Who, Or What Can We Trust?
Trust: reliable, consistently good in quality
The only quality we can trust is spontaneous presence…now! Spontaneous presence is the quality of consistently pure awareness, free from any contaminations. It is just being awake, although our present capacity will dictate the level of purity present. Much depends on what and how much we have practised, but in spontaneous presence we are open to clarity, and that in itself “is” the practice!
Anyone or anything that reminds us of now (spontaneous presence) is beneficial – but it is not…now.
We have to trust in the synchronicity of now to tell us something. When we recognise the spontaneous presence of now, everything becomes the symbolic teacher. We then can trust in everything.
In tasting something, we know whether it is good to eat or not, and then we can decide if it is to ‘our’ taste. And we definitely know if something is “off”!
It’s the same when meeting people. We trust our ability to acknowledge our habitual reactions and step back to allow spontaneous presence to just be: there is no condemnation of the person but only an acknowledgement that they are caught up in habitual tendencies (remember that this is from an absolute point of view). Likewise, we don’t condemn ourselves for having these same reactions as they are merely products from the past.
We are learning by unlearning.
This is clarity acknowledging habitual reaction.
Clarity is pure awareness,
and therefore, trustworthy.
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. 
“Touchy-feely-true-grit people” 🙂
Hello Tony, a couple of ramblings based on your recent posting and some following meditation. You said a couple of times that confusion is our path. When confusion dissipates, gets less and less, it seems that there is no path anymore. We are simple there, knowing. Now in this welcoming space of emptiness, raw emotions are felt and lived with much more clarity, and precision. As you said: “Clarity is pure awareness,and therefore, trustworthy”. Off course, we can control our emotions by not reacting, and that’s something. We can also play with it (maybe play with it, is not the right expression) by expressing heartfelt emotions, there, right on the spot. Recentlyn I’m noticing that this reacting can be very to the point, alive and powerfull. It indeed feels like cutting trough (Trungpa). Is this what you call emotions dawn as wisdom? In any case, it’s very powerfull, and should be handled with care. I must say that I’m still quite confused about discovering these kind of things.
Hello Marcel,
These teachings from the ancients take time to assimilate, because of our habitual patterning we have acquired over a great period of time.
Some say, “Never awaken a sleeping man.” Waking up from a nice dream, can be very disturbing.
“Emotions dawning as wisdom”, is seen at the very first instant of the emotion or through analysis.
This is seen only when one has identified the original state of pure awareness. The emotion is glaringly loud in emptiness.
If you are aware of the confusion…then you are not confused! 😀 😀 😀 Seeing the illusion is the solution.
Our problem is doubt. Through meditation practice we become more and more familiar with the stillness of pure awareness. It’s what we are after all.
Due to past karma we still experience the roller coaster of ups and downs, but everything comes to pass. And, they no longer seem a big deal.
Saying that, some whoppers do turn up!
Tony