Quoting, Quoting, Quoting
If we just quote words, we will never be able to empathise – let alone have compassion – because it is all … words. That’s what followers do.
Be original. Be what you are; pure consciousness. From there, we feel the stinking, smelly manure of emotions, and have something to work with. Thank goodness!
The lotus grows out of the mud.
😀
We Have Been Programmed
We have been programmed for thousands of years.
Why?
To maintain a consent of belief and conflict, rather than knowing harmony.
Why?
There are those who think that they own it all, including us.
Why?
They see us as inferior, and want us to think that way.
Why?
The population means nothing to them;
we are merely fodder through our labour, consumption, taxation/fines and ignorance.
It’s all a deliberate illusion.
As long as we believe in the ‘stories’, we will sleep-walk and sleep-talk.
This world is a stage;
we learn our script which we constantly rehearse,
performing throughout our life.
Can Spirituality Be Organised?
When we are meditating, sitting in silent awareness,
there is no organised religion.
There is no duality; there isn’t even a meditator.
There is no ‘we’.
Can We Know Everything?
It is said that a Buddha is omniscient. It is also said that we are all Buddhas. Ergo, we can know everything. How can anyone know every thing?
When we understand the basis of anything, we can see how this can manifest into many forms. When we understand how things are caused by attraction, repulsion and inertia, we then realise their beginning, middle, end and transformation.
If we know that to be sentient is to be conscious, it’s clear that all creatures throughout the infinite universe are also conscious and aware, and make decisions.
At the same time, we recognise how beings can be distracted by these three principles. If we can understand this, so can evil minds. If we want to see whether the potatoes are cooked, we only have to prod one. People are a reflection of their ‘nourishment’. We know how people can be heated up, stirred up, wound up – and we know that there is a reason for this confusion.
When we are aware of how our mind works, we can empathise with others, and see why they come to their conclusions.
Buddha mind is an awakened mind
which knows that the essence of every sentient being is
pure consciousness.
Being Religious Or Non-Religious
Being religious is being bound to an idea.
Religious: relating to or believing in.
Religion: being bound.
We are all attached to some idea, be it in a form of religion, politics, science, entertainment, appearance, education … it’s all in the mind.
‘Religion’ is an oxymoron: a figure of speech that is a concept with opposite meanings – it’s a contradiction, a paradox. We can be so against religion that we are religious about it 🙂
The whole point of being conscious is freeing ourself from elaborate attachments which are all in the mind. We are bound by chosen distractions but, in the moment of just seeing, we’re free of attachments. No elaborations are necessary.
This is what meditation is – just seeing.
Just seeing is clarity, and clarity is divine splendour.
Divine? Divine: Supreme reality.
Supreme? Supreme: that is above all concepts.
Freedom is not being enslaved.
When Consciousness Is Present, There Is No Ego
Consciousness is individual freedom.
Ego is consciousness ignoring itself and clinging to an idea which creates an organised ‘I’. This ‘I’ runs amuck in the mind, confusing consciousness. When we look at the ‘media’, it is constantly creating fear and attraction, which keeps us distracted, and ignorant of our true reality.
Mind terrorises consciousness but, when this is realised, it now serves as a reminder not to believe anything, and to recognise that pure consciousness is constantly present.
This is why evil can never totally succeed,
and why they constantly have to think up alternative distractions.
All the while, pure consciousness appreciates their efforts.
😀
Observation Without Words
Silent observation is, in essence, what we are – pure consciousness – perfect inner peace.
Words are only used to communicate to others in a generalised way, being second-hand, previously owned observation. Look how far we have gone astray with our chatter.
Non-verbal observation is our perfect being of inner peace. Sitting in silence is true communication.
The measure of our spiritual progress is the degree of silent awareness that is present.
The Secret Kept From Humanity
The secret that is kept from humanity:
what we really are.
