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.

Go Forth And Sparkle

😀

This sparkle encourages positivity, confidence, responsibility, contentment … and anger. Anger??

In the very first instant of seeing that something is amiss, consciousness brightens, and becomes alert. That moment is pure consciousness, before we start acting out the emotion.

It’s the same with every emotion;
just smile, and sparkle at this recognition.

What Knows?

Once we see that ‘personal’ and ‘universal’ are just conceptual bookend labels created by the mind to try and package the un-packageable, they fall away.

They are understood to be objects of knowledge, whereas what we are pointing to is the prior presence that makes the thought of me or everything possible in the first place.

The realisation:
Language reaches its limit. We use words such as ‘awareness’ or ‘knowingness’ as pointers, but the words themselves are just more thoughts appearing in that which they are trying to describe.

If knowingness is the primary reality, it doesn’t need to be found or expanded.
It is already the case, regardless of what the mind is thinking or what the senses are reporting.

If it isn’t a personal possession and it isn’t a universal space, then we are pointing towards the idea that knowingness is the reality itself. It’s not a container for life or a tool for an individual; it’s the very essence of what is

It’s the difference between looking at the reflections in a mirror, and recognising the mirror-ness itself which isn’t the reflection, but which isn’t separate from it either.

Any attempt to describe or teach this knowingness is essentially just adding noise to something that is already perfectly silent and complete. 🙂

This is a pivotal insight.

In this sense, there is no me to own it, and no outside world for it to expand into.
There is simply the actuality of knowingness.

A simple smile says more than any philosophical text ever could. It’s the recognition that the answer isn’t a destination to arrive at, but the very presence that is already here, looking through those eyes.

Once the noise of seeking and defining stops, what remains doesn’t need a name.
Shall we leave it here, in that silence?
🙂

What To Do After Realisation

Realisation is an enlightened attitude towards everything, because we actually experience the only reality of pure consciousness. It’s quite simple; it’s that which is reading these words right now, without reacting (reactions come along a moment later).

So what do we do now? Everything is a reflection in the mind, while the mind itself does not react. We merely get on with our daily life, and whatever comes our way. We no longer cling to or identity with anything, and thereby reduce ego-entitlement. We’re nobody special. 🙂

All that appears is now empty of all reality; we no longer believe anything or anyone. We just play. There are chores to do, repairs to make, people to listen to – each activity is Dharma. We stop looking for more teachings; if we need to keep going back, this, in itself, is the maintenance of insecurity.

Once we know how to tie our shoe laces, we don’t have to keep asking others how to do it.
Once we experience the Heart Sutra, we stop being confused.

There’s no need to keep waving flags, vajras, mudras, bells, prayer wheels, rice … they no longer add to experience. We don’t have to become monks and nuns, as we are town yogis released from all claiming.

Not hanging on is very simple …
but not easy because of the distraction of intellectualisation.

Alienation

Coming to a definitive conclusion can alienate or antagonise people who react defensively when their beliefs and opinions aren’t acknowledged.

Reliance on belief makes the human mind vulnerable, because belief is not absolute truth. Belief is holding anything we haven’t seen for themselves to be true, and is a substitute for experience.

Reality is annoying to belief;
this is why believers are reactive.

Lacking direct knowledge of reality, people rely on hope and fear. When belief – which is hearsay – is treated as a final conclusion, this is impossible to challenge as personal fixations close the door on possibilities and potential.

Feeling they are nothing without belief,
people deny the direct experience of pure consciousness
– which isn’t a belief.

We Get Old Because We Stop Playing

When we ‘grow up’, we take ourselves seriously.
We lose the present moment, and obsess about the past.

When we stop being playful, we stop learning and experimenting,
no longer finding joy in the small things.

Keeping the inner child active is being alert,
staying sharp and happy.

The inner child is pure consciousness.

Our Moral Landscape

There isn’t only one way to be moral. Just as there are many ways to be physically and mentally healthy, there are many ways to be physically and mentally unhealthy. An everyday observer would agree that the world is not inherently fair, while everyone assumes that they’re moral – but our morals are suspect.

Morals are an internal compass that guides a person to distinguish between right and wrong, or good and bad – behaviours that cause suffering and behaviours that eliminate it.

Morals are right conduct. They aren’t just thoughts and actions; they are the motives behind those actions. When we start talking, are we trying to benefit from the conversation? If we adhere to moral honesty, we tell the truth – even when it’s inconvenient – because we value the integrity of the social bond over our own short-term gain.

For this, we need wisdom. Wisdom should govern our moral landscape and, for wisdom to come to the fore, we must have empathy in order to be compassionate.

