Category Archives: Uncategorized

WE NEED CRITICAL THINKING

We Need Critical Thinking …so critical, in fact, that we eliminate everything in order to realise what’s left – – which is not the critic, but the observer before the criticism arose. Critical thinking is the teaching of Madyamika.

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YOU ARE THE REAL THING

You Are The Real Thing… …but you believe that you’re not! This is why we are not happy: because we believe we are not happy. There are moments where we experience glimpses of contentment that don’t rely on any thing. … Continue reading

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WHAT’S THE POINT OF SPIRITUAL PRACTICE?

What’s The Point Of Spiritual Practice? ‘Spiritual’ is our most profound level of being, beyond material pursuits. ‘Practice’ is the means to an end, which is the realisation of this profound level of being. The point is to discover what … Continue reading

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RESIDUAL OR PHANTOM THOUGHTS

Residual Or Phantom Thoughts In general, humans see something or someone, and react: this is so habitual that it seems unconscious. These seemingly unconscious habits create a personality layer or covering around our being – just like a onion! At … Continue reading

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KNOWING YOUR ONIONS!

Knowing Your Onions! ‘Knowing your onions’ is to be knowledgeable about a subject, being intelligent and well informed – knowing a subject inside out. A. Some Buddhist traditions talk about the need for building a firm foundation first, to support the golden … Continue reading

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LEVELS OF UNDERSTANDING AND REALISATION

Levels Of Understanding And Realisation All understanding may be refined, turning realisation into … pure experience. We find the view, to lose (cease to retain) the view. We meditate, to drop the meditation. Our conduct, although mindful, ceases in unconditional love. … Continue reading

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SHORT MOMENTS, MANY TIMES

Short Moments, Many Times Thanks to Marcel for reminding us yesterday of Tulku Urgyen’s words: “The training in recognising mind essence is this: short moments repeated many times. There is no other way. A short duration guarantees it is actually … Continue reading

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IT’S SIMPLE, BUT NOT EASY

It’s Simple, But Not Easy The natural essence of mind is uncreated and uncultivated, and therefore plain and simple. We don’t have to be scholars to realise this. On the other hand, the contents of mind are a created and … Continue reading

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SPIRITUALITY IS HARD-NOSED REALITY

Spirituality Is Hard-Nosed Reality which is the firm foundation for compassionate, hard-nosed reality. Hard-nosed: realistic, determined, tough-minded, unsentimental, down-to-earth, no-nonsense, pragmatic, clear-thinking, realistic, practical, rational, shrewd and astute. The opposite: sentimental, superstitious: believing in lucky charms, make-believe, fantasy: making exaggerated claims. To claim that we are ’empaths here to … Continue reading

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DZOGCHEN AND THE GREAT MUD

Dzogchen And The Great Mud The word ‘Dzogchen’ sounds pretty exotic, doesn’t it? I thought so when I first heard it … “Dzogchen!” If we look it up, we enter the world of the Tibetan Nyingma tradition. However, all words … Continue reading

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PERCEIVING THOUGHTS

Perceiving Thoughts As with perceiving phenomena, where neither thought nor judgement is necessary (unless there is a need), so the same with thoughts in meditation. If we do have to think or reason about something, we can do that later, … Continue reading

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WE DO NOT THINK AS MUCH AS WE THINK WE DO!

We Do Not Think As Much As We Think We Do! Perception isn’t thinking. The more one realises, the more one realises. One takes a step, and the next step presents itself. Most of the time, we humans are on … Continue reading

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HOW DOES THIS SOUND?

How Does This Sound? As ordinary human beings, we are governed and controlled by our thoughts and emotions. Maybe we start to ask the questions; “What am I doing? Why are we here?” Is it merely to entertain ourselves, or … Continue reading

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NATURAL MEANINGFUL MUDRAS

  Natural Meaningful Mudra “A mudra (Sanskrit मुद्रा, “seal”, “mark”, or “gesture”; Tibetan: ཕྱག་རྒྱ་)  is a symbolic or ritual gesture in Hinduism and Buddhism: it is a spiritual gesture and an energetic seal of authenticity employed in the iconography and spiritual practice of Indian religions. “One hundred and eight mudras are used in … Continue reading

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MEDITATION IS LIBERATION FROM OUR SELF

“Meditation Is Liberation From Our Self” – Choskyi Gyatso Zopa Q. Does it matter who the author is? Q. Is a name more important than the message? If the name is more important, then we misplace our powers of reasoning. … Continue reading

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THE ‘MANY-GO-ROUND’

The ‘Many-Go-Round’ Are there many teachings, or only one? There are many, many teachings, with long mystical names, but in essence it is all about one, and that is pure consciousness. It is pure consciousness that has many expressions. This … Continue reading

