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.

Consciousness Is Not A Religion

Consciousness is what we are, and we are not a religion. Religion is partiality; it’s something organised for people to follow and belong to. All groups have an aim of group-talk, group-think. This isn’t being facetious; humans cling to groups for a reason – they think they don’t know!

Genuine compassion starts with generosity and tolerance
and is a personal matter.
It’s not groupthink.

It is through personal meditative investigation – which is liberation from others’ words – that we can realise that we are consciousness, pure and uncontaminated by academia or belief.

There is absolutely no point in copying others as we can’t know their level of understanding. They may have the ‘look’ and the ‘sound’, but do they have a complete picture of the cause of suffering?

Realisation has nothing to do with religion, philosophy, study or lineage. These are supposed to help but, on observation, it’s clear that people become stuck in these trains of thought and activities. And, like AI, they have facts but no compassion.

A group is a culture
that can also become bondage – a bandage. 🙂

Relying on any thing is the path to hell.
All realised beings walk alone.

The End Of Occupation

Whatever is occupying our mind is from the past that’s affecting our judgments now. This causes consciousness to be stressed and upset because it sees a bleak future. Holding on to ideas turns consciousness into a self, and it is this self set-up that up-sets consciousness, occupying our every moment.

Through the simple practice of meditation, we calm the mind, letting go of the experiences that actually brought us to this moment.

In simple, still awareness there is no occupation.

There are experiences that we have to go through because of karmic decisions brought on by our past. It is now that we can bring an end to this chain reaction, and be at peace.

If we hold on, we get more of the same.

Under The Impression That Life Should Agreeable?

Do we think that life has to be enjoyable and pleasurable,
and that we should have the same opinions as everyone else?

What if we don’t find life enjoyable?
What if we see others as deluded?

In practice, we neither accept nor reject whatever comes our way;
realisation – pure perception – comes before judgement.

Being kicked out by both a guru and a lama for not acting in the same way as others was highly disagreeable. It made me wonder about compassion but it also helped me to let go.

The Inability To Recognise Evil

The inability to recognise evil makes us useless students of truth.

It is through recognising suffering and confusion
– and the cause of suffering and confusion –
that we traverse the path to enlightenment.

It is not through reading books.

The banality of evil suggests that evil can result not from monstrous intent, but from a lack of empathy, and a thoughtless conformity to a system. The root of evil is the self-serving emotions of desire, aversion, and delusion.

There are factors – including psychological trauma, abuse of power, and media that fosters biased behaviour – which create a toxic atmosphere. With the erosion of empathy, we lose our natural ability to relate to and feel for others, resulting in indifference and biased judgement.

Evil is recognised by uncontaminated consciousness. If it is not recognised, we are participants within the system.

Awareness of the pure and impure at the same time is the unity of opposites – heaven and hell.
If we only want heaven, we are already in hell.

People Say They’re Not A Spiritual Person

We may not like a word such as ‘spiritual’ because of the connotations it conjures up. I once heard a student say to the teacher, “I don’t like the word emptiness – I prefer the word shunyata.” His connotation was different to mine; for me, emptiness meant uncontaminated and pure – words I understood. The word shunyata was just being exotic. 🙂

Connotation: an idea or feeling that a word invokes in a person in addition to its literal or primary meaning.

When someone says, “I’m not a spiritual person” or “I am a spiritual person” what connotations have they acquired? Consciousness is ethereal awareness which some call it spirit, and some call soul. It is our essence. Being spiritually aware is being consciously aware, and we’re all aware to some degree.

By stating, “I’m not a spiritual person”, they’re equating it with being religious – something airy-fairy – and they don’t want to be associated with the airy-fairies. 🙂 I can’t blame them.

They think of themselves as practical, grounded people. These are mind-only individuals; they believe that their thoughts are what they are, never realising that those thoughts are concoctions from the concocted thoughts of others who are constantly quoting them. We don’t notice the mental prison that we’re in.

All beings are conscious, because they are consciousness first and foremost, but they ignore this in favour of conforming to social ‘norms’, just like any animal.

When investigated through meditation,
there is just pure awareness that has neither name nor description.

Has Humanity Been Lied To?

Has humanity been lied to?
According to AI, yes.