We are the story of mankind, of constantly being misled. We have to ‘read’ ourself concerning how we got to where we are now. This is not found by following a teacher or a book; it is looking, seeing, and dropping whatever we find, and realising that which remains. What remains is our simple being of awareness; it is by this that everything can be known. Pure awareness comes first.
Knowingness is enlightening.
Knowingness: knowledge or awareness that is secret, or known to only a few people.
Belief is atrophy of the brain.
Atrophy: poorly nourished.
We Are Made In Their Image
Tyranny is the exercise of exerting power or control in a cruel, unreasonable, or arbitrary way, telling us how it is, and how it’s all our fault. Tyranny constantly moves the goal posts by changing the rules in a situation or an activity in order to gain an advantage, and make things difficult for other people.
We unconsciously identify with others’ ideas; think of ‘brand awareness’, where the brain lights up before we’re even aware of it. Having power over people’s thoughts is what evil does. Compliance is acceptance of this state of affairs.
When we acknowledge the suffering this causes, we start on the path to enlightenment.
By dropping any identification with an self-image of belonging to some thing, we are free.
Belong: to be the property of.
Always be aware of what you sign up to.
😀
Once We Feel Okay, We’re Okay
It’s only when we listen to others that we doubt, and aren’t okay.
So many of those around us live in thoughts that are not their own,
and are therefore unoriginal.
They are forgetful of what they are.
And for a moment we lose our sanity.
This ‘uncomfortability’, in itself, is our reminder.
If we remember that we are original pure awareness
and are confident in that decision,
making no demands on others,
then we are okay.
It’s All A Show
We audition at birth and are taught our lines.
The show has been running for thousands of years, all to capture us in others’ imagination. As they say, “The show must go on.” It’s the design of our creators. We’re made in their image, and they want no other image laid before us. 🙂 It’s written in the script.
The actors are ourselves. The script is whatever is put in the mind. The audience is consciousness. The director captures the audience’s attention, while the producers want to influence us to stick with the story. The advertisers are all forms of media.
The way to exit this make-believe is through meditation. Meditation is merely a method to realise awareness of just being; finding nothing but awareness, we realise that we are are pure awareness.
The show is just the imaginary screen of our mind that we believe to be our reality, in the same way as Plato’s cave shadow beings. It is we who allow and enable the show to go on and on.
Meditation of non-duality tears up the script, daring to ad lib – a spontaneous good mood. 🙂
Is Pure Awareness Simplistic?
All sentient beings are aware. They have to be, in order to be. 🙂 Understanding this is quite simple.
In the very first instant of being aware and before judgements set in, this awareness is pure, as no decisions have yet been made. That moment is simple being.
Realising that we are this pure awareness is the result of dropping all ideas and judgements, and experiencing what remains. Through silent awareness, we recognise that pure awareness (pure consciousness) never changes. Our essence is the continuity of our being. From childhood until now, this essence has never altered; that is the only truth we can rely on.
What changes and influences our life and behaviour are the beliefs that have been adopted in the mind. It is this which divides us.
The deeper we go, the more the clarity*, and the simpler everything becomes; the mind is at rest, and free from the desire, fear and indifference that plague the world.
*Clarity: divine splendour.
Looking In On The Mind
When looking in on the mind, two things occur; one is seeing mind’s activity, and the other is the observation of this activity in the mind.
The observation cannot be identified or found as it is pure awareness, which is what we are. The supreme peak that sees.
If, however, we call it ‘me’, ‘self’, ‘observer’ or ‘universal mind’, a duality is created that identifies, attaches and relates to outer and inner comings and goings. This is the ordinary existence of sentient beings, who are governed by judgements of likes, dislikes and indifference.
We call ourselves homo sapiens – wise beings.
But are we wise?
Clever yes, but without wisdom.
Wisdom comes from the realisation that all sentient beings are, in essence, pure awareness – their happy place – and not these emotionally charged quick-to-judge beings.
We see atrocities happening in the world,
but do we see what’s behind it all?
A self-obsessed mind that tries to controls others’ self-obsessed minds.
