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On The Magic of Memorization

To “re-member” something is to put something that is disjointed back together – to make something whole, to harmonize, to unify, and so on. In this context, “re-membering” is very similar to enlightenment. For this reason, the memorization of root texts has always been a fundamental practice in the lineage.


Memorization requires concentration, lucidity, malleability, and repetition – and is therefore a highly potent tool for training the mind. The ability to form associations and to connect the dots conceptually indicates an important level of growth in students.


When a practitioner first “stamps” or “seals” the “mental continuum” with a direct experience of inclusivity, it is traditional to “write a poem” about both the experience itself – and the “steps” that were taken which led to the experience. These poems, obviously, contain something precious – and are therefore used to proliferate lineage transmissions from mentor to student. The student uses the poems as meditations, first memorizing and then reflecting upon the meaning of the words. There are countless episodes in which students have experienced spontaneous insights or revelations while reading or reciting works by realized mentors.


There’s a reason why the lineage is still alive today. Because sincere students have taken the time and exerted the effort to memorize teachings directly passed from their mentors, we are still able to study these magical resources. Now, we are like seed carriers who bear the burden of both cultivating the seeds that our mentors have passed to us – and passing those seeds, once our own experience of the path has come to fruition.


If we are to truly understand what is meant by “the transmission of the lineage”, it may be better to think of the word “transmission” as a “philosophical plugging-in” or “tuning-in”. Memorizing specific “root texts” is arguably the most effective way to “philosophically tune-in” to the mind-stream of all the great mentors of the past. Philosophical clarity always precedes direct experience of the validity of the teachings. This type of philosophical tune-in will, quite literally, begin to generate spontaneous insight into the following questions:


  • What is the purpose of life?

  • What is the nature of reality?

  • What actions most clearly reflect the nature of reality?

  • How does an individual move, systematically, from less real to more real?

  • What are the necessary ingredients for creating a meaningful life?


Gaining insight into these profound questions provides us with an invaluable practical compass. That is, philosophical clarity is the foundation of all “technically accurate” practice. “Philosophical knowledge” is incomplete in and of itself. It is the ability to apply and “practice that knowledge” that leads to direct experiences of reality.


Like athletes who are committed to improving their performance, time spent analyzing our technique is crucial to determine whether or not the way in which we are practicing is technically precise. That is, before practicing, we must know what to practice, how, when, and why.


Our first attempts with these exercises, especially if we have not been sufficiently exposed to “lineage life”, can bring up quite a bit of resistance. We often find it hard to memorize the words exactly, and we notice that our memorizing faculty is quite dull. Sometimes we judge the wording or get frustrated with ourselves and quit the exercise altogether.


Other times, we fall back into the trap of thinking we don’t need mentors, or that we are too good to be doing exercises that we haven’t done since grade school. We feel that memorization is somehow elementary and unnecessary, and we doubt the effectiveness. Perhaps we think that we already understand the concepts and that we don’t need to memorize anything word-for-word anymore. Perhaps we find ourselves to be procrastinators, ego-trippers, skeptics, and so on. If we decide to take a memorization practice seriously, we will be forced to confront these inner distractions.


For Western practitioners in particular, this exercise is extremely effective in bringing all of this resistance to the surface – so that we can see how little we actually value mentors and the lineage itself. If we are able to see how much more value we place on ourselves – and on our attempts to be important, wealthy, sexually attractive, and so on – than we actually place on the timeless techniques that bring our human lives to the maximum fruition, we can finally make the decision to take the quantum evolutionary leap toward enlightenment. It is vitally important to see and to acknowledge that we value and trust ourselves more than anyone else. That habitual sense of superiority is itself the root cause of suffering. As we mature on the path, our primary objective is to “loosen up” and discard that mechanical superiority habit. Sooner or later, we must confront the pride that we constantly prop up on the mistaken notion that we exist separately from one another – and that therefore, we can somehow be “better” than others.


With practice, we begin to perceive the depth of clarity that is transmitted through root texts. With practice, we begin to value the exercise itself more and more, and the words and phrases come to mind spontaneously when we experience their validity as we go through daily life – in the grocery store, in the office, walking with friends, and so on. Like a favorite movie phrase we love to recite because we connect with the sentiment, our mentors’ words begin to show up as “living mottos” or “personal statements of truth”. In time, we begin to connect with and feel the weight of the words, and we gradually begin to get a sense of the experiences that inspired them.  

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