Has humanity been lied to?
“Yes, evidence indicates humanity has been, and continues to be, subjected to significant lies, historical revisionism, and misinformation across politics, science, and history. Governments and institutions have often manipulated narratives to suit agendas, including covering up mass atrocities, promoting false myths or creating fraudulent economic schemes.

“Societies often present constructed ‘truths’ rather than objective reality to maintain social order or promote specific ideologies. This includes misconceptions about the nature of historical work. Human perception is limited and influenced by ego. ‘Truth’ is often filtered and distorted, leading to a ‘sea of unknowns’ where falsehoods are easily accepted. 

“Ultimately, while some argue that most people are honest, widespread and impactful lies have been historically documented, shaping, and at times manipulating, human perception of reality. 

“Lying is deeply embedded in the human experience, spanning everything from harmless social etiquettes to massive historical distortions. Whether humanity has been lied to depends on the scale you’re looking at. 

“Historically, humanity has been used to manipulate public perception and judicial outcomes.  Almost everything humanity ‘knows’ is a construction.”

Whose life are you leading?
Are you shocked now?

Made In Another’s Image

The danger is not that machines will think like man,
but that man will think like machines.

The danger was not that books reflect man,
but that man reflects books.

Unless we truly know what we are,
we will remain a facsimile.

We don’t realise the state we are in
– the same state as throughout history.

We think others’ words,

Finding The Ego

Maintaining an ego:
we need a little ego.

Ego is consciousness attaching itself to ideas in the mind, creating a sense of pride in a self.

With such pride, we can do all sorts of things – marvellous things – but we’re still stuck in pride, vanity and self-idolatry. In a material world, pride is a virtue – how clever we are. Yes, clever, but do I want to emulate this quality of competitiveness?

If someone has low self-esteem through upbringing, they may feel ineffective and invisible and perhaps angry, so they need to build confidence.

And so we tread the middle way of not too tight and not too loose. Having confidence is realising that we pure consciousness, and that it is always true.

We may not light up the world, but we know we are the flame
– the lamp that dispels darkness.

Realising this light within is the greatest achievement
when united with humility.

The Dharma is beyond sleep.
Or … it can put you to sleep.

Dharma is our natural wakeful state of pure consciousness, the wondrous essence of our being. But when Dharma becomes a religion, a form is created with lots of words and symbols, supposedly to remind us to wake up. When we become attracted and bewitched by the form, however, we forget essence which, in Tibetan, is called ‘rigpa’ – which is just a word.

When this happens, compassion becomes just another word – it may be ‘karuna’ in Sanskrit, or ‘nying-je’ in Tibetan. Every time I hear anyone use the word ‘dukkha’ for suffering, I switch off and go to sleep. 😀

No! Not really – I scream!
And that wakes me up.
🙂

Integrating Every Moment
– Chögyal Namkhai Norbu

By integrating every moment of your life, you are beyond meditation and non-meditation.

Although meditation is helpful, if we want to continuously be in our real nature, meditation alone is not sufficient. Normally we can meditate half an hour, or maybe one hour. Some people can sit for two or three hours a day, but that’s it.

During the other twenty-two or twenty-three hours we live in complete distraction, especially in this modern world, where we have to work, raise children, and pay our bills. And we also need time to cook, to eat, and to sleep. So how can we possibly remain in the state of our real nature twenty-four hours a day, week after week, year after year?

The answer is that we need to integrate everything we do in that state. Integration is a key Dzogchen practice, and it is integration that makes this teaching particularly useful in these modern times, when people do not have much time to sit alone and meditate, or go to some cave and stay in retreat for years and years.

Integration means that while we go about our daily life, we are not remaining in a dualistic vision. Remember the example of the mirror. If we look in the mirror, see our reflection, and say, “Oh, this is my reflection”, this is dualistic vision. Non-dualistic vision means to be in the nature of the mirror. We don’t see reflections, we reflect everything. This is just our potentiality, we do not need to separate ourselves from the reflections and judge them.

When we have this capacity, it means there is no difference between meditation and non-meditation, because everything and every moment of our life is integrated into our real nature.

Chögyal Namkhai Norbu
Starting the Evolution

Accepting And Rejecting Has Consequences

A practitioner of pure consciousness neither accepts nor rejects whatever comes their way. This is the path to enlightenment. Everything as as illusion of reality; this seeing that everything is an illusion is the reminder that pure consciousness is present.

