Aliens from another dimension.
It’s us!
We are not what we seem to be.
We are not of this physical dimension.
Awareness is the bridge
between this limited dimension
and beyond.
This awareness travels
the universe
looking for its home.
Finally, awareness looks in on itself,
recognises emptiness,
and finds home.
Emptiness is essence,
beyond any dimension.
That’s absolute reality.
The Buddha was wrong.
The Buddha was wrong. Laugh…….!
The Buddha only teaches about suffering. Laugh…….!
I know more than the Buddha. Laugh…….!
Is the Buddha wrong? Or is it our misunderstanding?
The Buddha only taught the cessation of suffering.
If you know more than the Buddha’s forty years of teachings, where millions of people have followed his path of compassion for 2,500 years – please explain.
Apart from his profundity, the Buddha tells the best jokes… …at least they’ll make you smile!
“You only lose what you cling to.”
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Expecting meditation to get better.
We expect meditation to get better,
but find nothing happening
and get disheartened.
We hear all sort of stories about meditation
but nothing happens to us.
We just sit.
And nothing happens.
We see all the thoughts and emotions:
in fact, we see very clearly.
But nothing happens to us.
Realisation is seeing clearly.
Do you see it?
It’s clarity!
Nothing happens but clarity.
It’s simplicity itself.
To understand the western world, and the psychology behind it, there are two books to read: George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldus Huxley’s Brave New World.
These two men were members of the Fabian society, so these are not just stories. Orwell’s is a violent approach, while Huxley’s is a drugs-media approach. They are either warnings or blueprints!
These are two old films of poor quality, but one can down load the books quite easily.
The importance of this is because we see more surveillance, control, wars, and corporation influence than ever, in the world. And, a definite dumbing down of the population.
Though we appear to have more freedom and choice, it is still an illusion. It’s all about conformity, and limiting expression.
This is part 1 of an audio book from youtube.
NOTE:
The British Security Industry Authority (BSIA) estimated there are up to 5.9 million closed-circuit television cameras in the country, including 750,000 in “sensitive locations” such as schools, hospitals and care homes.
The survey’s maximum estimate works out at one for every 11 people in the UK, although the BSIA said the most likely figure was 4.9 million cameras in total, or one for every 14 people.
Both projections were higher than previous estimates which ranged between 1.5 million and four million.
Don’t be so Buddhist.
Don’t be so Buddhist.
Be yourself.
Be relaxed.
You don’t have to be like anyone else.
It’s not about acting a certain way.
It’s about deepening our understanding.
Being relaxed about being ourselves and expressing love.
OM MANI PEME HUG!
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There is no bad meditation.
When cognisant emptiness is recognised, there is no bad meditation: everything that arises is within emptiness.
“I can’t meditate!”
“Why is that?”
“Too many thoughts.”
“But you are aware of the thoughts, right?”
“Of course!”
“So there is awareness.”
“Yes.”
“Are you aware of awareness now?”
“Er…yes, but so what?”
“In that very moment of being aware of awareness, there is a knowing quality. Not that anything is known. Just a recognition of knowing. It is the opposite of not knowing – being vacant.”
“I can see that, but what about all those thoughts?”
“In that very moment of being aware of awareness, there is nothing happening. It is un-fabricated awareness. It is empty of any elaborations or contrivances. That pure awareness is essence.”
“Hmm..I’ll have to think about that.”
“That is precisely what not to do! Leave it be.”
“Hmm…?…!”
“In that empty essence, everything is allowed to arise, and if we do not hold on to whatever arises…it comes to pass.”
“I just watch it?”
“The watching is still doing something. It is still creating a duality – me and the thought. Merely recognise, and let go.”
“So I don’t stop the thoughts?”
“They go by themselves. They also arise by themselves, as products from the past. I get snippets of tunes in my head, but merely recognise awareness, and let be. Thoughts return. Re-recognise. Let be. Gradually, empty space expands, allowing anything to arise. To come and go, without interference.”
“Sounds simple enough. So why am I having so much trouble?”
“We get into a habit of believing that the thoughts are us.”
“But I’ve worked hard at acquiring all my knowledge. It makes me what I am.”
“Knowledge is okay! It’s the clinging to them that cause the problem as it creates a mistaken self-identity.”
“Can I trust what you are saying?”
“You are trusting your own awareness. That is your teacher.”
“Is that all?”