Beyond Buddhism
In the moment of realising our essence of empty consciousness, there is nothing else. Once we realise our true nature, we have no need of methods. Methods are for when we forget.
All we need is an introduction to and recognition of our essential nature, and then we’re on our way. We’re quite capable of looking into our mind and seeing how it’s reacting – and what it is that’s watching those reactions. If we hang on to the method, it’s like rowing to the shore, arriving on land, and continuing to row – it’s counter-productive.
This is the meaning of ‘letting go’ … of pride, guilt, attachment, fear, ignorance.
All paths are the same; they have an ending. We only have to recognise that it is nowhere special.
If we hang on to a Buddha,
we become an ornament.
Ornament: a thing used to make something look more attractive, an accessory of worship (or a lucky charm).
The Tibetan culture sees the jewelled ornament as liberation;
this is the same as pure consciousness.
All paths have the same ending.
No one has a monopoly.
(On a personal note, after decades of attending retreats, Kathie and I stopped about eleven years ago, as it put doubts in our minds – and it was getting expensive :-). Something may be very colourful, exotic and erudite, but it’s possible to become needy and dependent … and we’ve never been happier.)
Discovering Our Natural State
Our natural state is divine splendour.
Pure consciousness is clarity.
(It’s a welcome surprise to read in the dictionary that clarity means divine splendour 🙂 )
If we spend our life looking for the truth, we’ve lost the path, and remain in confusion. The path is immediate individual clarity that eliminates that confusion.
Do you see? It is the ‘looking’ that obscures clear seeing which is our natural state of pure consciousness. Everything else is speculation and belief. By scouring books and teachings, looking for the truth of origin, we miss that we are what we seek.
Clarity is divine splendour.
Living In A False Perception Of Reality
The majority of people on this planet are governed by others’ perception. This is why a suggestion is so easily picked up and mimicked, in order to be in-the-know. We don’t have to be ‘perfect’ in a social sense.
Our reality is pure consciousness that is pure perception, right here right now
– no mimicking necessary.
Once we realise our true and perfect state of pure consciousness, our ability to express it is determined by the nature of our pattern, which is the level of confusion which we live with.
The essence of confused awareness is the emptiness of pure consciousness – pure perception. It’s the “What is this?” moment, which is a moment of lateral thinking, as opposed to the socially accepted formula of vertical thinking of “I know” .
A false perception of reality creates mechanical functioning;
we refuse to accept other possibilities.
Pure perception is open to all potential.
Catch It While You Can
We may say, “There is no God”, but we’ve been brought up in a system that promotes the idea of God.
Let’s say we’re Buddhist; when something suddenly happens, we might automatically exclaim,“My God!” or “God! What was that?” That is old brain at work, and we didn’t notice it.
We never say, “My Buddha!” 🙂
Old brain has been indoctrinated, and affects our current mind.
Catch it while you can!
TRUTH IS ON A NEED-TO-KNOW BASIS
Truth Is On A Need-To-Know Basis
Those who don’t need to know think they already know.
For those who need to know, the door will open.
Irrelevant Communication Wastes Life
As humans, we have the ability to talk and communicate at the highest level.
So, what do we talk about?
Our speech is a manifestation of our mind,
and our mind is a manifestation of our interests,
while our interests are a manifestation of old brain.
And so we are reduced to being recording machines swapping histories.
Communication should be about being homo sapiens = wise beings,
but we become fluent in flaunting our foolishness.
Simple speech, pure speech, is always about now.
The Great Psychosis
Psychosis is a severe mental disorder in which thoughts and emotions are so impaired that contact is lost with reality. It’s how and why we’re here – consciousness has lost touch with reality.
This is a mental state; if we don’t realise that our reality is impaired, we are, in fact, deluded. When we realise that enlightenment is our reality, we are free.
This delusional state is promoted every day in order to maintain conflict and confusion and. of course, if something is repeated often enough, we think this state of being is normal. Beware of idolising ‘personalities’.
