The surgical knife of wisdom.

 As we progress, the surgical knife of wisdom gets sharper: the world and the mind are brighter and more meaningful. We realise that the only person we should be critical of is ourselves. Great care is needed when the knife cuts through the web of ignorance, especially when it comes to others – that knife can be very sharp!

 All phenomena arise within absolute reality – Emptiness. Nothing lies beyond. The clearer we experience this inner pure sacred space, the more we notice intrusions.

 When we wake up, we have to wash and then dress.

The waking is recognising our basic ground.

Washing is clearing our defilements.

Dressing is equipping ourselves with knowledge in order to be of use to others.

Waking up to what is happening in our mind is the first step to realising why the outer world is so chaotic. This waking up is only the beginning. It gives us the ability to observe the defilements that have been (and still are) obscuring our Essence.

 It is easy to get carried away with excitement about waking up. If we are not careful, this excitement can put us back to sleep again! Any distraction has the same effect. Along the path of increasing perception, there is the path of deception…’here there be dragons’…

 “I” know “this” is not the same as “just knowing”.

 The basis of our ground is profound, peaceful, beyond conceptual limitations and lucid.

To gain conviction about the nature of our ground, we need to study, reflect and practise.

Then we start to wake up, realising that emptiness is lucid.

 At the moment, if we look into the mind, we see that there are still emotional defilements of ego, clinging to this and that. We need to be scrupulous in our purification process in order to be of benefit to others, so we have to be as honest as we can with ourselves.

 There are two types of ignorance: one is ignorance of our basic nature, and the other is the maintenance that ignorance. Practice is doing the Washing – cutting through our habitual fixated reactions.

 Dressing is equipping ourselves to maintain a pure view when addressing the outside world: this is called conduct. With knowledge comes clarity. This clarity sees the illusory nature of phenomena, and therefore we can then address the world with loving kindness, rather than separate ourselves from it.

 Maintaining the awakened state means being precise, and therefore not creating further karma. Being of positive use to others is part of washing away of karma – by not reacting. This produces merit, and good karma. However, this too has to be washed away, by simply letting go.

 As we progress, the surgical knife gets sharper…and we realise that the only person to be critical of is ourselves. The world will still be in chaos, but we will deal with it more kindly…and at the very least, hope to not add to the chaos!

 We are all courageous warriors who possessing great humility and love -”The meek shall inherit the Earth.”

Tony