“There are refinements, but that will do for now.”
“So meditation is just becoming familiar with awareness. Whatever happens, happens and goes. It’s sounds like meditation for a lazy person, who doesn’t want to do anything!”
“Absolutely!”
The joy of discovering an untruth.
The only thing better than discovering truth,
is discovering an untruth.
Personal opinions are accompanied by self interest.
Truth is accompanied by compassion.
As scientists we are happy to eliminate
what is untrue,
to find the truth.
As spiritual seekers we are happy to eliminate
our pretence of compassion
to find compassion.
In meditation we gain nothing,
but lose
confusion, aggression and clinging.
Above self interest.
The Alien Question.
We experience what we believe.
We believe what we experience.
We believe what we believe.
What we believe, we become…
…and the mind can be Photoshopped!
We are all aliens: embodied sentient beings. If we recognise that we are not this body or mind, then it’s possible to understand re-incarnation (I recognise that many do not believe this, but that discussion is for another day). We re-incarnate because our misguided mind identifies with a self concept, which we maintain moment to moment. This habitual self-programming drives us to choose an incarnation that ornaments our beliefs. Until we do realise our true nature, we are all aliens wandering the universe, looking for the truth. That, in itself, is a foolish thing we do!
We hear many accounts of meetings with aliens: whether you believe them or not is up to you.
What we are talking about here is ‘beings’ arriving in space ships, or living underground in tunnels, who are said to contact humans. Merely saying, “I have met aliens,” does not make it true. I may meet you in the street, but that is an illusion of me meeting an illusion of you…it is an experience taking place in the mind. All experiences take place in the mind: that is where everything is perceived – and that perception can be altered…Photoshopped…by beliefs.
If you believe you see aliens – you will see aliens.
If you believe you see ordinary people – you will see ordinary people.
If you believe you see Buddhas – you will see Buddhas.
Remember: it all depends on what we call ‘true’ or ‘real’!
The descriptions of these meetings with aliens are somewhat strange in that…they are not strange! They are mundane, and totally irrelevant to higher understanding. Again, remember that all experiences take place in the mind – that is so important here.
Yes, it possible that ‘aliens’ are here, but until it happens to us, we will never know. The claims that these beings have a higher intelligence begs a question about the type of person contacted. As we have been mistaken sentient beings wandering the universe for eons, it is said that every sentient being has been our mother. So we too have been these aliens at some time.
When people talk about aliens with higher intelligence, are they offering wisdom or something else?
Even if there are aliens, they are sentient like us. That’s all. Even if they come from ‘another’ dimension, it is still a dimension. That’s all. Essence is beyond any dimension or place.
Humans have been touched by enlightened masters for thousands of years: enlightenment is our potential. When “contactees” tell of their experiences, the aliens seem to be only interested in “toys”. It does bring into question their so-called higher intelligence!
Getting caught up in alien fantasies is only another projection in our minds, as are all ideas. It’s a sort of mind control, and it’s a bit fishy! All appearances are expressions of emptiness. Don’t aliens know this?!
If believing in aliens benefits your life, all well and good. If it distracts and causes stress in the mind, drop it, and get on with recognising what reality is.
Life is short.
At death it is said we have an awareness
nines time that of being in a body.
In an instant
our mind can take us anywhere.
And there’s the problem.
No stability.
Off with the fairies,
or something worse.
Know that all appearances
are but projections of the mind
…phantoms…!
If aliens excite
you will merely join
the other wandering aliens
…or demons…!
What we believe, we become.
(We hear about secret ‘Black Operations’ where aliens work with humans using alien technology: this may or may not be true. However, the idea of this does have an effect on people’s minds. Remember – the mind can be controlled…Essence cannot. This is why spiritual practice is so important.
If there are indeed aliens working in ‘Black Ops,’ then this is only concerned with controlling matter and minds – and not wisdom. From a spiritual perspective these are just toys! And again, if we are talking about controlling minds, there are those believers in the Occult to add to the mixture…even more toys!
Either way none of this is reality. Believers are only playing with a seeming reality – relative truth. It’s like Photoshopping the mind: anything on a computer comprises of pixels…and pixels can be mucked around with – as can our perceptions in the mind!
Absolute truth cannot be mucked around with. It can only be distracted. This is exactly what is going on. Know the difference between the real and the seemingly real. Be careful of becoming a toy!)
In meditation we gain nothing.