We have to add up all the absurdities for ourselves.
Exploiting Feelings
Feelings: the emotional side of someone’s character; the tendency to respond to an idea or belief,
especially a vague or irrational one.
Emotions are a direct result of clinging to thoughts around the feeling of a self – an imaginary being
in a ‘magic cloak’ pretending to be more than we are. It is this that causes us suffering, always responding through fight, flight and freeze, or hope, fear and ignorance.
Manipulative minds understand the psychological weakness of people governed by their emotions which affects their behaviour; this has been known for thousands of years. What happened in the past creates precedents, establishing guidelines for the future. That’s how evil maintains control.
People are encouraged to identity with their feelings, which are irrational; they are the reason why we are easily upset, being made anxious and fearful. By this confusion and deception, we’re won over to lack tolerance for those who don’t believe what we believe. It’s why relationships go sour.
The promotion of hurt feelings is used as an excuse to control people’s thoughts, with the claim that not believing in someone else’s beliefs (which is acceptance without proof) is a hate crime or heresy, thereby maintaining mass confusion, guilt, fear and conflict.
There are agents or influencers who provoke and exacerbate this situation. These wind-up merchants know our vulnerabilities and enjoy provoking to get a reaction, thus gaining control.
In truth, we are pure consciousness, and none of the above. Through just being aware in meditation, we learn to recognise what makes us tick. If we don’t do this, others will continue to wind us up.
Unwinding is done by breath control.
It makes us feel lighter.
🙂
The Not-So-Invisibility Cloak
This cloak is the idea of self which we project to others – who are doing the very same thing. It has no reality, but we believe that others can’t see our disguise. Pure consciousness is x-ray vision, while we ignore this in favour of a mutually accepted social contract of behaviour.
When we’re young, we are taught to believe the dream, and ignore that we have a true reality. We play and act in others’ dreams. Just take watching a sport; first, we just see it, but then we watch others over-react and do the same. Instead of silent appreciation, we make gross noises.
That is the disguise we all wear, be it politics, entertainment, science, religion … we jump on the bandwagon of illusions, never admitting that we aren’t actually interested in the hoopla, and all the unnecessary fuss because we know that such an admission would upset those around us.
It’s all smoke and mirrors*; when examined closely, it proves to be an illusion.
This is our life.
But there is so much more.
*Smoke and mirrors is a metaphor, originating from 18th and 19th-century phantasmagoria shows, and describes deceptive, fraudulent or insubstantial explanations.
Living With Old Information
Old information (something we are used to) gets us to bark up the wrong tree. We need to re-evaluate what we thought we knew. The information that we’re allowed to see is a red herring; we’re voting for the same two horses pulling the same cart of manure. Nothing changes.
“It is easier to fool people
than to convince them that they were fooled.”
– Mark Twain.
The last thing anyone wants to hear is, “I told you so.”
We’re fed titbits of information which is of little real interest but promotes gossip, speculation and division. It is all a distraction with which we unconsciously comply.
We must wake up to the foolish ideas we live in.
We are so much more, by being so much less.
😀
What Do ‘Proper’ People Do?
Proper people: conforming to conventional established standards of behaviour and manners; correct, with good taste and being right.
Improper people: not in accordance with accepted standards.
Aggression towards the established view, whether political or spiritual, unwittingly perpetuates division. When we can detach ourselves from this eternal play of opposition, everything serves as a reminder that heaven and hell are a unity.
Spiritual progress – the realisation of our true reality – is remembering what is true and constant, and what isn’t. Conventional confusion is a perfect example of what not to follow.
Dzogchen isn’t for proper people. 🙂
Dzogchen is escaping opposites by realising that they are a unity.
😀
Spiritual Text In The Common Language
The common language is that of the people’s everyday usage. There is no reason not to use it.
