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The Only Manifestation 18 (Great 46)
In the practice of mere recognition, mindfulness helps us to know “that is present” without judgment, grasping, or rejection—the French call this reconnaissance pure, in English “mere recognition.” For example, when anger arises, it is enough to silently acknowledge: “Ah, I am angry,” with a non-dual awareness, because the object of recognition is not an enemy but is oneself. Similarly, any emotion—fear, sadness, suffering, joy—can be fully recognized without labeling it as good or bad. The Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness teaches contemplation in four domains: body, feelings, mind, and objects of mind, which means recognizing each phenomenon in its very nature, and practicing the guarding of the six sense doors—eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind—as “city gates” watched over by the light of mindfulness:
- I see
- I hear
- I smell
- I taste
- I touch
- I think
The internal knots (samyojana) are blocks of sorrow and joy, anger, craving, hatred, ignorance, pride, doubt, and views… accumulated in the mind and silently directing our actions, words, and thoughts. Habit energy (vasana) is the repetitive energetic tendency—habitual karma—stored in the Alaya consciousness (Store Consciousness), which is the only inheritance we carry with us. Transformation at the base (Ashraya Paravritti) is to transform at the very root the Alaya consciousness, which means to liberate from the unconscious those internal knots, latent tendencies, and habit energies, in order to realize the Great Mirror Wisdom—the great mirror that illuminates countless wondrous phenomena, unstained, interdependent, and equal.