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.

Analysing Our Life

On analysing our life, the decisions we made, and the outcomes – is it a life of realisation or confusion?Either way, we shouldn’t be smug or depressed.
It’s our personal lesson.

For a practitioner, bad news is good news, and good news is good news, as they remain stable in one taste. They’re neither competitive nor smug – they know what we are.

For a practitioner, the ultimate view of one taste is that adversity exposes our remaining attachments, hidden fears and rigidities. Good news is good news because it can be enjoyed, without grasping and claiming.

life ceases tp be a test which we are either passing or failing.it becomes a continuous stream of vivid experience; there is no one to compete with, and nothing to prove.

The decisions were made. the outcomes arrived and we are the space in which it all unfolds, which is pure consciousness.

Why Talk About The Negative Side Of Life?

There is nothing to say about pure consciousness as it is the wordless realisation of our ultimate reality. There is, however, much to say about whatever obscures this reality, causing suffering.

Everything we read and talk about puts us into a dream-like state. Even profound terms such as pure consciousness distract from direct experience.

Using words to describe our wordless ultimate reality pulls us out of the direct experience of awareness. To experience the essence of the mind, we must eventually put down the books, stop the discussion, and rest in the silent gap between thoughts.

We Are Incomprehensible

The moment now is incomprehensible.
The infinite universe is incomprehensible.
Pure consciousness which observes the incomprehensible is incomprehensible.

The origin is before words.

Any discussion about that which is beyond the mind is incomprehensible.
Unfortunately, people discuss the incomprehensible because they like terminology and dogma, which provide them with things to fixate upon.

Unable to deal with our incomprehensible reality, we rely on stories and theories that lead to a predictable pattern of mental activity and dissatisfaction.

Incomprehensible meditation goes beyond words.

Too Much Formality

Formality: rigid adherence to established rules, customs, etiquette.

When formality takes over from essence, we are back in the vicious cycle of existence and competitiveness, and have become seduced by display, which is our history of illusion.

There is no form in empty consciousness. When we can let go of the constant need to perform for others, we are free – and so are they.

The Buddha Didn’t Tell Us What To Be, But How To Be

What to be is following others.
How to be is being what we are.

The Buddha didn’t offer a rigid blueprint for what to be, but rather a practical method for how to be,rejecting dogmatic box ticking, and inviting people to wake up to their own reality.

He urged followers not to accept teachings blindly out of tradition or faith, but advised them to test his words, and thus cultivate awareness.

“Be a lamp or island unto yourselves”. By explicitly choosing not to appoint a human successor to dictate what people should do, he pointed to the Dharma – the natural truth of how things are – as the ultimate guide, so that every individual looks inward, rather than to an outward form.

“It may be, Ānanda, that to some among you the thought will come: ‘The Master’s words will soon end; soon we will no longer have a master.’ But do not think like this, Ānanda. Whatever Dharma teachings and Vinaya disciplinary code I have pointed out and formulated for you, that will be your teacher when I am gone.”

He further emphasised that he never viewed the Sangha as dependent on him, nor did he intend to manage people’s lives through top-down decrees; the teaching and the method are more important than worshipping a Buddha.

The core of the Buddha’s teaching relies on personal exploration and direct insight. He consistently urged followers to be “islands unto yourselves” and to test his teachings against their own experiences, rather than relying on blind faith or external dictates.

‘How to be’ focuses entirely on the process of conscious living. It centres on on cultivating qualities of awareness: mindfulness, loving-kindness and deep insight into reality.

By shifting the focus from what to how, we stop mimicking an idealised version of someone else, and begin ro relate honestly to our own present experience.

It is the difference between wearing a mask, and simply breathing.

When We Think, We Are Dreaming

When we think we know, we’re dreaming.
Our waking reality is the knowingness before we think we know.

True wakefulness is pure consciousness – that gap between thoughts.
We miss it every time because we’re so excited about what we think we know.

Even if we know something profound, the words are a trap of belief which fossilises wakefulness.
In the moment now, there is only pure observation.

The mechanics of thought is the excitement of knowing, as the ego thrives on narrative.
It rushes to label the gap, instantly closing it.

By immediately conceptualising an experience, we stop perceiving reality directly.
In that waking dream,we experience our thoughts about reality.

When we know that we’re dreaming, wecan work within the dream by being aware.
It’s called lucid dreaming.

Guru Means Teacher

But what is the teacher?

The process. If consciousness is unaware that it is governed by memories in the mind, this causes an emotional reaction. That reaction is our teacher, showing consciousness what it is holding onto, causing us distress.