Throughout history, the common people have had to have intercessors, teachers, gurus to comment – and elaborate – on spiritual texts. This means that people have to be dependent on a mediator, and believe in the teachers’ words, and thus something other worldly. 🙂
Of course, someone who has gone through the process is part of our process of learning, but the Buddha warned, “Do not take my word for truth; test it for yourself.” In your own way.
The Dharma is concerned with what we already are – pure and simple. We don’t need a special language to know what we are. All spiritual text is about our origin; it’s not a history lesson about others’ realisation. If the teaching is made ‘impressive’, we’ll have artificial expectations, and never think we’re good enough to realise it.
This is such an important subject, and it’s what this blog is all about.
Wherever ‘I am’, pure consciousness is.
(I once said to a Tibetan lama, “I feel a million miles away from all this.” He just looked at me. Much later, I realised that the teaching is within all of us, right now.)
What Are The Two Truths?
Are there two truths? Yes, in the way in which we see. One truth is pure seeing, while the other ‘truth’ (which we believe to be truth) is relating to and interpreting whatever is seen. One comes first, while the other ignores this pure moment and starts relating. The problem with relating is holding on to interpretation or belief which fixes our behaviour, contaminating all future interactions.
This is the basis of the Buddha’s teaching.
There is absolute truth that is constant, pure awareness; it’s what we are.
And there is relative truth, where awareness forgets its uncontaminated purity, relating to everything and holding on to this relating; we mistake that for what we are.
One is natural, while the other is an invasion in the mind.
One is at ease, while the other is dis-ease.
The more we practise, the more we notice this.
Pure awareness is non-dual – appearances and emptiness are simultaneous.
Ordinary awareness which relates is duality – time is taken up with naming, speculating, judging, reacting … and we are no longer in the pure present moment. We are in our dream state.
In simple term, absolute truth is present before relative ‘truth’. Sentient beings are lost in relative truth by misunderstanding their pure presence.
It’s quite a shock to realise that the majority of the inhabitants of this planet has acquired a false view of reality. Seeing this is the teaching.
The news – or anyone’s views – is a selected version of events = relative truth. If the version of events is deliberately selected, then it’s a lie. We are absolute truth; holders of relative truth want us to deny this. They become spreaders of disinformation because they cannot help themselves.
Training in knowing the difference between absolute truth and relative truth – and realising that they are inseparable – is essential for liberation. By virtue of one, the other is known.
There Is No Free Speech Without A Free Mind
We hear much about free speech,
but if our minds have been contaminated,
how can we have free speech?
Everything in our mind is an acquisition that we’ve adopted through suggestion. Depending on our personal environment (family, friends, work colleagues, what we read and hear etc), our mind will have those communal ideas.
It’s only when we are liberated from these concepts through the clarity of meditation that we are free to speak openly. Hmm … is that true? If meditation is just an idea or a lifestyle acquisition, then we aren’t free – we are acting.
The hallmark of freedom is to have no fear of present moment encounters, so we don’t seek safety in formula, which a list of ingredients (ideas) from which something is made.
Formula: early 17th century from Latin, diminutive of forma ‘shape, mould’.
Meditation is breaking the mould,
not making a new one.
If we must act, then we act as if we have made no assumptions;
only then will something fresh occur to us.
Evil constantly primes us to react – and then calls that hate speech.
😀
Mind Training = Mind Control
We train the mind through meditation so as not to be distracted at every moment, and be able to control our self and our behaviour. If we cannot do this, our mind is being controlled by others. How? Through all forms of communication.
A simple example. If we’re asked, “Where’s the nearest post office?” our mind is taken up with someone’s question or suggestion. It’s simple hypnosis.
When we know our natural state of mind is emptiness, we have something to return to after an exchange, or having been ‘taken up’ by something. If we have no foundation of reality, we remain ‘taken up’ 🙂
We’re mostly ‘taken up’ with our personal history, our personal groove.
Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to reorganise itself by forming new neural pathways throughout life and in response to experiences adopted by consciousness and stored in the mind which mould the brain. While the brain usually does this itself in response to injury or disease, when humans focus their attention enough, they can slowly rewire these pathways themselves = mind training!
