The Invisible Trails

Series: The Summer of the Ocean

The Invisible Trails

Are you familiar with the Mont Saint-Michel? Of course, who isn’t?

We could talk about the Wonder, the statue of the archangel at the top of the spire, its exceptional location and aura, but here we will instead explore its invisible paths.

Perhaps you have already walked along its liquid trails at low tide. It is a truly interesting experience: there are paths, but you cannot see them. They are not marked as we are used to seeing them, by a hedge of plane trees or grass or sidewalks.

No, these paths are invisible to those who are used to walking on dry land. It is through experience that we learn to spot them, to know that we are on firm sand and not quicksand or water holes. Little by little, we notice the subtle flow of water, the movement of loose soil, and the process of furrows becomes imprinted in our minds. Eventually, the invisible paths become visible to our trained eye.

 “In this immensity, the path to the primordial nature of our mind gradually becomes visible and is punctuated by successive realizations (…)” 

This is the principle of the path in Dzogchen: it is also an invisible trail. It is made visible as we gradually understand how we function and realize who we really are, our true nature. In the Great Perfection, nothing is defined or definitive, and everything is always infinite potential.

In this immensity, the path to the primordial nature of our mind gradually becomes visible and is punctuated by successive realizations (there are five successive paths leading to sixteen “lands” or levels of realization of the nature of mind in the Dzogchen tradition). These realizations help us to identify the subtle aspect of the path. Thus, the path, the starting point, and the result become one.

And we end up contemplating them from the heights of the “Merveille”.