The choice of spiritual refinement.

 If there is such a thing a divine, holy, sacred…it’s us! These are pretty words, and it’s easy to mistakenly think that we therefore do not have to do anything. To recognise this purity is not as easy as you might think. So we have to become more accurate about what is going on within our minds. We are sleeping Buddhas in the mud: this is a very nice, and easy thing to say, but we still have to recognise the obstacles in our way – the mud.

This is a very difficult subject as we can be ‘near’, but not quite ‘there’. We all want to feel ‘good’, be ‘happy’ be ‘right’. In the pursuit ‘feeling good’ etc. we are subtly distracted from recognising our true nature, which is already present – and which is good, happy and right!

 It’s a choice of either wanting to ‘feel good’, or recognise and rest in our true nature.

 ‘Feeling good’ is temporary, and has to be maintained. This desire for ‘feeling good’ leads to frustration, and so we become addicted to ‘feeling good’: it is a self-perpetuating cycle, as, if we are not ‘feeling good’, we are ‘feeling bad’. We think there is something wrong with ourselves and our situation, when it’s merely karma, maybe having a good or bad day. Recognition is merely noting the awareness of one taste, in response to whatever happens. And, in that recognition, happiness, goodness and rightness are seen clearly. All temporary events and experiences come to pass.

Tibetan Buddhism describes our situation as Ground, Path and Fruition. The Ground is our real nature. The Path is our confusion about that real nature. The Fruition is realising that the confusion about our real nature never existed in the first place. An acquired “I” just got in the way!

It’s like having a white piece of paper = Ground. Covering the white paper with a coloured piece of paper = Path. Removing the coloured piece of paper = Fruition.

These are good words, but we really do have to be precise with ourselves, in order to be free from this dungeon of existence – this coloured paper!

Be intelligent

not intellectual.

Know rightness

instead of trying to be right.

The moment we want to be happy, or feel good, or be right, we distract ourselves from happiness, feeling good, rightness. The very wanting obscures our natural state.

 This is a deceptive world

and we are easily deceived.

As long as we cling to our personal ideas

we fall into self deception.

I’m not really sure how we progress: it may be sudden or it may be gradual, like cutting through a net of confusion. There may be a lot of stops and starts.  

Essence is not confused,

but the translating mind distorts.

We need to clarify, through repetition and recognition.

The only thing I can say is

repetition and recognition,

repetition and recognition,

repetition and recognition.

In that, we refine.

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