' The simple recognition of what is '...

In the search for ‘enlightenment,’ a natural tendency of the dualistic mind is to analyze a teacher’s words. The mind looks at information and compares it to previously learned information and then analyzes whether the new information is consistent with its stored memory. But this analysis is the seeking. The self—attachment to stored thought—is seeking to confirm itself, its own ideas.

‘This’ is pointing to something so obvious that, once it is realized, the tendency of the mind to attempt to grasp ‘This’ dies. Pointers are intended to allow the mind to unravel its fixations and relax into the simple recognition of the space of now and everything that arises and falls in it—to the sound of a car going by, the sensation of breathing, a feeling arising and falling, a thought coming and going, the wiggling of a toe, or the sound of a friend’s voice. It’s that simple.

Even in that realization, the mind may continue to fixate. It wants to hold on tightly to its own interpretation of ‘This.’ Instead of seeking ‘This,’ it believes it has attained it. It starts to believe that its pointers are true and that others’ pointers are not. It turns away from the simple recognition of what is and, instead, tries to own ‘This’ on a personal level. No one owns ‘This.’ ‘This’ is simply what is.



-Kiloby, Scott. Reflections of the One Life: Daily Pointers to Enlightenment