind from awareness, we might think that the distracted aspect of mind is meditation. Many thoughts will arise, and we will not deal with them, thinking that this is Dzogchen.

“If that happens, the afflictions will arise and by following them, we will engage in wrong doing. We will have turned away from the path, in which view and conduct are united. We will disregard the working of karma, cause and effect. We will not give up non-virtue and will not cultivate virtue. We will confuse cause and effect and make many mistakes.

“When we have the right view and understand the difference between mind and awareness, this leads us to good behavior — proper view and proper conduct are united. But if we do not distinguish between mind and awareness and do not behave well, both our view and conduct will not be good.”

End of quote.

My dear Facebook friends. This is a long article, not meant for many. I Write it because the topic fascinates me and I would love to have a discussion with any of you. However, I know it’s a tough read, hard to work through. I salute anyone who can make the journey.

This differentiation as to what is the ordinary Mind that we all know and what is Awareness of that ordinary Mind is important, even key. And the pivotal event in our dharma practice called in the texts “Recognition,” being our recognizing the true nature of the Mind is not something like a merit badge that we can just earn and wear. It’s not something to “get.” We can’t just get it.

It’s more like those old figure-ground illustrations, where there is a picture and within that picture is another hidden picture that you can’t see until someone points it out. Recognition is like that., You can’t see it until it is pointed out.

Recognition involves, with the help of an authentic guru or teacher, our experience consciously for the first time, of non-duality — full immersion. Instead of our habitual dualistic experience (subject and object), with the guidance of an authentic guru or instructor we learn to immerse ourselves in this present moment in the exclusion of our being the subject and the rest of the world our object. As the poet said, at such a moment:

“The dewdrop slips into the shining sea.”

With that said, I would now like to put a little finer point on this topic of ‘Recognition’ and introduce those of you curious as to what ‘Recognition’ actually entails for the dharma practitioner who hovers on the edge of experiencing Mahamudra, and Mahamudra is not a form of meditation, but rather a form of non-meditation.

Appearances or ordinary Mind (Sem) and the awareness of these same appearances (Rigpa) are two different parts of this whole thing called Consciousness. The dharma associates Mind with appearances as separate from our Awareness of that Mind (and its appearances).

The whole world of appearances, which surrounds us and in which we live is or can be distracting and it takes up a lot (or most) of our attention, which is markedly different from “Awareness” itself, which is our being AWARE of the attention being taken by our endless distractions.

Our being aware of the nature of Mind, what Mind is and how it works, this Awareness of the nature of Mind is just that, an awareness of what is, and this is not saying that the nature of mind is any different from its appearances.

Awareness (and ultimately realization) of the nature of Mind is what we are after. In other words, the nature of Mind is just that, how the mind works, and this is not to say the Mind is good, bad, or indifferent. The Mind is the ordinary Mind. Period, end of story.

It is the awareness of that Mind and its nature, which allows us to behave accordingly. It’s this awareness that is important here. Eventually, we have to be aware of the nature of mind and just how the mind works before we can know best how to use and work the Mind. We have this orinday Mind but don’t know how to use it well.

To do that we have to go for full immersion in this present moment –non-dual awareness.

It kind of throws a damper on the idea that the ordinary Mind is just fine and not a problem. Apparently, it is a problem or at least something we have to be aware of in order to properly deal and work with it. In other words, it is our awareness (or lack thereof) that comprises our attention or ought to. Simply put we are not aware of the Mind and how it works.

Awareness and clarity are what are operative and the Mind becomes the object of this awareness, creating a duality by definition.

The traditional scriptures and pith dharma texts offer what is called the “Pointing Out Instructions” enabling our recognition of the actual or true nature of the Mind and how it works. This is a big deal in the dharma literature.

It is easy and usual for beginners to fall into and assume that the nature of the Mind is a ‘something’, a benign or ‘good’ thing, when that may not be the case. The Mind is neither good, bad, nor indifferent. It just is what it is, our Samsaric or ordinary mind. The important thing here is the Recognition of and continuing ‘Awareness’ of the nature of that Mind, not the Mind itself. This is where we trip up.

The nature of the Mind and how it works must be recognized for what it is. The whole reason for the Pointing-Out Instructions is awareness and the recognition of the Mind’s nature, i.e. that we finally see and recognize it.

We learn to distinguish between ordinary Mind (Sem) and the Awareness of that Mind (Rigpa). We distinguish between the mind’s nature (Sem) and our awareness of the mind’s nature (Rigpa). We are not the Mind, but rather we are aligned with the Awareness of the mind’s nature. Of course, ultimately the two are one and the same. Some definitions:

AWARENESS (Rigpa)

This is the direct recognition of the essence of the mind, beyond any thoughts, emotions, or mental activity. This is the pristine, non-dual, self-knowing of our true nature. Awareness is clear, stable, and not moved by the arising of thoughts or afflictions, the very ground of being, the nature of the mind and not the Mind itself.

