Consciousness Capturing
(being entertained to death)

Some things are so important to understand, and so easily missed. We are attracted to convoluted, mysterious and sentimental theories that keep us – or rather, consciousness – confused and entertained.

When our consciousness becomes caught and held by what’s ‘out there’, we have just stepped into a prison ‘in here’. This prison has become our entertainment. Unfortunately, people talk about vibrational holographic realities as if this is what is imprisoning us: it’s not. It’s our own consciousness – and it has always been so. There is nothing new about being distracted.

In Tibetan Buddhism, the word ‘consciousness’ is used to describe the three workings of the mind (perception, judgement and memory) together with the five senses, making eight in all. Firstly, it is important to recognise that the five senses are concept-free; they merely see, smell, taste, touch and hear. In the very first instant, there is no memory or judgement: that comes a moment later.

When information from the five senses comes into the mind, it enters the sixth consciousness of perception. The sixth consciousness merely perceives.

Now the confusion starts…
There are two further consciousnesses – judgement and memory. To function as a healthy human being we need judgement and memory in order to survive, otherwise we will keep walking into the door, instead of opening it first! Every creature in the universe has learned this trick of memory and judgement.

The problem.
We, as sleeping Buddhas having confused consciousness about our essential nature, became embodied. Being embodied in a human form is a perfect vehicle to realise our true nature…we must have done something right! So we are here to complete our mission – to wake up to Buddhahood.

Unfortunately, we have acquired a cluttered consciousness, especially in the seventh and eighth consciousnesses of judgement and memory. This cluttered programme creates impure perception, causing that which is seen through the senses to be regarded as having a solid reality. Perception is not pure: it is caught and held all the time. Consciousness seems married to distraction, and we need a divorce 😉

With pure perception, we can touch, taste, smell, hear, see and enjoy…but not cling.

The problem is that we cling, grasping on to entertainment until death. That clinging is what makes everything appear real – and we carry that clinging into our next incarnation, for better or for worse.

Seeing, tasting, touching, smelling, hearing
will tell us everything we need to know.
As long as we think, “I am winning”,
we are captured in a samsaric realm.

Two helpful tips:
Disengage from the physical world and become aware of the space between objects: it breaks up the one continuous dream.

Be aware of peripheral vision: allow the eyes to be still and everything is taken in at once but consciousness is not caught and held by any particular thing.

(this may even be a step into ‘the sixth sense’ of insight, free from clutter).