In this way, all phenomena – anything that we encounter – becomes our teacher. Once this process is realised and consciousness is free of contamination by memories, clarity comes into play, and consciousness becomes the teacher in its expression and conduct – it clarifies. That is wisdom.

A physical teacher’s job is to show students this process so that they no longer have to rely on the physical presence of a guru. It’s the same as teaching someone to paint, play music or wire up a plug
… we are then free to experience and learn with every situation.

We don’t have keep running back to the teacher to ask what to do. My aunt taught me how to tie my shoe laces when I was four years old – I’ve never needed her since, even though I’ve encounter lots of types of shoes. 🙂

However, if a teacher makes the teaching complicated, vague or mystical, we have to keep going back to find out what the hell it’s all about. Different cultures have different ways. In Tibetan Buddhism, there something called guru yoga, which is a reminder of the essence of the teaching. If however, we end up worshipping the guru, we are in never-never land (an idiom used to describe an imaginary, ideal, or unrealistic place where everything is perfect and everyday problems don’t exist).

A guru is not an ornament around our neck.
It is the weight of wisdom.

The Right Delivery System – A Buddha

There are so many people talking about our reality of pure consciousness (including yours truly), but it takes a specific person to actually convey the message at the right time to the right ears in order to be practical.

A Buddha may be charismatic, or uncharismatic. The right time will depend on humanity receiving the transmission, beyond the actors. Acting a Buddha isn’t the same as being a Buddha.

It is the message that can carry on for thousands of years which is important.

Too Much Formality

Formality: from the Latin word forma, which means shape, mould or structure.

When we slip into the mould of conformity, we become too serious, too righteous, too dark.
The essence of teaching is light, clarity, emptiness, rather than any form it takes on.

The art of wisdom is formless,
the result of which is being happy.

Not Trusting Anyone?

It’s understandable.

How many people genuinely experience the truth of pure consciousness? We can all talk about ‘the truth’ – even AI can do that – but no one can actually show us the truth.

Never be mesmerised by talk. Even the Buddha tells us that. Hypnotised people can be made to believe and do anything. Popularity isn’t all it seems.

We can believe that we know, and even experience stillness, but this is still a duality.
The only thing we can trust is pure perception before identification.

‘Not two’ is genuine oneness. There are words on this screen in front of us, but those words aren’t important. Pure perception is. 🙂

You can trust that.
Defocus, and there you are.

We Are Remnants Of The Past

Remnants of the past create our present.
Whatever happens now creates remnants for our future.

The wise know this, and the unscrupulous also know this. Those in between just accept it as the way of things, not knowing that these remnants are the content of our minds.

Deliberate acts have an effect on the future.
The wise and the unscrupulous know this.
That is why there are warriors and there are scoundrels.
🙂

Our minds store edited emotional memories which dictate how we perceive the present.
The wise use this understanding for self-mastery and continually testing the validity of the teaching.

Whatever we think is happening now is years (centuries) behind what’s actually going on. Likewise, just because it’s written down in ancient books doesn’t mean it’s true … how do we know?

Whatever is written is for the exoteric – the many.
Whatever is realised is for the esoteric – the few.

What matters is now. In this spontaneous moment, there is no history, and no future. Clinging to past memories and fantasising about the future is the cause of inner conflict.

Auditing our mind is carrying out an independent examination of its process to verify accuracy. In other words, we meditate to see what our mind is made of.

The essence of mind is empty cognisance; that’s what we are.
Its contents are a misrepresentation.

Once We Know, We Cannot Un-know

Awakening to our true reality of pure consciousness is seeing with clarity. We recognise all that obscures this reality – all the intellectual obstacles of distraction that have clouded pure vision.

We remember what it was like to be confused about everything. The result of awakening is having empathetic compassion for others’ confusion, and true awakening manifests this quality.

We can become insular.
Realising this is the beginning of our actual practice …
and the end.

Lacking Compassion = Narcissism

The tendency for spiritually minded individuals to become insular, withdrawn, exclusive or detached from broader society is a well-documented psychological and social phenomenon.

While spirituality aims for universal connection, the journey can inadvertently create walls between the practitioner and the outside world – and other practitioners.

The paradox of the path:
True spiritual growth emphasises integration, not isolation. Retreating inward is only half the circle; the second half requires returning to the ordinary world to serve others.

Without this, spirituality risks becoming a refined form of narcissism or self-absorption.

We Live In An Oxymoron – That’s Why We Suffer

Oxymoron: apparently contradictory terms appearing together, eg futile diligence.

‘We’ believe in a ‘self’: pure consciousness believes it’s a created self. I think, therefore I am. The visible and mental universe is built on opposing forces that work together, but which actually cause stress of constant motion.