How To Make A Better World?
Know what you are.
Act with the understanding of what others are.
We are all pure consciousness.
Are we the same pure consciousness?
That is an unanswerable question
until enlightenment.
We manifest according to our understanding.
If our mind is bothered about other things,
it will never be a better world.
Emptiness – Between This And That
We spend our entire lives comparing ‘this’ to ‘that’ – judging, evaluating, reasoning – trying to achieve satisfaction. We never notice the gap in between, of just seeing before we leap.
Shunyata or emptiness
is our undisturbed, natural, neutral state,
where we couldn’t be happier.
🙂
Going Beyond Rational Thinking
Rational thinking is conventional thinking; we do this and this, because we always do this and this. It makes sense, to a certain level.
Rational thinking is vertical programming; it’s colouring in between the lines, thinking or acting within generally accepted guidelines. When we colour inside the lines, we follow the rules and stick to the script.
Consciousness isn’t inside the lines – it’s outside.
It is the meaning of life.
Irrational doesn’t fit in to concepts.
The mind brightens at the unusual – OH!
It’s beautiful, and unexpected.
Dharma Quenches Thirst
If we’re thirsty, it’s the ‘water’ we want, not the glass.
Seekers of elaborations never find satisfaction.
This is how the Dharma becomes very expensive.
Satisfaction comes from realisation.
This how the Dharma is free.
How?
Stop looking and see, then drop the seeing, and there you are – pure awareness.
Our Mind Is A Delicate Instrument
Our mind is a delicate instrument that is easily upset.
It only becomes robust when it isn’t holding on to thoughts and memories
that make us defensive, and therefore vulnerable.
Being robust comes from the recognition of pure consciousness
which is unshakeable because it is indestructible.
We toughen up by knowing what we are – and what we are not.
The Thing About Buddhism …
The thing about the Buddha’s teaching is that you don’t have to become a Buddhist. Just observe with an open mind, free of biased beliefs. Buddhism is the psychology of freeing the mind of duality, so that consciousness can realise non-duality.
Liberation is what we are.
We don’t have to believe anyone or anything.
Knowledge Versus Information
Knowledge unites people,
while information divides people.
Information is just a message.
Knowledge is understanding what the message means.
To receive information and not look into whether it’s true or not
is to live in a fools’ paradise based on hearsay.
Never assume that information is knowledge.
The Three Emotions That Poison Our Mind
The three emotions that poison the mind are, in actuality, wisdom.
Understanding this is how we ascend the levels of realisation.
Greed, anger and stupidity (indifference) are the three poisons that are harmful to our well-being, and the well-being of those with whom we come into contact, causing a chain reaction through pride and fear.
The realisation of the power that these poisons have over us ignites the wisdom which is the source of our being. Wisdom is the realisation that we are uncorrupted, compassionate consciousness.
In not knowing wisdom, rulers and citizens play the dangerous game of partisanship;
in this way, wisdom downgrades into negative behaviour.
Greed contaminates our mind.
Anger results from judgements made by a contaminated mind.
Stupidity is holding on to these contaminated judgements that lack compassion.
We reverse greed, anger and stupidity by being aware of our original reality of pure consciousness which is present before we act out our poison.
Covered By Inventions
A concept is a device, an invention in the mind formed by belief, from being told something and accepting it as ‘authority’. Humanity had been covered in concepts; ‘disguising the truth’ is a variant of the word ‘covert’, not openly acknowledged or displayed.
Public announcements plant devices in our minds. All media, both MSM and ‘friendly-fire’ social media – and even this blog – uses words to convey something. The question is, does it wake us up to our reality, or wake us up to more inventions that distract us?
These distractions are why we find clear seeing difficult, as we are always interpreting; whatever happens in the world is an organised distraction.
