Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso Rinpoche      Quote of the Week May 6, 2011

Self-Liberation of Contact Through Recollection

The "self-liberation of contact through recollection" is an important
Mahamudra practice in which one recalls again and again that the apparent
meeting of consciousness and object is not a real occurrence; it is a mere
appearance, the union of appearance and emptiness. The five sense
consciousnesses are nonconceptual - they are free from any thoughts that
things truly exist. The conceptual aspect of the mental consciousness,
however, follows this direct valid cognition of the sense consciousness and
conceives of the sense consciousnesses' experiences as being real. By
following this thought of sense perception being real with the recollection that
the sense perception is appearance-emptiness, one practices self-liberation of
contact through recollection, the remedy for that mistaken belief in the sense
perceptions' true existence.

Milarepa sang of this practice in several of his songs. It is an important
practice because we have to realize the transcendence of the meeting of the
object, faculty, and consciousness if we are to realize the genuine nature of
reality. If we still believe that the meeting of object, faculty, and consciousness
is real, it is a sign that our certainty in emptiness is not stable yet.

Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, The Sun of Wisdom, Chapter 14, 
An Examination of Contact, P.89-90, Translated by Ari Goldfield