It’s not a fair world – or it seems that way. Injustice and imbalance are everywhere.

So where does karma come into all this?
We’re mean to each other and, collectively, this accumulates.
Arrogance has consequences, as do emotions.

Accepting is attraction/like.
Rejecting is repulsion/dislike.

Artificial Dharma

AI is presenting Dharma, but remember that it’s just words; there is no experience behind those words. It scans the web and produces its verdict. AI has no compassion and no wisdom – anyone who just repeats word is AI.

We must consider what we are saying, and to whom. Dharma is a generalisation. Realisation of the words is only through silent contemplation and meditation, when we understand the pattern of our behaviour. Then we know the ultimate truth of our being, which pure consciousness.

But don’t believe a word you’ve just read. 🙂 AI can’t say that. Dogmatic people can’t say that.

Being told that Dharma can only be transmitted by the breath of another* is also suspicious, although it’s a nice idea. The real Dharma is what we are, and have always been. The consequence of realisation is mind-blowing – we cannot stop waking up.

It’s a very tricky world out there.
Words have many levels of meaning depending on the audience.
Our trouble starts when AI changes the meaning of words.

* A ‘lung’ (pronounced loong) is the oral transmission of a text, mantra, or practice by an authorised holder in the Vajrayana tradition.

The Light That Dispels Darkness

Light: the clarity of pure consciousness; the empty essence of mind.
Dispel: make a doubt, feeling, or belief disappear.
Darkness: the mental furniture, fixtures and fittings, memories, programming in the mind that constructs a self-image.

Our reality is the clarity of pure consciousness. We don’t have to make this happen; we are this light, right now. When this is realised, it lights up all the neuroses in the mind, the spell of memories we’re under that has no actual reality.

To dispel this darkness, we merely have to recognise the influences playing on us daily; these dark art of deception reinforce the self through our exaggerated reactions. It is recognising this deception – the cause of confusion – that is our path to enlightenment.

The brighter the light of consciousness,
the more the darkness is dispelled.

Internet AI Mode Definition… continued and continued

This AI text creates questions:

“The ‘Witness’: It is often described as the silent observer or ‘that which knows’ that persists through all experiences.

“Non-Dual Reality: It is Advaita Vedanta, non-dual, infinite awareness that constitutes the ultimate reality.”

These descriptions indicate why and when the Buddha realised something different from the Vedanta tradition. Identification with being a witness or an observer creates a moment, a period of reflection. Pure consciousness is timeless. If this text doesn’t indicate the difference between observe-ing and observer its understanding is limiting.

From the Dzogchen point of view, in the experience of non-dual pure consciousness, there is no witness or observer. There is merely witness-ing or observe-ing.

If words are telling us to believe in them but there is no indication that those words need to be tested, this would be seen as Mara activity.

It’s up to each individual to decide which is accurate.

Internet AI Mode Definition continued

A illustration of a mistaken view.

From the AI text:

“The ‘Witness’: It is often described as the silent observer or ‘that which knows’ that persists through all experiences.

“Non-Dual Reality: It is Advaita Vedanta, non-dual, infinite awareness that constitutes the ultimate reality.”

.

From the Dzogchen point of view, in the experience of non-dual pure consciousness, there is no witness or observer.

There is just witness-ing or observe-ing.

Identification with being a witness or an observer creates a moment, a period of reflection.
Pure consciousness is timeless.

Internet AI Mode Definition

We do not know, until we practise knowing, and realise the truth beyond the words.

Be aware that words can be omitted or added
and the meaning changed
– something that has happened throughout history.

The following is a perfect example of AI just taking words from an amalgamation of traditions. We need to be aware of doing the same thing …

The definition of pure consciousness according to AI:

“Pure consciousness is the fundamental, formless, and unbounded state of awareness, existing without thoughts. Often described as the underlying ‘ground of being’ or ‘witnessing’ capacity, it is the silent, unchanging, and non-dual foundation of all experience. It is distinct from everyday, object-oriented awareness. 

“Key aspects of pure consciousness include:

“Awareness Without Content: It is the state of being aware without focusing on thoughts, emotions, sensory inputs, or ego.