The constancy of pure consciousness which these distractions are meant to cover up is always present. In other words, evil intent is to smother us up in concepts. Why ‘evil’? We are controlled by design so that we cannot think clearly, and remain confused.
Even when we are full of doubts and anxieties, which are the result of ‘public information’ or ‘spiritual information’, pure consciousness is spontaneously present, without premeditation. The trick played on us is not just seeing, but seeing something.
Concepts and elaborations complicate and fill our minds,
because we think complexity is better … cleverer!
We are never without pure awareness, because that is what we are.
It doesn’t have a name.
We are simply pure being
that can function very well without this madness.
Alone? Not Alone?
These are tricky questions.
If we feel alone, we have to rely on our own understanding which relies on all the information we have received. Quite often, this information can feel incomplete, and then doubt sets in (and this is a problem with being open-minded).
I could be wrong 🙂 but, through reasoning we get back on track, if we have a firm foundation to start with. That foundation is realising that it doesn’t matter what I think, pure consciousness is always present. Doubt comes from others’ elaborations about this reality, while the inner voice says, “Let them be.”
What if we are not alone? What if there is … ‘other’ help? Inspiration or help that just comes, where everything seems relevant. No one can say we are right or wrong, as that becomes a hinderance.
Things happen that seem to clarify an abstract feeling,
just before a thought is formed.
Maybe it’s a bit of both. 🙂
Vedantic Self Or Buddhist Non-Self?
This question is impossible to answer as it depends on a person’s view. There is consciousness; we are consciousness, and we can agree on that.
If consciousness relates to external events or to itself, then there is a self.
If consciousness does not relate, then there is just consciousness, and no self.
Both can be experienced.
What experience?
Conscious can experience time and timelessness – duality and non-duality.
The Vedanta and Buddhism are not different; it is only how they are realised that is different.
In Buddhism, there are many traditions. Are they different? Only in their form.
It all depends on what works for the individual.
The Buddha’s teaching is no teaching – just realisation beyond teaching.
Karma Is Ideas We Carry Around
Karma is a predictive atmosphere of routine behaviour.
These ideas control how we see life.
Nothing new can be experienced as we see through
a karmic, sweet-smelling, pot-pourri of concepts.
Everything depends on how we see, and not what we see.
We Are Already Happy
If we are not unhappy or indifferent, then we are happy.
Happiness is the release from conflict, which is the bias in the mind. Happiness isn’t about being excited or hopeful or learned or righteous; it is accepting things the way they actually are.
The universe is controlled by the laws of attraction, repulsion and indifference. This is just the base nature of the universe – conflict. Absolute nature is pure consciousness that has realised that base state of affairs, and so has compassion for this plight.
Most people are confused about what they are, and the way they are – “They know not what they do”. If they knew what they were doing, they wouldn’t do it, but they do, and so they remain unhappy in their selectiveness.
Nothing can be done for them until they start their inner journey of enlightened activity, and take responsibility at every encounter, rather than acquiring more information that just weighs them down.
If someone’s facts are incomplete and we don’t know it, we have a problem.
If someone’s facts are incomplete and we know it, we don’t have a problem.
Accepting people as they are doesn’t affect us (consciousness),
and so we (consciousness) remain happy.
People only affect a prejudiced mind.
It’s that simple.
Realisation = Happiness
When we realise and understand our true reality,
we should be happy at every moment.
How can we not be happy?
Being unconditionally happy means
without reliance on external events.
Get it?
It does not rely on external events.
Authentic happiness is the purpose of life:
we authenticate the purpose of life
by being happy.
The Saddest Thing
The saddest thing is speaking to people about reality
and they haven’t a clue what you’re talking about.
Halfway through a sentence, there’s just a blank stare;
they’ve switched off 🙂
This is an indication of the state of the world.
Even sadder … they think they know.
To know is to have knowledge.
What Is The Purpose Of Life?
The purpose of life is to understand our true reality, which is why we are here: to eliminate our confusion, releasing us from emotional attachments to a self-identity. Consciousness is imprisoned in a mind. We see this in our fixations and aversions.