We merely lose
our fear, confusion, self
and beliefs.
.
Still putting ‘things’ off?
A man called Longchen Rabjam meditated for many years, under an overhang in a cliff in the mountains. He only had a hemp-cloth sack as clothing and bedding. Every day, when he went to urinate, he’d have to pass a thorn bush, which over the years grew larger and larger, making it uncomfortable to pass…the bush, not the urine!
Every day he’d think, “I should cut that down.” Then he’d think, “This could be my last day. Why waste time pruning a bush? I’d rather do something of real significance.” So he’d go back to his practice sessions. And of course, he became the great realised master Longchenpa.
Nowadays, we have preliminary practices to purify our negative karma and remove obstacles (thorny bushes) that we have created. It all depends on how much we want to realise ourselves! The preliminary practices help keep us focused, as they have to be completed. They are the real foundation for cutting through our conceptual lazy monkey mind. If you have to do 4 x 111,111,111 practices, you really do have to keep going! They are known as the ‘Ngondro’. We all need a bit of a bootcamp – of some sort – to become spiritual warriors.
One could say that our bad karma is our bootcamp, with all the situations it throws up, and our reactions to these. However, that is exactly what we have been dealing with for eons, and so a positive approach is beneficial.
And a little panic is not a bad thing…
Some days, we just don’t feel like practising. Too sick, too sleepy, too fed up, too busy, too anything… We have to realise that whatever occurs, awareness is still present. That is how we mingle daily activity and practice. If we are aware of awareness, we can be aware of essence!
The important thing is not to give up…that’s a bad habit. Yes, let go. But don’t give up! If we feel like giving up because we can’t be bothered, or because our practice place is not quite perfect, then just think what it will be like at the time of death!
Be a tenacious as a dog trying to find where its favourite bone is buried! Tenacity cuts through concepts and energises.
Of course there are bad things going on in the world.
Remember.
Life is short.
There will always be bad things going on.
We can run around
finding more and more distractions
– our thorn bushes –
or we can concentrate and recognise our next step.
An added consideration: many people don’t wish to do the Ngondro, but also don’t wish to continue their suffering. So what to do? There may be one thing that is predominant in one’s life that seems to be an obstacle. It could be dealing with other people, a feeling of grumpiness about life, a sense of pointlessness…in fact, any of the emotions.
Merely bring that feeling to the fore.
Be aware of it.
Admit it to yourself.
And in any situation, recognise the effect it’s having on you.
Don’t feel guilty.
Allow it to be.
Give it space.
In doing so, its grip over your mind will slacken because of awareness.
All you have to do is recognise.
It will be uncomfortable:
just re-recognise and let be.
Know the thorn bush to be impermanent.
This shocked me.
There are two types of people is this world – those who know and those who do not. Of course it all depends on what they think they know…!
This video is about the death of Michael Hastings. Whether his death was an accident or not I do not know, but this video reveals some strange technologies which are used to ‘control’ situations from afar.
If you still think that conspiracies are just theories, listen to this video at 31.00 to 33.00 minutes, by Dr Kathleen Fisher, Darpa project manager.
Why would anyone want to use invent and use such technology? And, how often is it used…?
(DARPA) The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is an agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of new technologies for use by the military. DARPA has been responsible for funding the development of many technologies which have had a major effect on the world, including computer networking, as well as NLS, which was both the first hypertext system, and an important precursor to the contemporary ubiquitous graphical user interface.
This an update on this “accident’!
What created delusion?
Our present moment of delusion
is created by the previous moment of delusion.
That how it works.
It becomes a pattern of behaviour – a personality
We are deluded about our true nature.
Once we recognise our delusion, the delusion stops.
This delusion is maintained
by constantly being distracted by our self-delusion.
Can we stop this?
Yes, by recognising.
When knowing is present,
not knowing instantly disappears!
Are we are all hypnotised?
Perhaps we are all hypnotised? Self hypnotised? And, perhaps meditation is the way out of this trance, if viewed properly with true compassion. Taking anything seriously only deepens the trance.
Ignorance of the true qualities of our being created the karma that drove us into human bodies. Actually, that was good karma: other beings are self-hypnotised into being animals – we’ve all been there, done that, forgotten! Actually, thinking about it and looking at the state of the world, animals treat each other better than some humans!
Hypnosis* is believing something to be other than what it actually is. It is said that we live in an illusory dream, so what’s the difference? The difference is that in the maintenance of this hypnotic state, we can see what is going on: it is not like a vague dream at all.