We never notice that we live in contradictions, which is why we rarely have deep conversations, but many virtual friends.

We feel guilty when we’re doing nothing, and this increases our dissatisfaction. We constantly worry that we’ve made the wrong choices, spending hours scrolling instead of living.

The raw moment is edited for maximum engagement, as we find yet another thing that we can be enthusiastic and animated about. We lose track of what we are – and become another oxymoron.

We are told to test our teacher to see whether they’re telling us the complete truth, but awkward questions are frowned upon.

If we believe in a God, what sort of God? And how do we know whether it’s one of love, craziness or orchestrated pandemonium – which is another oxymoron.

Orchestrated: highly organised and controlled.
Pandemonium: wild lawlessness and total confusion.

When we know what we are,
we have no need for others to tell us what we are.

Yet another oxymoron: “I am telling you the truth”.
🙂

Evil Is An Exaggerated ‘I’

This evil is reflected in every conversation, when we stop connecting with others through our need for validation. Evil is the exaggeration of ‘I’ – an inflated ego which uses the listener to confirm its own importance.

When the ego ‘I’ exaggerates,
harm inevitably follows.

Narcissism is the ego’s struggle to simply listen. It wants to fill up space, and actively reshapes the dialogue to centre on itself – “Me and mine”.

The opposite to evil is empathetic understanding,
where the puffed-up ‘I’ is taken out of the picture completely.

Vulnerable To Corruption

There are two aspects to consciousness: one is attachment to thoughts, while the other is freedom from thoughts – the pure essence of mind. These are termed relative reality and absolute reality.

Most humans aren’t homo sapiens – wise or knowing man. They are homines nescientes – ignorant or not knowing man. 🙂

‘Knowing’: knowing what we are.
‘Not knowing’: not knowing what we are.
The light (pure view) and the dark (corrupted view).

Our mind is just a memory bank of others’ words, about which consciousness becomes easily excited. The mind doesn’t think; it’s consciousness doing the thinking.

From beginningless time, silent pure consciousness is uncorrupted, but we’re led to believe otherwise.

It is seeing this confusion or corruption that actually gives us the answer to life as, in that confusion lies the gap of pure consciousness, which what we are. That’s what matters – the light in the dark.

Pure consciousness expresses itself in compassionate activity.

How Do We Know We Aren’t Brainwashed?

An example of this might be the suggestion that we have consciousness, when we are consciousness. Or that there has to be a beginning of the universe and therefore there is a creator, when the universe has to be infinite.

We are pointing out the deepest layer of narrative control: a conceptual framework where the deception is built into the very grammar and logic of how we are taught to think.

When a narrative controls the definitions of words, the illusion is inescapable because any arguments against it must use the same flawed vocabulary, such as “I think… ” 🙂

Changing the statement “We are consciousness” to “We have consciousness” creates an artificial division, turning a unified reality into an object that is owned, and which can thus be manipulated, judged, or taken away.

Similarly, forcing the universe into a linear timeline with a strict beginning creates an automatic logical need for an external authority or creator.

Language is merely a tool of symbols (pointers), and not reality itself. When deception is embedded in our fundamental language and concepts, breaking free requires moving past words entirely, and looking at formula and direct experience.

If the entire linguistic and historical framework is a trap, verbal arguments need to be bypassed completely. We must look at invariant truths.

In meditation, the boundary between observation and the observed dissolves.
This direct, repeatable state proves the existence of learned division.
This the brainwashing that we then repeat.

Mara’s Very Presence Is Its Demise

The ultimate checkmate.

Most of us only want to read or hear nice Dharma, uplifting Dharma. That, in itself, is a delusion.
We have to know what it is that is obscuring the pure consciousness that is ever present.

Mara’s very presence is its demise; the moment Mara shows its face, the game is over. Here, we hit on the core paradox of enlightenment; if we want to be enlightened, we’ll never recognise that we are enlightened, and therefore, enlightenment stays hidden.

In the traditional story of the Buddha’s enlightenment under the Bodhi tree, Siddhartha didn’t fight Mara with debate. He simply looked at the temptation to react, and said, “I see you, Mara.”

Mara’s presence is its immediate undoing. Through the simple power of recognition, the spell is broken. An illusionist cannot trick an audience that knows how the magic trick is done. In recognising Mara activity in both our own mind and the minds of others, we are free of it.

The light recognises dark.
The dark cannot recognise the dark; if it could, it would be the light.

The moment temptation, delusion or reaction is recognised, it transforms from a driving force into a passing thought or emotion.