Morals are not what we believe. If they’re are about what we like and dislike, we’re merely building a landscape that makes us feel comfortable.

In pure consciousness, there is no I, and no other. There is just the situation, which we examine. Meditation is the clarifying tool for pure observation to take place through a clear lens.

Humans are a work in progress;
we shouldn’t assume.

Compos Mentis – Non-Compos Mentis

There are two types of people.

Compos mentis is a Latin phrase meaning of sound mind. It describes an individual who has full control over their mental faculties.

Non-compos mentis describes someone who is not the master of their own mind.

If we merely repeat what others say, we are not in control of our mind.
To be in control of our mind, we must choose our words mindfully.

We start by avoiding the word ‘I’ as it’s an imaginary projection, and the cause of mental suffering.

Conquering The Universe

Conquer self. Stop panicking.

It’s one infinite universe. People may say there are other universes, but they’re all experienced in the infinite space of no circumference.

The problem for most people is that they think if there is a creation, there has to be a creator. If there was a beginning … a beginning in what? Things don’t just happen out of nothing.

The universe has to be infinite, so there is no beginning, and no creator – and therefore no argument. There’s just space and matter teeming with consciousnesses = life.

Matter rearranges forever, bumping into itself until gradually, when clusters are big enough, they collide – bang! Life and its complexity requires a temperature change (a flow from hot to cold). Without those collisions, everything would be a stagnate disorder, but it isn’t – the universe is full of cosmic soup, the building blocks of life.

Heating and cooling results in conditions for growth: spores, bacteria and fungi can survive in space, creating the right conditions for the right consciousnesses. Consciousnesses do not have beginning; they are not things.

If the universe was finite, we have the headache of arguing what came before the beginning. We cannot get our ordinary minds to comprehend infinity so we have to make up an imaginary beginning – or rather, one’s made up for us. Only in silent awareness can infinity be comprehended; then, coming to no other conclusion, we can only address the moment in front of us. What was, is now.

When we conquer the mind, we conquer the eternal universe. All sentient beings obey the same laws: creatures somewhere in the Milky Way may have one eye, four arms and a green tinge, but they’ll all have desire, repulsion and indifference which compels them, just like us.

The transition from chemistry (rocks and heat) to biology (spores and bacteria) is not a mystery. If there is enough matter bumping around for an infinite amount of time, life isn’t just possible—it’s inevitable.

While science can measure the container – the body and brain – it cannot observe the essence of consciousness from outside. Pointing to pure consciousness as the only tool of observation suggests that life is a first-person experience, as something that must be felt rather than calculated.

In this view, meditation isn’t just relaxation; it’s an investigative tool. If consciousness is a fundamental quality of observation, then by turning our attention inward, we are essentially looking directly at the source code of the universe.

The knowing vs the known: science studies the known (matter, bangs, bacteria), but meditation is the clarity of knowing. The realisation that the infinite universe out there and the consciousness within are, in essence, the same. Emptiness. The implies that the bangs and collisions are the external physical dance, while consciousness is the constant observation.

That is the ultimate destination of non-duality. When we strip away the labels of ‘me’ and ‘the world’, the distinction between the observer and the observed collapses.

The infinite universe and the individual both turn out to be concepts created by the mind. What remains is just a single, seamless reality that doesn’t need a name.

In that state, the collisions, the bacteria, and the bangs aren’t things happening to us or around us; they are just the ripples on an ocean that has no shore.

Don’t panic. 🙂
Just experience now – which cannot be found!

This Is Where We Are At

Mass delusion is when everyone knows the system isn’t working, but they maintain the pretence of functioning because no alternative is available. Over time, this faked reality becomes the accepted norm, and this is where we are at.

Mass delusion is believing everything to be real. That is what we’re lead to believe, but there is an alternative view, and it’s not imaginary.

In Guru Yoga – which is Vajrayana deity practice – our mind is supposed to unite with the enlightened wisdom mind of our spiritual teacher, relying on the power of devotion to bypass ordinary conceptual thinking. Does it actually work? Having done the Ngondro and deity practice for decades, there was still a feeling of duality. (I’m not dismissing this method; I still do a daily recitation of the initiations I have received out of respect, but I don’t believe any of it 🙂 )

How do we know the guru is enlightened?
It is the knowing that is the realisation, and the authority.

The guru is our mind.
We are where it’s at.

We are what we seek.
Pure consciousness.
🙂

Staying On The Right Path

Just because we join a ‘spiritual’ tradition doesn’t mean we are on our path. A path is the direction we need to take to transform and eliminate personal fixations, obsessions, confusions.