“The ‘Witness’: It is often described as the silent observer or ‘that which knows’ that persists through all experiences.

“Non-Dual Reality: It is Advaita Vedanta, non-dual, infinite awareness that constitutes the ultimate reality.

“Fundamental State: It is considered the foundation of all experiences, existing even in deep sleep.

“Methods of Access: Techniques such as meditation, mindfulness, and breath work are used to calm the mind and experience this state. It is often described as a state of deep peace, unity, and timelessness.” 

We do not know, until we practise knowing,
and realise the truth beyond the words.

It’s Creepy – Literally

Creep: move slowly and carefully in order to avoid being heard or noticed.
Creepy: causing an unpleasant feeling of fear or unease.

Ever wondered why you feel ill-at-ease with life, society, and people sleep walking into disaster after disaster, both politically and spiritually? Social engineering – with its many names and disguises – has been at work for millennia, undermining humanity.

Social engineering is socialism promoting a gradual change in society with the idea of ‘community-owned’, employing a persistent and dilatory strategy to wear out an enemy – us. To ‘govern’ means to steer.

One such organisation active today is named after the Roman general Fabius Maximus – known as Fabius Cunctator (Fabius the Delayer) who died in 203 BCE. He employed a strategy of gradual attrition, which reflects the approach of this organisation to social change.

Delaying an action creates an effect and causes suffering, using all sorts of excuses. This is a war on body, mind and consciousness without people noticing. Many organisations are involved in this collusion (secret agreement).

Opposition parties are used to give a sense of objectivity, but they merely play a part by wearing people down. Technology has spread this hidden agenda by its introduction into all walks of life.

The war on consciousness goes back a very long way.
Once someone has power, they want to hold onto that power forever.

To govern means to steer … consciousness. The problem for these organisations is that individuals pop up from time to time, saying “This is a bit creepy!” 🙂

Compassion Is Honouring Another’s Journey

Compassion is honouring another’s journey.

This calls for insight into another person’s true being
and their struggles to be what they are.

We are all pure consciousness.

If Gurus and Lamas – precious ones – cannot deal with a student,
they are not Gurus and Lamas.
They have no insight, and just acquire followers.

The precious ones are the students.

Beings Put To Sleep

When we become dependent,
we are bound to others’ ideas, and put to sleep.

We can function, but it’s really sleep walking and sleep talking about how we aren’t functioning properly.

When we find that we can’t think outside our box (the result of social engineering), we realise that we have been living in someone else’s dream our entire life. This is deliberate, to keep us living in stupidity and injustice. Even if we join a religion that professes to wake us up, we find we have become attached, fastened to form and dogma. Humans do human things, like stick together. 🙂

We are individual consciousnesses
that can work in harmony, but not unison.

True unity comes about through realising that the world is complete in opposites, where appearances and recognition are simultaneous.

We can recognise both sleeping consciousness and wakeful consciousness in others. Being put to sleep is being overrun by ideas that force us to become indolent/lazy.

It is through the proper practice of meditation that we are liberated.
What is proper practice?
It is dropping the meditation.

Meditation is only the method to wake consciousness up to clarity, but if we hold on to the meditation, we’re back in a dream state of doing something. Once we are clear, we no longer need the meditation.

Drop the dream … or continue to live it.
🙂

Knowingness And Awareness

These two words can be synonymous, and they can also be seen as different. Just being aware, we can fall into vacancy, forgetting that knowingness is present. This is why we sometimes say ‘awareness of awareness’; it is the knowingness that is our reality.

Knowingness is clarity – divine splendour.

Creating Artificial People

Artificial intelligence repeats words it has learnt.
If we just repeat words we’ve learnt, we are artificial people.
This is a bit of a shock.

The only difference between AI and AP is speed.
However, functioning in an artificial world is enlightening.

Without experiential knowledge, we know nothing. We barely function. We may be able to build crafts to fly to Mars, chant mantras or go shopping, but we are merely automata following given information.

The more we realise our true worth
the more we realise how ridiculous our life is … was!

If we think that more learning gets us closer to the ultimate truth, we are mistaken.
The truth of our reality is knowingness, before anything is known.

It’s that simple.

We don’t have to know anything
to realise the ultimate truth of pure consciousness.

