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.

Look At Your Own Mind, Rather Than Someone Else’s

If we want to realise the ultimate truth, we have to look into our own mind, rather than someone else’s, or a book. In following others’ words – even those of the Buddha – we’re merely following borrowed ideas, and therefore we do not own our mind.

Looking at our own mind requires the mental discipline of acknowledging the conscious space which is the essence of mind in order to see our thoughts in action and understand how much they influence our behaviour.

We need to see what actually drives us, which is some aspect of desire, aversion or indifference. When we realise this, we are in control. Freedom is achieved through silent meditation, silent awareness, silent consciousness – no words needed, no special teaching needed. 🙂

It’s important to realise that we exist by adopting ideas/thoughts/words that are not our own. This is our mental prison.

If we spend our life judging others – which is the thief of inner peace – it’s a life poorly spent. Constantly measuring people prevents us from building genuine connections. When we shift from criticism which causes us suffering to self-reflection, life becomes Dharma.

This is not about feeling good.
Dharma is observing clearly,
whether the view is pleasant or unpleasant.

The Dharma isn’t a self-help group to provide comfort; it’s a mirror which shows us the parts of ourselves we’d rather ignore. Dharma practice is a matter of stripping away the illusions, attachments, and the judgmental habits. It’s about clarity and truth, even when that truth is uncomfortable or painful.

The Joy Of Meeting Idiots

There aren’t many idiots around.
🙂

The word ‘idiot’ originally meant a private person, one who was not part of official affairs, someone outside the system.

It comes from ‘idiosyncrasy’, meaning one’s own ‘private mixture’ which defines an individual as not being part of the collective. 🙂

Most of us are invested in the communal, official view of life.

It’s A Massive Shock

It’s a massive shock the first time we realise we’ve been living in others’ beliefs. That shock is actually a signal that we have the ability to step back and watch our own mind at work. We realise that, since birth, we’ve been running on ideas which lack any sense of reality, and just go through a routine. Our so-called personality is actually just a set of ingrained survival patterns as we lash out, run away, or clam up. This realisation can arouse a sense of anger.

A three-second pause – look, see, drop – is enough to interrupt lifelong fixations. When we – consciousness – realise that we are the gap between words, we’re suddenly aware that we’ve been a passenger in our life, rather than the driver. 

Once we experience the gap, we understand that we have the power to choose, which is overwhelming at first because we’ve been so used to depending on others. This sudden awareness triggers a surge from the reactive survival mode to conscious reasoning. That is the path to enlightenment. The more we realise, the more frequent this surge is, and the more we transcend the levels.

This realisation feels unnerving and life-altering as we start to become familiar with openness and a sense of freedom, and move away from sentimentality.

Like opening the door of a room that’s been closed for a thousand years;
once the door is open and light pours in,
everything is revealed in one moment.

And that’s the shock.

The Tactic Hasn’t Aged

Most humans don’t know what they are.

Humans operate on default behavioural patterns – autopilot – created by their environment; this is a subconscious imprinting rather than a conscious choice, because we don’t know that we know. 

Our minds hallucinate reality, building clever illusions within the limits of our wiring rather than experiencing objective truth. Our sense of what we are is a construction shaped by outside forces. People live with a version of themselves built for survival or to meet the expectations of others, rather than one built on true self-understanding. We mistake our labels for our actual identity, focusing on the what instead of the why.

Historically, institutions have used fear of the unknown
to maintain power.
This is a tactic that hasn’t aged. 

By convincing people that they are flawed or incomplete and lack a sense of direction allows those in power to ensure a cycle of dependency. The self-help industry operates on this same ancient logic, convincing us that we are fundamentally broken so that we’ll continue to buy the cure. 

Being aware that we are pure conscious knowingness
also hasn’t aged.
🙂

Interconnectedness – Unison Or Harmony?

Has there ever been an experience of true unison or harmony that was not dictated by an agency? There’s a sharp line between the ideal of human connection, and the reality.

Unison implies moving as one single body, with total synchronisation. This is rare in human history because individual concepts and conflicting interests always create friction. If it does happen, it’s always dictated by someone’s parameters.

Harmony is the blending of different, distinct voices. It allows for many, but often becomes one-sided when a particular power or ideology dictates the tune that everyone else is forced to hum along with. 

We aren’t a unified collective. We are simply singular beings sharing space, more alone together than truly interconnected. 

With unison and harmony, we dance to someone else’s tune.
We are not all one;
we are just one.

The only beings who are at one are the enlightened.