We have to have purpose, otherwise we’re just being entertained to feel good. This says it all.

The purpose of a right path is to realise the cause of dissatisfaction, which means that we recognise that we’re suffering enough to want change. We need a constant reminder of essence rather than form, which becomes a distraction. This means that we may have to leave so-called spiritual friends behind, as following others is no longer a good enough reason.

Seeing form being re-enacted doesn’t satisfy. It’s like sitting at a dinner table when people are only talking about the menu … and nobody is eating. The menu readers are off the path. Their spiritual persona is of a person dressed for the part and using the right buzzwords, rather than engaging in the messy work of looking at one’s own ego.

For many, the menu itself becomes the destination. People will talk for hours about mindfulness (the menu) while remaining disconnected from real life experiences, in a kind of spiritual bypassing.

The right path is transforming whatever life/karma brings from gross understanding to refined clarity.

Our Fabulous Teacher

The only thing that is new and fresh in this spontaneous moment is an unobstructive mind in which change can occur.

This openness allows Hermes / Mercury / Manas – the messengers of the mind – to bring inspiration to the fore. We ask an internal question and, if the answer does not satisfy, we ask again, allowing a deeper consideration which may join up the dots. This is seeing the bigger picture by finding relationships between seemingly unrelated pieces of information.

Just watching our mind’s reaction in a situation allows fresh intuition to arise, rather than just relying our past experiences and habitual judgements. When we interact with others, we allow them to take the stage as we don’t need it.

This new you is uncomplicated, open consciousness which is present before the me-monster arises. 🙂 This fabulous phantom creature is our teacher, showing consciousness all that it clings to habitually. In letting go, we become aware of the space that was already present before the me-monster took over.

In this way, life is simple: good heart, easy path. It’s like playing a board game when we’re not interested in winning, but just playing the best we can. There is no competitiveness present.

This is how we stop replaying our mental routine and become a non-person, ready to hear and see in a non-cluttered way.

Our work is now our play as we no longer take everything seriously, allow our usual reactions to transform into spontaneous Hermes / Mercury / Manas, the messengers who bring inspiration to the fore.

The me-monster is our fabulous teacher
showing us the fixations which prevent this intuition from arising.

Are We A Lifestyle, Or Life Itself?

‘Lifestyle’ refers to the specific way an individual, group, or culture lives and behaves. Where we live, what we eat, our job, our values beliefs, and personal outlook … all shape our lifestyle. It depends on what we think life is for. Is a lifestyle something we’ve adopted to have interesting things to do? That’s the Samsaric trap.

We walk and talk a lifestyle, secure in the way we’ve learnt to perceive life. Trying to impress others within that lifestyle is the name of the game, and we avoid anyone not playing the same game.

We are born stupid, live stupid, die stupid, while thinking how clever we are. We gauge our stupidity against the stupidity of others. One reason for writing a blog is the realisation of how stupid I was all my life. 🙂

Adopting a lifestyle obscures life itself. Life is consciousness, as occurrences cut across our habitual ways and wake us up – and we evolve. For me, change occurred by acknowledging the Buddha’s advice, “Don’t take my words for the truth … test them!” rather than just becoming a ‘Buddhist’ and adopting the Buddha’s words. The truth is between the words; it’s not the words themselves.

Truth has nothing to do with form.
Truth is pure consciousness.

If we want a no-nonsense life, we need to radically prioritise what is important, stripping away the performative, the redundant, and the insincere to make room for realising reliable truth.

The result: we find we have significantly more time and less anxiety.

The Age Of Decline – The Age Of Nonsense

In this age of decline, we have to be very careful what choices we make and follow. Living by facts can turn out to be nonsense, as this means we live through ideas and beliefs.

Making informed choices is gathering knowledge, weighing options, and taking action. These have consequences – and of course, it’s all nonsense if we don’t have all the facts.

Making a definitive judgment when crucial information is missing often leads to flawed conclusions. Friedrich Nietzsche and Marcus Aurelius argued that what we often call facts are actually just interpretations or perspectives based on limited and incomplete data.

In Buddhism, we can take a cerebral approach, a ritualistic approach, or an experiential approach. All three are valid, but we have to choose which genuinely makes sense to us, rather than just following others.

It all comes down to the direct experience of realising pure consciousness. We are what we seek, which has no special name or characteristic. Those are merely the form; becoming an expert in names and rituals while having no practical experience, we are unable to be of benefit to others.

This could be wrong,
but how do you know?
🙂

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.