Our whole lifestyle – everything in which we engage – enhances the hypnotic effect, and spiritual practices are no different. We must always be aware, and not locked in.
I’m reminded of a story about a large group of people travelling for generations in a space ship, to a distant galaxy they had been told about. They ritually maintained the ship, but gradually forgot where they were going. In fact, the ship became their entire world, and nothing else existed. Every day, they’d religiously oil the parts, and worship a picture of a tree. They had totally forgotten that they were going anywhere, and found themselves creating fears and making up new rules.
This brings us to understanding the mechanical mind and spontaneous mind. In the mechanical mind, we do this and this, because we have been told to do this and this. We have been programmed. To understand this, read Aldus Huxley’s “Brave New World”. It’s about a society that, from cradle to grave, is indoctrinated through the media and drugs to love its servitude – programming.
In spontaneous mind there are no boundaries. It’s a sort of joyous, sad place, full of loving compassion…and a little challenging! We liberate ourselves by being aware, looking into that awareness and finding pure knowing. Once that is known, the nature of everything is known, and we are no long in the trance of not-knowing. This doesn’t mean we are enlightened yet: there is still the laundry to clean!
Be aware of ‘being’ caught up in dogma and losing compassion.
On Dharma forums, you’ll see them arguing,
losing sight of warmth and compassion
for the desire to be right.
Just like the space travellers,
worshipping the tree
and not knowing what a tree is.
Liberating enlightenment is the most natural state of all.
The natural outcome of this liberation is compassion.
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* Encyclopedia Britannica is “a special psychological state with certain physiological attributes, resembling sleep only superficially and marked by a functioning of the individual at a level of awareness other than the ordinary conscious state.” One theory suggests that hypnosis is a mental state, while another theory links hypnosis to imaginative role-enactment.
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What the Buddha meant to say.
You are fake.
Your reaction is fake.
Your pure awareness of that fake reaction
is real.
🙂
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Buddha Essence in a Nutshell
and we’re the nuts…
Our true nature is awareness, pure awareness. That’s what we are! However, most of the time, we are something else: occupied, vacant or asleep. And so we are not aware of awareness. We are only aware of something outside ourselves. We are mainly distracted by clinging to images in the mind, and thereby clinging to an image of ourself which we have acquired: a generated “I”.
The recognition of pure awareness is called Rigpa: it is the Dzogchen practice of the Tibetan Nyingma tradition. It is not really something that one practises: it is merely recognition of awareness, and in looking at that awareness ‘no thing’ is found. That non-finding is emptiness – your essence – pure awareness.
It’s that simple.
So what’s the problem? Well, we have spent eons either occupied, vacant or asleep, and it has become bit of a habit. So we need methods to cut through these evil habits 😉 That’s all! Evil is only our consciousness (that’s mind activity) clinging to likes and dislikes, because it is ignorant of its true nature. That’s all!
We start by being relaxed about……..everything…….as every thing has no permanent, true existence of its own. Things are created by causes and conditions. They dwell for a while, and then dissolve. Every thing only seems to be real.
The first step is recognising awareness: then we start to wake up. This happens when we recognise that we are suffering, dissatisfied with the illusory dream of being either occupied, vacant or asleep.
The only reality is our pure awareness, which is never born and never dies.
Dharma is cutting through the illusion we currently live in. Whether this illusion is nice or horrid, it is still an impermanent state. If a thing is real, it can never not be real. The only reality is that which is constant – our pure awareness.
Oh, and there is a bonus! When pure awareness is recognised…you can’t help loving. Compassion naturally arises.
This is so simple. In fact, it is our origin. It is being ordinary. So if this is ordinary, what on earth are we doing all the time?! Playing with whistles and bells and buttons and bows… 😉
Never, ever get angry.
Feel it, but don’t become it.
Know there are those who feed off it.
War is profitable.
Because of events happening in the world, it is important to understand the connection between these happenings and our true nature. That bit in between is consciousness – what is going on in the mind.
Anger is caused by reacting to external events. How we respond will either liberate our karma or create more.
Although, in absolute terms, anger is mirror-like wisdom – the first instance of clarity reflecting everything as it is – in relative terms, if anger is held onto, it clouds clarity and we re-act according to our karma.