The Curse Of The Messenger

Too few people want change;
they prefer what they’re accustomed to.

As soon as a raw truth enters human language, an organised system ensures that that truth begins to wither, and life goes back to ‘usual’. This is the trap of -isms and institutionalisation.

When someone catches a glimpse of the truth – that we are interconnected, and that the self is an illusion – they try to share it to help others. This direct insight is quickly turned into an argument over terminologies and labels, rather than a direct experience of the actual state of being. On a higher level, it becomes a religion, a philosophy, or a political movement, and the result is that this living truth transforms into yet another rigid -ism with rigid ideas and rigid people.

When ego encounters the truth – that ego doesn’t actually exist – the response is a either feeling of annoyance and hostility, or whatever is being said is ignored in favour of facts – “Well, so-and-so said this!”

The ego takes ‘truth’ and wears it like a outfit, acquiring mannerisms to feel superior to others. You know the voice, you’ve seen the look that becomes the status symbol, rather than liberation. Ego talks about liberation, but is it actually freedom?

We can describe the taste of an orange for a thousand years, but that description is not the taste itself. Ego’s reality is just looking at the menu instead of eating the meal.

The truth of being is an active experience which humans prefer to turn into a comfortable concept that they can store on a shelf with lots of other concepts. Language filters experience, and that inherently divide us.

It is almost impossible to speak about the unity of being using language that is designed to separate and categorise things. The moment we speak the truth, the words themselves divide it. It’s like trying to catch sunlight in a bucket; the moment you close the lid to keep it, you’re just sitting in the dark with a bucket.

Can humans hear the truth without twisting it?
Or does the act of ‘knowing about’ ruin it?
🙂

The Power Of Fibonacci

The power of the Fibonacci sequence is the fundamental blueprint for growth and efficiency found throughout the natural world. It’s often called ‘nature’s secret code’ – the Golden Ratio – and it’s the tool ensuring survival.

Plants arrange leaves, seeds, and petals in a way that maximises their exposure to sunlight and rain. The spiralling seeds in a sunflower and the scales of a pinecone follow these numbers to pack as much material as possible into a small area without overcrowding. The sequence even appears in the proportions of the human body and the double helix of DNA, suggesting it is a core mechanism for organic expansion. 

What is all this to do with attraction and repulsion?

While the Fibonacci sequence itself is a mathematical series, its manifestation in nature is the result of balancing attractive and repulsive forces at a physical or chemical level. The Push and Pull system.

These ratios appear at the subatomic level, where the electromagnetic force (which is the attraction of opposite charges and the repulsion of like ones) influences all structures.

Attraction, repulsion, and inertia – the three primary laws – are a common theme in esoteric traditions. These properties of matter and force explain how the universe balances itself; attraction pulls things together, repulsion keeps them apart, and inertia allows them to persist. 

The same happens in sentient minds … unless we are aware of it.

The Wonder Of Being A Late Developer

Being a late developer means one’s brain hasn’t yet fully developed. It appears that everyone else seems to know what to do and how to do it; they’ve learnt all the right words and names.

So, what’s so wonderful about being left behind?

As we’re outside it all, we see the results of bolting – growing tall quickly without flowering, thus developing no fruit. It may look impressive, but no fruit, no fruition, which is the point at which something is realised.

Being behind everyone, we can see futile diligence
– the pointless areas of worldly activities.

As the saying goes, “Better late than never.”

Wound Means Suffering

We often hear spiritual teachers laugh at modern students for being ‘wounded’. This is not only a pity, but a huge misunderstanding. The first noble truth is admitting that we are suffering … wounded. The wound is in the mind which affects the brain, and so, our longterm memories.

If we don’t understand this, we can have no empathy, no compassion and no ability to be altruistic, to be practical. Our wounds stem from a misplaced dependency.

Rejection, abandonment, humiliation, betrayal, injustice, self-blame, low self-esteem, damaged mindset, existential despair, frozen emotions, hyper-vigilance, difficulty experiencing joy or spontaneity … all create wounds.

Understanding is empathetic wisdom.

Being Buddhist Is Being Ordinary

It’s not about projecting an image.

Ordinary: with no outer special or distinctive features; normal, not interesting or exceptional; commonplace.

The extraordinary is within perception.

Being Buddhist, we should know how to be decent human beings. Unfortunately, for many years, people have been acquiring a self-image that unconsciously transfers their desires to others (which is very unsettling 🙂 ). Again unfortunately, this image comes down from the top.

