Author Archives: tony

“I have no time for spirituality” “I have no time for spirituality;the inherent love present in all sentient beings”.How many people make this statement?You see, we are not all the same,at the same time. The world we create is self-serving:we … Continue reading →

Maha Ati Yesterday was an introduction to Maha Ati – Dzogchen – resultant Mahamudra*. It is the completion stage of all practices; the fruition. It is not a practice in itself; it just is. It is effortless recognition – non … Continue reading →

Are You Maturing Spiritually? We may hear teachings, but… We may pretend that “all is well”, but… We may give generously to people “over there”, but… We may be “filled” with compassion, but… How much do we care about those … Continue reading →

Release your Potential When we forget our true nature, we become lazy. Lazy, lazy, lazy 😉 When we become lazy, the emotions creep back in to our system. Devotion turns to pride, and compassion to jealousy. Devotion becomes mechanical and routine… … Continue reading →

Why doesn’t satisfaction last? It was a shock when I noticed that I was never satisfied. I should have felt satisfied, but didn’t. What is it that needs to feel satisfied? The feeling of satisfaction comes from fulfilment of a … Continue reading →

Karma is Jamming our Perception Karma is the result of our previous reactions,which create our present reactions.If we do not stop reacting,the same reactions will reoccur in the future.It is this that is jamming our perception. Our reactions are stored … Continue reading →

Obstruction to Understanding Reality is Mara Mara (demon activity) is anything that obstructs our understanding of reality.Understanding this will depend on how much we value reality 🙂 There are two aspects to mara activity – outer and inner. The outer … Continue reading →

Dzogchen Practice in Everyday Life 
by HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche The everyday practice of dzogchen is simply to develop a complete carefree acceptance, an openness to all situations without limit. We should realise openness as the playground of our emotions … Continue reading →

We either get it or we don’t Looking for our self, and not finding anythingThe recognition is in the recognition When we’re looking, we are doing something.When we recognise, there is nothing doing.The recognition is in the recognition Doing nothing … Continue reading →

Dharma = Relaxation It is difficult to find words to convey a certain meaning: “Relaxation” here means at rest, not busy, dignity of inner peace, wisdom, not hurrying, effortless, barely aware. In the modern world, we are very alert – … Continue reading →

We can still enjoy the illusion If we do not notice that everything is impermanent, we will become caught up in a seeming reality. If our observational skills become sloppy, and we are taken in by the claims of others, … Continue reading →

How are you? This is not as easy to answer as it might sound. We normally give an expedient response: “Alright” or “Fine”. This is because most people do not actually want to know how we are because they are often too … Continue reading →

Know Hell, Know Heaven* When we recognise hell,we recognise heaven. Part four Since beginningless time, sentient beings have wandered in samsara, experiencing unbearable suffering. Samsara is the vicious cycle of existence, in which we are constantly going up and down, … Continue reading →

Not Going to Heaven or Hell Why the human realm is important. Part three Here we are looking at the human realm, which is very significant as it is the key realm to unlocking the door to our prison. The … Continue reading →

How Heaven Becomes Hell The Six RealmsPart two Even though we reject everything,there is still a rejector.As long as there is a rejector,there is a path. As long as we keep rejecting,we are collecting something. We have to acceptnot to … Continue reading →

How Heaven Becomes Hell a description of how easily we slip from one state to another without noticing The Six Realms Part one We are sacred space: pure intelligence, pure awareness, crystal clear. Emptiness. Shunyata. However, it’s recognising what we … Continue reading →

The Magic of CompassionThere is nothing wiser than love There is relative, conventional compassion, and ultimate compassion – conditional and unconditional. In Sanskrit they are called relative bodhichitta and ultimate bodhichitta. It may sound surprising, but we first have to … Continue reading →

Blaming the Devil In a world of increasing violence, it’s easy to get caught up in blaming. There are two points of view which need to be seen simultaneously – conventional reality and ultimate reality. Conventional reality is what we … Continue reading →