THE MIND (Sem)

The Mind (Sem) refers to ordinary mind, meaning the mind you and I are using right now, the conceptual, discursive and dualistic mental activity, including emotions, distractions and our habitual patterns. This is the ever-changing, distracted aspect of our consciousness, where we grasp at objects, fall into dualities (subject and object), get caught in confusion and/or delusion, anger, desire, or simply ignorance, mistaking its own activity for reality.

THE NATURE OF THE MIND

The nature of the mind typically refers to the nature of our Samsaric mind, how Samsara or our ordinary mind works. And that nature is not something precious or special in itself. What is precious is for us to understand is how the ordinary mind works, our awareness of that. Why? So, we can work it successfully and not continue to fall into Samsaric duality and entrapment. This means our awareness of our own distractions, how we are distracted and how we bleed our life energy away through being contained and entertained by Samsara.

We lose so much energy by compiling words into a group and then attempt to breathe life into that constructed group of words. A good example of this is the term “Nature of Mind.” Over time, in studying dharma, we come to believe that the nature of our mind (how it works) is sacred, is a ‘thing’ in itself, a nature that we have not even yet recognized.

We believe we are searching for the ‘nature of our mind’ as if that nature is special, when that is not the case. What IS special is our awareness of the nature of the mind (Rigpa), ‘pure awareness’, not the actual nature of the confused mind itself (Sem). The confused mind is just that, confused, emotional, dualistic, etc.

What is true is that we are talking about ‘Sem’, the ordinary mind that each of us have and not the Awareness of ‘Sem’, awareness of the confused mind. Sem represents the ordinary, dualistic mind, caught up in Samsara, while “Rigpa” is the pristine, non-dual awareness.

That is why we as sentient beings are called “Sempa,” a human being with a mind (sem).

Breathe.

And so, in practicing Mahamudra or Dzogchen, the common mistake is to consider that recognizing the “mind’s nature” is finding a hidden treasure, as if our ordinary confused mind contains or holds some ultimate truth, when it does not. Instead, it contains our confused thoughts, emotions, dualistic perceptions, intellection, etc. Take those out and we have Nirvana rather than Samsara. We know we are not there yet.

The truth is that ‘Rigpa’ or awareness of the confusion in our ordinary mind is what is key, recognition of the nature of the mind through purifying our awareness. That so-called nature of the Mind is flawed by our own distractions, not in itself.

Any “specialness” resides not in our confused mind (Sem) itself but in the recognition of its nature through Rigpa. The confused mind or ‘Sem’ is ordinary, impermanent, and bound by samsara. What’s extraordinary is Rigpa — the direct, non-conceptual awareness that reveals the mind’s true nature as empty, luminous, and free. This insight is at the heart of Mahamudra and Dzogchen and other non-dual traditions, where liberation comes from resting in this pure awareness rather than tinkering with the confused mind’s endless fluctuations. We have been there, done that, and are there now.

In common parlance, dharma students are encouraged to recognize the true nature of the mind. The problem is that, without knowing it, the term “true nature of the mind” is mistakenly taken for something in itself, meaning that the nature of the mind is something in itself that we believe can be appropriated or is sacred, something we can ‘get’ if we try. Never will happen. It’s not something we can ‘get’, but instead the nature of the mind is something we can recognize and THEN use that information.

It’s not that the “true nature of the mind” in itself is precious, but rather the awareness of the true nature of the mind, how the mind works, is what is precious. That awareness is an awareness of all the distractions, confusions, etc. that ordinary mind (Sem) is heir to. That awareness of all the problems that ordinary mind contains is what is precious, our recognition and awareness of all these problems.

That is what “recognizing the true nature of the mind” is all about, the awareness of the distractions and problems of the ordinary mind. These make up the nature of the ordinary mind or Sem.

Rigpa or the ‘Awareness’ of the nature of the ordinary mind allows us to recognize the nature of how the ordinary mind works so that we can no longer be caught up in samsara and the ordinary mind.

There you have it. The Mind is the whole kit and caboodle, everything that is, so we have to discriminate what we mean by Mind. In this article I have pointed out that there is the Tibetan term “Sem” meaning our ordinary mind, complete with the various confusions, desires, attachments, and all of that. On the other hand “Rigpa” or Awareness is the element of Mind that is aware of just how the ordinary mind works and how to deal with it.

And finally, “Recognition of the true nature of the mind” is not itself anything other than understanding how the ordinary mind works. What is special is that being able to work the mind includes the ability to rest in non-duality.

[Midjourney graphic prompted 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.