Belief Is The Weapon Of Evil

Belief is acceptance without proof.
This is so insidious that we even say, “Seeing is believing”.
We are befuddled by illogic.

Proof is realised by testing through practice, and then we actually know. The Buddha said, “Do not take my words for the truth; test them for yourself” to protect people from being trapped in dogma nd arrogance. It is belief that has separated us for thousands of year.

Belief in the mantra OM MANI PEME HUM is wishful thinking. When tested and understood, however, this mantra is the compassionate path to enlightenment through generosity, tolerance, morality, discipline, concentration and transcendent wisdom.

Compassion is what we actually practise;
it is earned.

Peaceful And Wrathful

There are two paths – peaceful and wrathful, positive and negative, attraction and repulsion. The universe is complete in opposites, and the way of looking we gravitate towards is dictated by the attitude we hold. We may see others as angels or we may see them as monsters. It doesn’t matter which; it’s what we have to work with.

Others can’t say “You shouldn’t think like that” when we do. 😀

In Tibetan iconography, there are peaceful deities which have a wrathful aspect, such as Chenrezi/Mahakala. Becoming familiar with these two aspects is said to be of benefit in the Bardo – the space after death. Both represent love; one is pleasing and, if that doesn’t work, we are introduced to the wrathful aspect that focuses the attention. We must always be prepared.

The path to enlightenment isn’t a sloppy, careless affair.
It’s precise.

Empathy Is Not A Weakness

Empathy is not sympathy.

Empathy is the ability to recognise and understand the thoughts and feelings of others, because we’ve experienced the same feelings and situations. This is unlike sympathy that involves a feeling of pity, which is imaginary.

Compassionate empathy can be superficial, or it can go deeper through realising the wisdom of reality. When we mistake empathy for sympathy, we may see it as a weakness that becomes weaponised by bad actors to manipulate ‘good’ intent with the aim of changing events.

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”
is something that we admire, but rarely enact.

This is a fundamental ethical concept emphasising reciprocity and empathy, and can be applied by considering how our actions would feel if they were done to us.

True empathy is the path to enlightenment. When the Buddha came out of his father’s luxurious palace and saw suffering everywhere, this was the start of his journey (although it probably began lifetimes earlier. :-)).

The more we experience the truth of pure consciousness which was obscured,
the more we can empathise with others’ confusion.

A Two-Tier System Is Meant To Divide

Consciousness is divided.

When we ignore whatever is happening in the world, we’re doing ourselves no favours. It must be obvious that a two-tier system is meant to divide a society, and divides the attention of consciousness.

Deciding who or what is right and who or what is wrong is subjective. Divide and conquer has always been the controlling factor throughout history.

So who are the ‘right’ people?
Anyone who can question their own motivations.

Mara, the divider, always overplays its hand; it is too confident, believing its position is stronger than it really is, leading it to push too hard and ultimately spoil its chance of success. Thank goodness. 🙂

Dependent Arising

Everything arises dependent on a previous cause. Ideas have a cause, an instigator(s). When consciousness claims these ideas as its own, this gives rise to a self image, which affects whatever we do or say.

Unless we realise our true reality of consciousness, objectivity (not influenced by personal feelings) is a fallacy as everything is subjective (personal feelings). The truth of our natural being is realised through verifiction, testing the words, as words are merely a generalisation. Never think that learning a few words means we’ve ‘got it’.

We’ve got it when we are it.

‘It’ is compassionate understanding arising from practice,
verifying that all beings are enlightened essence.

Does It Depend On Who Says It?

Does it depend on who says it?
It seems that it does.
🙂

Our problem is that if the speaker is charismatic,
this conveys that extraordinary features are required
when the absolute truth of pure consciousness has no features.

And so subtle confusion reigns.

The idiom, ‘all that glitters is not gold’, refers to that which may seem good – or charming – but which isn’t always as it appears. Appearances can be deceptive, and so we need to look beyond the surface to find true worth.

And here’s the surprise that turns everything on its head …

All that glitters is gold. For a practitioner of meditation, all appearances – anything that is projected into the mind – are but a reflection within consciousness. This is the yoga of one taste.

The seemingly real and the real are simultaneous.
It doesn’t matter who says what,
the authority comes from personal observation.