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BEGUILED BY STILLNESS AND BY OCCURRENCES

Beguiled* By Stillness And By Occurrences Meditators can be blinded by stillness. Ordinary people are blinded by occurrences. In both cases, we become stuck and fixated. When lost in stillness, we become meditation gods. When lost in occurrences, we become … Continue reading

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WHO PERSEVERES, ACCOMPLISHES

  Who Perseveres, Accomplishes in the face of adversity. As truth-seeker house-holders, we have to be skilful in our endeavour to understand our true reality. Friends and relatives who are not so inclined will find this difficult to deal with. … Continue reading

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THE POINTING OUT INSTRUCTION

The Pointing Out Instruction The pointing out of the essence of being. It’s obvious … when pointed out. It’s quite ordinary, having no special or distinctive features. It’s normal, and yet ignored at every moment, while ever-present. We all have perception, so we perceive. That … Continue reading

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INTELLECT, A GOOD HEART AND COURAGE

Intellect, A Good Heart and Courage We need these three qualities to face adversity. The clarity of intellect. The clarity of a good heart. The clarity of knowing what is right. The realisation of these results in the clarity of … Continue reading

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WHAT IS COMPASSION?

What Is Compassion? Compassion is having the ability to empathise, to understand how another is feeling – and why – because we have been there and done that. We have all made mistakes in the past because we are all … Continue reading

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ARE CHRISTIANITY AND BUDDHISM COMPATIBLE?

Are Christianity And Buddhism Compatible? Certainly, if one widens the circle of understanding. Compatible: Latin compatibilis, from compati – ‘suffer with’. Put it this way; we are all human. All humans have both awareness and beliefs, and they suffer. To have a belief, we … Continue reading

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“I DON’T LIKE MY TEACHER OR TEACHERS”

“I Don’t Like My Teacher or Teachers” It happens. Actually, this feeling has its positive side, if we look closely enough. The ‘teacher’ has created a reaction in us. This is not intentional: it’s part of a process of relating … Continue reading

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HOW MANY PEOPLE NEVER KNOW?

How Many People Never ‘Know’? How many people live their lives, die, and never know their true nature? 1 Billion? 2 Billion? 7 and a half billion? 7 and a half billion is the number of inhabitants on Earth to … Continue reading

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IGNORANCE IS INTENTIONAL

Ignorance Is Intentional It is interesting (and, in fact, obvious when one thinks about it), that ‘ignorance’ comes from the word ‘ignore’: to ignore, to refuse to take notice of or acknowledge. To disregard intentionally. This means that we have … Continue reading

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SATANIC EVIL KILLS THE INNOCENT

Satanic Evil Kills The Innocent Satanic evil kills millions of innocent people through wars. Satanic evil has the potential to kill billions of innocent people through nuclear war. It doesn’t matter what people say, it is the outcome that matters. … Continue reading

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WHY ARE ‘RELIGIOUS’ PEOPLE SO CRAP AT COMPASSION?

Why Are ‘Religious’ People So Crap At Compassion? Of course, we have compassion for poor, indigenous people in far away places, but we are ‘hell beings’ to one another. Is this because of an idea about karma’s will? Or God’s will? … Continue reading

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WE ARE NEVER SEPARATED

We Are Never Separated When the mind is calm, it is never separated from emptiness and the clarity of awareness. When the mind is moving, it is never separated from emptiness and the clarity of awareness. When the mind is … Continue reading

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WHAT’S SO IMPORTANT ABOUT EMPTINESS?

What’s So Important About Emptiness? It’s not the word ’emptiness’ that is important: it’s what it means in a spiritual context. The true nature of mind, our essential nature, our primordial nature, our first nature is pure and devoid of … Continue reading

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WANDERING PRACTITIONERS

Wandering Practitioners These are spiritual practitioners who give up everything and go out into the world to meditate, accepting whatever comes their way: heat/cold, food/no food, cave/doorway… they trust whatever arises, and rely on what people give them. It is … Continue reading

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SELF-EXISTING AWARENESS

Self-Existing Awareness It’s just there. ‘It’ is what we are. We don’t have to do anything. We meditate to arrive at the realisation of self-existing awareness, and rest there. When self-existing awareness is realised, stop ‘meditating’, as meditation then becomes … Continue reading

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LIVE AND LET LIVE

LIVE AND LET LIVE Live your life, and let others live theirs. It all depends on what we choose as the most important reason for our existence – our raison d’etre. That’s if we can reason … ! Theism: “Belief in the existence of … Continue reading

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LIGHT IN THE DARK AND DARK IN THE LIGHT