In the ‘normal’ run of things, if we dislike something we get angry (even subtle dislike is anger, which can turn to hatred), and so we react creating stress in ourselves and those around us. This is the present state of the world: in the Kali Yuga, we over-react.
If there is dislike, there is also like. So if we don’t get what we like, we dislike…therefore we get angry. Consciousness becomes subtly confused. Everything in this universe is based on attraction, repulsion or inertia (ignorance).
We think that we are free-willed people, but practically everything in our home is connected to a corporation. We liked it, so we bought it. This is how the corporations work, getting you to want or need something. In a fair world this is acceptable, however…!?
Corporations are so global that they have a tremendous amount of power and have to keep us buying – spending our wealth. Corporations are powerful entities: they keep the world going round…that’s busy-ness for them and us! We are all involved somehow, playing our part. Just look at the amount of surveillance going on in our personal lives.
So, if this world is run by huge corporations, they will never want the public to think clearly about what is being done to them… “Buy more! Want more! Expect more! Live the dream!”
We know that corporations can influence political parties, and finance them, therefore having control over governments.
All this is easy to see, and we have got used to this way of life…haven’t we? When we consider the power and size of corporations, we start to see how this power is used politically. Although this is all in the name of profit, obsession now takes a hand, and the phrase “NewWorld Order” comes to mind…
We now find the world pushed into austerity. The cycle of boom and bust is at work, and we can no longer afford to “Buy more! Want more! Expect more! Live the Dream!” And so, people become stressed and angry.
What if this was done on purpose?
What if consciousness was being toyed with?
Is the world being run by social engineering?
We see things swinging to the left and then to the right.
Are political parties actually working together in a charade?
Is it possible that this world is run for profit on a huge scale?
Are people being used as ‘cash cows,’ ‘cash slaves’ and ‘debt slaves’?
This alone could make us angry, but what if there is another ingredient added to the mix?
What if the emotions were being enhanced? The most powerful of these is anger, and this takes us back to …“never want the public to think clearly about what is being done to them.” Distraction is needed.
The media, in all its forms, is hellbent in getting us to react. Incidences portrayed on the news and videos, triggering a response. All over the world, we see protests by angry people, treated heavy handedly by authorities, making people even more angry! Engineered austerity is squeezing poor people even further. They want us to get angry!
Anger is the outcome of fear/aversion. Its opposite is desire/attraction. When we don’t get what we desire…we get angry. See how it works? No, we don’t!
The third aspect to this equation is ignorance – not knowing.
We can get angry, without knowing what the real cause is. In spiritual terms, this anger relates to an “I”. In worldly terms, this “I” is being enhanced by marketeers to make you a better you! What you are now is unworthy! You must better yourself and show it off to the world! That is the vicious cycle of existence: samsara.
The hidden agenda is subtle childhood trauma. Putting pressure on children puts pressure on parents, which develops throughout the next generation or two. See how it works now?
Being caught in anger,
we lose our sanity.
Being caught in anger,
we lose natural our intelligence, empathy and compassion.
This Moe Norman, the world’s little known greatest golfer. He is a little difficult to hear as he talks fast, but wow… listen very closely…what wisdom!
Some teachers have a gentle style, Moe is kind of wrathful.
Forget golf, “To thine own self be true.”
(This ‘magic’ is within all of us!)
Know the nature of your mind.
Resolve the nature of your mind.
Don’t resolve the characteristics of all the teachings…
…life is too short!
The path we follow will dictate the time taken
to reach complete enlightenment…
…we can actually choose to waste time!
Samsaric existence is an ocean of suffering,
never an ocean of bliss.
If someone says that life is not suffering,
they are truly deluded and blind…
…bliss is this realisation!
Know your spiritual inclination:
a teaching can inspire or hinder.
Don’t dwell in other’s limitations.
Keep company with pure perception…
…it is your teacher!
You don’t have to be ‘spiritual’ to be spiritual.
Buddhas are empty cognisance suffused with awareness (the knowing quality).
Ordinary beings are empty cognisance suffused with ignorance (not knowing).
Being spiritually aware is recognising that which is beyond thought. It has nothing to do with wearing ‘spirituality’ as an adornment. At retreats I don’t feel ‘spiritual’ at all, but remember mirror-like awareness and just let things be.
