Videos hosted by Michael Erlewine

Years ago, when I was working with my first dharma teacher, a Rosicrucian initiator by the name of Andrew McIver, he would often comment on the books that I always seemed to be carrying around with me. "Michael, someday you must be the book."

I have read a lot of books, built large libraries, and all that. And yes, gradually I have ceased to read books. I no longer read fiction or, for that matter, books of any kind. I do still read dharma texts, but less so as time goes by. And, as my teacher suggested, more and more the mind itself is what I read.

For me, dharma study seems to come in waves. I know the words on the texts I read don't change over time, but they might as well, because there are times when I can't understand a word, and other times when every word is enlightening.

More and more the words are just reminders, and I don't have to read many before I just set the book down and prefer to read my mind instead. Left to its own devices, the mind naturally wants to be clear and to remain clear. There is nothing in any book or text anywhere in the world that did not come from the mind. Words from the mind, written down, are not an improvement. The mind is the source and ultimate resource.

Is it no wonder that great meditators just spend time hanging out with their mind? We who practice learning meditation tend to have one foot in the mind and the other in our distractions. Distractions too are nothing but mind, yet I don't realize it. The waves on the ocean are water too, just parts of the same ocean. The ocean of mind is the mother and root of all waves, all thoughts, and distractions.

This raft of consciousness, tossed by the waves of the mind, does not know it is also the water, the waves, and the entire ocean. Understanding is not realization. This mind is a great opportunity I have to realize the ocean within me, and the dreaded transmigration I sometimes wait in fear of can be undertaken here and in this life now. There is no need to wait until we are in the bardo to sort it all out.

This moment here today is also the bardo. The ship to that shore has already launched and we are even now somewhere betwixt and between. Yes, we are transmigrating. Like a spider on a vast web of our own making, we cross, handhold by clinging handhold, always learning to identify less with our self and more with our luminous awareness, the mind. It is a simple change of view.

As I learn to let go of my attachments (like rubber bands) I snap to identifying with the true nature of the mind. My self is no longer the only center I have, my only view, but is at best a glass seen through darkly, which I let go of (like taking off shades) and look at light. This is the transference of consciousness I have read about (and that must take place for each of us), taking place now. Better sooner than later.

The mind contains everything that appears inside of us and in the outside world. We are all about that. We are all mind readers.

[Photo taken yesterday. Speaking of views, I wonder what this beetle sees sitting at the tip of the top of this flower?]