Light In The Dark and Dark In The Light What is light for some is dark for others. What is dark for some is light for others. This isn’t just playing with words; we’re talking about levels of understanding. In … Continue reading

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MENTAL OVER-STIMULATION

Mental Over-Stimulation We are over-stimulated by thoughts and emotions: we are overloaded digitally, spiritually and even Dharmically! Fat brains, thin on genuine compassion. Everything is super-sized. Wherever we go, there is exaggeration, and we lose the point of how and … Continue reading

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WE LIVE IN PARALLEL UNIVERSES

We Live In Parallel Universes … the physical and the ethereal which cannot be separated as, in essence, they are both empty.. Most of us see only one. “Two birds sat in the same tree; one ate the fruit and the … Continue reading

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SPIRITUAL SNOWFLAKES

Spiritual Snowflakes Says it all really. An inflated sense of self righteousness, with the hallmark of fear. Easily offended and unable to deal with raw emotions. It’s an easy trap to fall into … Were the ancient, realised masters snowflakes? … Continue reading

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THE TSUNAMI OF SUFFERING

The Tsunami Of Suffering created by the Tsumani of Ignorance. It’s quite simple: if we ignore whatever’s going on in our own minds and our own consciousness, then how are we ever to know what external influences are obscuring our … Continue reading

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SECRETS? WHAT SECRETS?

Secrets? What Secrets? Secret: separate, set apart, not meant to be known or seen by others. The question is, why? There is only one secret worth knowing and that is our true nature, which is pure conscious awareness. It is covered up by our … Continue reading

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HUMOUR IS SO IMPORTANT

Humour Is So Important We may find that those six perfections are not what we experience. We don’t have generosity, patience, perseverance, discipline, meditation or insight: in fact we are more expert in grumpiness. Just admitting that is seeing the … Continue reading

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THE ADVANCEMENT OF INEQUALITY

The Advancement Of Inequality Our view only has to change a little to see things differently. Are we here in a human body to realise that we are ‘precious ones’ … jewels in the mud … light in the dark … Continue reading

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STAYING HAPPY

Staying Happy Staying happy in whatever occurs takes discipline, generosity, patience, concentration, perseverance and, most important of all, insight into consciousness. These are called the six perfections (or paramitas, in Sanskrit). Personally, I see these as discipline or training or … Continue reading

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“IT TAKES ONE TO KNOW ONE”

“It Takes One To Know One” If there is a deity – or someone more profound than ourselves – how would we know? How would we recognise it? If a Buddha stood next to us, would we recognise them as … Continue reading

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SPIRITUAL AMNESIA

Spiritual Amnesia We forget. We forget what we are and what we are about. We need constant reminding. If we never think about something because we believe it will stay exactly the same, or will always be available, we may lose it. True knowledge may not always be … Continue reading

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THE BIG PICTURE

The Big Picture If we could scan the entire, infinite universe (which is impossible because it’s infinite 🙂 ), we would not find any more profound wisdom than our own awareness. We would also not find anything more frivolous and … Continue reading

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HOW AM I EMPTINESS?

How Am I Emptiness? How is everything emptiness? Emptiness doesn’t mean having no qualities, for the reason that awareness simply has to be present to acknowledge emptiness. It’s like this. Before a thing is identified as a thing, and we … Continue reading

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DON’T BELIEVE THE DHARMA

Don’t Believe The Dharma Don’t believe in emptiness Don’t believe in reincarnation And don’t be confused! 😀 If we merely hear teachings and accept them, then we are no better than anyone else at being persuaded to believe without evidence. … Continue reading

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THE RECIPE TO END KARMA

The Recipe To End Karma These are the ingredients to end suffering and reach enlightenment: generosity, patience, perseverance, discipline, meditation, and insight wisdom. These ‘perfections’ reduce and bring to an end the self-programming that inhibits our spiritual progress and holds … Continue reading

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WHEN THE LIGHT’S ON, WE CAN SEE

When The Light’s On, We Can See This sounds so stupidly obvious but here, the light means clarity – clear seeing. “The clear light of bliss.” When I first took to the spiritual path, a tutor just happened to mention … Continue reading

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WE ARE TIMELESS BEINGS

We Are Timeless Beings It just takes time to realise this! True consciousness doesn’t change, or do anything. It is timeless, ergo we are timeless. We mistakenly believe that what we do is important, witty, entertaining, superior… but in fact, … Continue reading

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ESSENCE CANNOT BE IMPROVED OR DESTROYED

  Essence Cannot Be Improved Or Destroyed Our primary nature is pure consciousness, pure love, that cannot be improved or destroyed. It is not a thing that is created from conditions. It just is. Sadly, this pure consciousness goes unnoticed … Continue reading

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