The Recognition Sutras

One of the many aspects I loved about my guru, Lee, is that he introduced us to a variety of teachings from a number of authentic spiritual traditions during his bi-weekly dharma talks. He was extracting the real from the unreal, lifting veils to give us glimpses, and dropping a trail of crumbs along the path. Each crumb was, in fact, a sparkling jewel which could only be discovered if we paid attention and made the effort to pick it up, study it, work with it and integrate it into our practice. He once said that he was not interested in our judgments about how we are not practicing, but in our struggle with practice. That was an important distinction for me as a new student—I needed to engage practice over a long period of time, going beyond concept.

One of those recommended practices is study. Now, twelve years after has Lee passed, I continue to discover a world of study through the recommendations of my sangha mates. We learn from each other, as each of us engages the extraordinary teachings of spiritual luminaries who have lived and taught, and the lineages that continue to vibrate with truth and wisdom. In this way, I have come across a few living texts that have a quality of aliveness and multi-dimensional, all-encompassing truth that springs out of the pages, sets my being on fire, and affects my life in many seen and unseen ways.

Right now I will tell you about a golden treasure that I am studying: The Recognition Sutras, translated with commentary by Christopher Wallis. This is a one-thousand-year old spiritual masterpiece from the nondual Śaiva Tantra tradition. Now, I am not a scholar, nor am I particularly well-read in esoteric texts or spiritual traditions, as are some of my sangha mates. Despite that, I am able to recognize a valuable teaching when I come across it. What happens for me when I’m reading such a text is I experience a tingling sensation throughout my body as I take a deep dive into it. Sometimes I feel like I’m wading through misty waters with strong currents and then, suddenly, I’m leaping up into the dazzling sunshine, glistening all over, like a flying fish. I glimpse the clarity, the freedom, the infinite possibilities and I am awe-struck.

“Awareness can adopt any form, have any experience and it remains simply what it is: something like gold in that it is soft, malleable, and shining.” (p. 119)

The text is a guiding light, showing the way and giving instructions on how to be centered in our essence-nature, and describing reality as “a single interconnected matrix.” (149) The Sutras invite me to “get intimate with your energy” (362) and outlines a variety of practices that “nourish and expand” my energy, including the essential practices of meditation and inner stillness. For an active person such as myself, this commentary has led me back to sitting quietly, doing nothing, and finding the balance with my inner life and my outer life.

The teachings also cover the practicalities of being open and inclusive,

non-judgmental and curious.

“When your view opens up more, it becomes natural to grant all beings their freedom to be exactly as they are and to hold the Views they do. This doesn’t mean that you don’t argue with them, but it’s with a different attitude: openness to the meaningful exchange of ideas motivated by a curiosity as to how that other person came to hold the view they do, rather than a conviction of wrongness in them that ought to be corrected.” (183)

This section really hit home as I examined my critical nature and the overlay of stories I use to justify my own rightness. The text encouraged me to see the tendencies and habits of mind and its multi-layered grip on my view of reality. Some of the practices guide toward self-observation and a re-training in how we see various shifts of energy, which the mind tends to interpret as shifts from positive to negative states. It shows us how to respect these shifts as “an invitation to rest, or to inward contemplation, or to softening and listening, or to caring for the body…” (382)

In a fascinating way, it is a joy in and of itself to realize that we are one in our humanness, in our ability to contract and expand, to shut down and have our circuits blown and to open up and love unconditionally.

I haven’t finished The Recognition Sutras yet. I am reading it slowly, in the early mornings when the sun is breaking over the hillside—savoring it, underlining, contemplating, absorbing its wisdom into myself, breathing it into the heart. I am considering its questions like, “What’s the quality of the present moment before I have a thought about it?” And, to “see the thought as a vibration of energy.”(349).

Of course, this is just a small taste of a very rich meal and one that I

plan to digest for some time. The Recognition Sutras appear to

culminate in the ability to deeply love life…whatever comes our way, and to “experience a joy in simply existing.”

Lesley Ball
January 22, 2023