When Buddhists start to behave normally, free of intellectual or religious affectations, the Dharma will be accepted as normal.

Don’t be a Buddhist.
Be the genuine thing.
Just be a good heart, emphasising the true essence of the Dharma teachings – wisdom-kindness.

Don’t use Buddhism to become a Buddhist.
The Dharma is a tool to help us be the authentic wisdom of compassionate activity that we inherently are. It’s not a special club, with a special figurehead.

Buddhism is not a label, a uniform, or a set of rigid beliefs;
it’s a sincere, inner transformation.

A good heart needs no labels.

In The Beginning Was The Word

Why do we believe this?
What do we know?

Our brains are the product of the language they consume, and therefore we become a product of inherited words. Through neuroplasticity, the words we hear and use rewire our neural pathways, and therefore the way we think.

Humanity is manipulated by words through a process called neurolinguistic programming, which exploits the way our brains process language to change our perceptions, emotions, and behaviours, without us noticing. Humans aren’t just users of words; we are deeply shaped, regulated, and defined by them.

Being products of words suggests that language, conversation, and the narratives we construct, both internally and externally, influence our realities, brains, and identities. Neuroscience supports this, indicating that words are not merely labels for things, but are forces that shape our perceptions, emotions, and even physical bodies.

When we accept words without authentication, they are merely programming.
It’s pure consciousness which knows, before any words are expressed.
We are the empty cognisant space between the words.
Is it that by which everything can be known.

Our reality is not in the words, but in the direct silent experience.

When News Is Propaganda

When news is selected to support a specific agenda while ignoring or suppressing conflicting information, it functions as news-propaganda. In this form, news is no longer a tool for independent scrutiny but a vehicle for persuasion, often packaged as credible reporting to mask its true source or motivation.

This is reflected in common speech supporting a one-sided view, while neglecting any opposing perspective. This reveals that none of us has an original thought because all thoughts are limited expressions of something which is inexpressible. Religion has the same problem …

The Buddha taught us to read between the lines.
We are the experience of the gap between words and thoughts,
rather than the audience.

“The Odds Are Stacked Against Us”

“The odds are stacked against us” is an idiom meaning that success is highly unlikely due to overwhelming obstacles and unfavourable circumstances, making the maintenance of sanity challenging.

It indicates that external factors are working against us. We can spend our entire life never realising our true reality in favour of playing a part to which we consent, and repeating the same unfavourable conditions. This can happen even in religion, when we just follow others, and achieve no direct experience.

Recognising this, the odds are now in our favour. This is why evil intent can never totally succeed, as its repercussions are echoed in ordinary conversations.

When we realise we are blessed with challenges, we know we’re on the right path. 🙂

Don’t Let Damage Control Your Life

We are all damaged in some way by desire, aversion and indifference but, unfortunately, most of us don’t realise how damaged we are. Supportive communication starts the healing. Unfortunately, the damage caused by fear has already taken effect, and stops us being at one with each other. This is where empathetic understanding – that we’re all damaged by desire, aversion and indifference – comes to the fore.

We can’t expect support from others as their understanding is just that – their understanding. Support involves active listening, empathy, and feedback, rather than evaluation or judgment. Talking to people doesn’t seem to work. We’re forced to stand on our own two feet through direct experience and realisation.

Through earnest intention, blessings come our way which support our level of understanding. Sometimes we attract blessings in disguise; an apparent misfortune may eventually have fortunate results. Things, people, situations drop away, allowing us space and time to practise. We no longer panic.

Don’t let competitiveness spoil your inner peace.

Believing And Debunking*

Believing and debunking are both part of the vicious cycle of existence = Samsara. Creating beliefs will create the opposite of debunking. This is accepting and rejecting; I like and I dislike.

Humanity is kept in chaos and confusion due to this riddle which causes unhappiness. Whenever we read something, we don’t notice that we’re taking one side or another. Both sides may may claim to be true, but this all about conflict to keep humanity at each others’ throats.

Whenever you see conflict, step back and ask who benefits.

*to debunk: to expose the falseness or hollowness of an idea or belief.

The Most Important Words

The most important words ever spoken were by the Buddha:
“Do not take my words for the truth; test them.”

This simply means don’t trust anyone, especially your teacher. Until we utilise the teaching in daily interaction with others, we will never realise the power of those words. People talk from their experience and learning, but it may not be relevant to our situation and karma.

There are things every individual has to confront that we each hold dear – we hold on to.

Mara and the Buddha both know our weaknesses.
Our path is to know them too.