Misunderstanding Our Path
Our path isn’t a joint effort. Joining a ‘spiritual’ tradition doesn’t mean we are on our path. A path is about transforming and eliminating our personal fixations, obsessions and confusions – while others’ paths encourage fixations, obsessions, and confusions. 🙂
We have to have purpose,
otherwise we’re just being entertained in futile effort,
without making any real progress.
The purpose of the right path is to realise the cause of our dissatisfaction, which means we recognise that we’re suffering enough to want to change. We need a constant reminder of the essence of our path, rather than the form (the display), which becomes a distraction.
The right path isn’t the right words. The right path is the experience beyond words. We don’t react to what someone says – that is our right path as we have to train our mind to step back and listen more.
Others’ paths are like sitting at a dinner table when people are only talking about the menu … and nobody is eating. For many, the menu itself becomes the destination. People will talk for hours about the menu without the experience of eating and being satisfied. We need to practise patience, generosity, morality, discipline and concentration which lead to wisdom – knowingness through experience.
The right path is the transformation
from material understanding to ethereal clarity.
Then we have found our path.
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. 
Thank you for this insightful and deeply thought-provoking reflection. The reminder that the spiritual path is so often misunderstood—by others and even by ourselves—is both humbling and profoundly important.
I especially appreciate your emphasis that the path is not about adopting beliefs, collecting concepts, or constructing a spiritual identity. Rather, it is about direct understanding, inner transformation, and awakening to the nature of reality. This distinction is essential, as it helps prevent us from mistaking intellectual knowledge for genuine realization.
Your reflection also beautifully highlights how easily the mind can turn the path into another object of attachment, another set of ideas to defend, or another identity to maintain. Recognizing this tendency is itself an important step toward freedom. The true path is not about becoming something special, but about seeing clearly what has always been present.
Thank you for sharing such clear and meaningful guidance. Teachings like this help us return to the essence of practice—simplicity, awareness, and the ongoing willingness to look deeply into our own experience.
Regards,
Antique Buddhas
https://www.estatuasdebuda.com/
Hello statues2018,
Exactly, Insight is better than outsight. 🙂
Tony