Realisation unveils our natural state of happiness as we now know what it’s all about, cutting through the confusion learnt from others.
If life feels meaningless, it’s because we do not understand our reality.
Realising the purpose of life is an individual understanding and responsibility.
Why Am I Not Totally Convinced?
Q. Why am I not totally convinced that pure consciousness is the ultimate truth?
A. Old brain.
The old brain was developed in our early years, when the mind was infiltrated and fixed about all that we see, do and think. The obvious answer is “Let go”, but that isn’t as easy as it sounds. The old brain echoes around in our mind, waiting to leap in, thus revealing what it doesn’t know 🙂
Realising our true essence is a piece of cake. It’s just purely aware and constantly present.
We don’t have to do anything for this to occur. This pure awareness, which can cut through old brain responses, is obscured by our preconceived concepts, preventing us from approaching everything and everyone in a spontaneous and empathetic way.
Doubt, and we doubt forever.
Know, and we know forever.
Pure consciousness is the reason
everything is known.
There Is No Hell
Nobody burns in hell. It’s a man-made idea to keep humanity believing that it must fall in line, and making us fearful if we don’t. Hell is the pride of belief.
We are here because we made the mistake of believing rather than knowing, and that keeps us bound to go round in circles, repeating the same experiences.
When we stop accepting the bombardment of fantastical ideas, we come to our senses. This is the threshold of heaven.
Hell dwells on the past.
Heaven is right here, right now,
if we could only appreciate it.
Still Wondering What It’s All About?
The most accurate response to this question would be,
“What is doing the wondering?”
If this seems too simplistic, that is because the proof of pure awareness is obscured by stories and inaccurate beliefs that we use to dismiss such an unadorned answer. Pure consciousness dismantles everything and, at the same moment, unifies everything. Heaven and hell are inseparable, as a mirror and its reflections are inseparable.
The moment of anxiety is inseparable with that which is aware of the anxiety.
We are so lost in our feelings, concepts and beliefs that we cannot just see without referring and judging because we’re screwed-up – emotionally disturbed and neurotic. 🙂
We need to straighten up, and put our minds in good order. Our personal investigation is practising just being aware, and noticing how quickly we wander off into some fantasy – or worse still, some truth to speculate about. 🙂
Thinking about truth, or merely accepting a teaching as true is still an obscuration, as we haven’t experienced it yet; we only know about it.
When we absolutely realise that we are the emptiness of consciousness,
our world view changes forever.
We happily no longer believe anything.
Absolute truth is not a religion;
it is free of programmed thoughts.
Can Anger Be Positive?
Being angry out of frustration is negative.
Being angry out of concern is positive.
Being able to do something about both frustration and concern
is down to our level of understanding.
Once we start the ball rolling due to frustration,
there’s no end to it.
Once we start the ball rolling due to concern,
there’s no end to it.
Frustration is feeling upset or annoyed
at being unable to change or achieve something – we fester.
Concern is just seeing that something isn’t right – we wonder.
BUDDHA IN THE MUD is a blog - a living book based on the Dzogchen teachings. Our teacher is life, and life is karma. We are all Buddhas in the mud of concepts. 
WE CANNOT BE WHAT WE SEE
We Cannot Be What We See
We see things, and we see the mind commenting on these things, so we are therefore neither this mind nor our things. We are the empty essence of mind, the clear space of clarity, pure consciousness.
Our identification with thoughts and things creates the basis of suffering through hope and fear, gain and loss. It is this identification which we call ‘self’ – our personal prison that the collective believes in, and which is the cause of animosity towards others as we all identify differently.
No oneness, know division.
Know oneness, no division.
We can say that we are social beings, but not be taken in by others’ sense of ‘normal’; that is just the security of the herd. Not being deceived by impressions, we can, however, be both sociable and wise.
Deception isn’t our first nature.
We acquired it through hope and fear,
while ignoring our first nature of pure consciousness.