Flawed but Beautiful…that’s us!😉 The body is a camera.The mind is the film.We need to synchronise body and mind.Clear film and clear lens = clear perception. The dust on the film and lens is doubt; the flaw.This flaw clouds our … Continue reading →

The Paradox ofBeing in Loveand‘Being’ in Love   Being in loveBeing in love is exciting.We love being in love!It’s nice…but one sided. It is essence being in lovewith ideas about itself – or something else.Feeling this has to protected,we love … Continue reading →

The Buddha spoke in Pali The Buddha spoke in Pali: We don’t, and essence certainly doesn’t. The Buddha spoke in Pali: This was translated into Sanskrit, and then into Tibetan and many other languages. We may see certain languages as … Continue reading →

The Spontaneous Moment: The beer is optional Finding contentment in satisfaction Satisfaction has two aspects: contentment and mechanical, obsessive addiction. We all think we know the effects of addiction: those little rules we make up or conform to, in order … Continue reading →

Finding Inner Peace and Staying There …in a busy world Inner peace is clarity. Clarity is clear space. Clear space is emptiness. Emptiness is purity. Purity is wisdom. Wisdom is recognition. Recognition is understanding. Understanding is inner peace. Inner peace … Continue reading →

Are you looking for the absolute truth? Well, there’s only one thing that is stopping you….you! That which is looking is absolute truth. It is really that simple. However we just don’t see it. Why not? Because we expect to … Continue reading →

The Illusion of Reality The Illusion of Confidence The Illusion of Capacity The Illusion of Knowledge all create The Illusion of Reality We, as humans, are either over-confident, or lacking in confidence. It’s all the same thing: the expression of … Continue reading →

The Value of Ritual (of course rituals can become mechanical and only feel nice when they stop! Meditation can get like that.) This is connected to the illusion of knowledge – merely repeating and not understanding. We can easily fool … Continue reading →

Should we be confident? What is confidence? What does ‘should’ mean? And then there is the illusion of confidence, living in a world of ‘shoulds’… Confidence: something we feel certain about. Should: correct, an expected state, suggestion, probability, acceptance, hope. … Continue reading →

Alien Contacts Are there aliens? Well, yes and no. We must use logic to dispel fantasy, and see what remains. We then dispel that which remains with wisdom, and arrive at the truth – our essential nature. That’s what it’s … Continue reading →

Healing without Healing If you were a doctor who’d studied medicine but never saw or interacted with patients, your studies would be pointless, as they would not be being put into practice. The same goes for the Dharma, which is … Continue reading →

Abiding in Space This is the problem inherent in looking for yourself. Is this self abiding in space, or self-abiding space? We have to be very careful with what we are told. ‘Abiding in space’ suggests something abiding in space … Continue reading →

Not so much idiot meditation, as stupidity meditation This has to be looked at very carefully: different traditions approach the Dharma in different ways. The approach in the Kagyu tradition is to ask nicely for the mind to retire, whereas … Continue reading →

Idiot Meditation – The Banal Self To become enlightened, we must first identify the obstacle to enlightenment. This obstacle is the created image of ourself. Clever me 😉 This image can be very subtle, so subtle that we can achieve … Continue reading →

The Danger of Conformity This is a delicate subject, as we all think that we’re on the side of good…think again! We merely have both potentials of good or evil. This video, by Professor Philip Zimbardo, explains what can happen … Continue reading →

I know, and I don’t know These are two mental prisons. How our conventional reality imposes on to absolute reality. On a conventional level, it’s beneficial to know how to do something, and to admit when we don’t know how … Continue reading →

Is your spiritual welfare being looked after? Neither time nor space exist – but they are the two most precious things we have! In our relative existence, we need time and space in order to practise. Time to just be, … Continue reading →

Softness and Sentimentality in Spirituality Softness is melting our frozen fixations. Sentimentality is brittle, imposing hopes and fears and fabricating emotional pressure. One is absolute reality. The other is a conventional projection. In the heat of sentimentality there is the … Continue reading →