The actual experience of empty cognisance suffused with awareness (the knowing quality) is beyond words and description, words are unnecessary. (For us, this is a “baby” empty cognisance suffused with awareness)
We can share this experience while remaining silent and compassionate, or we can use language. Spiritual paths, traditions or vehicles use language slightly differently, and so here we have to be very careful.
In the ordinary run of life, there is no spiritual discussion: there are beliefs, philosophies and theories – that’s all – and so spiritual terminology can get mixed up. Left to ourselves, we will wander all over the place…many times…guessing!
A tradition has steps and subtleties of language through which we build confidence and refine understanding. A tradition will accelerate the process of uncovering and realising liberation. However, this is done by taking the teaching to heart.
As Garab Dorje’s ‘Three Words That Strike The Vital Point” says, “Recognise your own nature, decide on one point and gain confidence in liberation.”
A firm foundation is the recognition of awareness – knowing awareness – the awareness of awareness.
The very subtle refinement of that awareness, is the resting in that awareness of awareness, discovering ‘nothing doing’ – an uncontaminated realm. That is “baby” empty cognisance suffused with awareness, the knowing quality. From that we build a continuity of conduct, with compassion for others naturally occurring.
If we think of ourselves as “spiritual” people,
we are cheating.
Be the compassionate spirit
we naturally are.
In that, we are “ordinary”.
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What Evil Fears
The key to this prison is the emotions.
Their flare-up can either lock the door or open it.
Emotions can either ignite our suffering, or vividly enlighten our perception.
Light can work two ways:
to blind or illuminate.
Evil is attracted to an I: Essence blindness.
Evil’s weakness: Essence illuminated.
Thoughts and emotions are Essence’s expression.
If we claim them, they lock us in.
If we recognise them, they are
Self liberating.
Lock your self in, or let your self go!
.
Recognise the thought as it occurs so that it is liberated simultaneously with its arising.
This is very unlike the stream of thoughts that surges through the mind of an ordinary person. Often called ‘black diffusion,’this state is an unwholesome pattern of dissipation in which there is no knowledge whatsoever about who is thinking, where the thought comes from, and where the thought disappears.
One has not even caught the ‘scent’ of awareness; there are only unwholesome thought patterns operating, so that one is totally and mindlessly carried away by one thought after another. That is definitely not the path of liberation!
In the beginning, if we have already recognised out nature even once, we have caught the scent of it. Once you get a ‘whiff’ of your nature, it becomes familiar, like someone you already know: you do not need to doubt who your friend is when you meet him. At this point, thoughts are liberated upon recognition, like the vanishing of a drawing on water.
We can grow more and more accustomed to this fact through practice. Once the practitioner gains immediate recognition of the Buddha nature, there is no need to apply any additional techniques at all. This same moment a thought starts to move; the thought is liberated by itself. It is like a knot tied in a snake that does not have to be untied by anyone, because it unravels itself. This exemplifies becoming more stable in the training.
Finally, the third analogy of liberating of thought is described as being like a thief entering an empty house. This is called stability or perfect training. A thief enters an empty house does not gain anything, and the house does not lose anything. All thought activity is naturally liberated without any harm or benefit whatsoever. That is the meaning of gaining confidence in liberation.
Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche: “Rainbow Painting”
(by the way, as there is nothing to steal, the thief is not harmed either!)
Meditation – so what?!
Meditation is not the most important thing: liberation is. It is not enough to be able to concentrate and be still, while remaining deluded. Deluded means being still caught up in the vicious cycle of seeking happiness, and winding up in negative emotions…again!
We may generate a still mind, but wonder, “So, what do I do now?” This could go on for twenty five years or more…I should know! (there comes a time when we have to move on to another teacher).
Stillness is only part of the equation: it is the Shamata aspect of meditation. We then need to recognise awareness/clarity, and that is the Vipassana aspect of meditation. Then, that awareness needs to look in on itself and recognise pure, empty Essence. That is the top-of-the-mountain view – the panoramic view – the Emptiness aspect, with nothing obscuring that view.
The final part of the equation is unlimited compassion – Essence love!
If we lack clarity and essence love,
we are still caught by worldly affairs.
If we are not caught by world affairs,
we have liberation.
.
Recognise the thought as it occurs so that it is liberated simultaneously with its arising.
This is very unlike the stream of thoughts that surges through the mind of an ordinary person. Often called ‘black diffusion,’this state is an unwholesome pattern of dissipation in which there is no knowledge whatsoever about who is thinking, where the thought comes from, and where the thought disappears.
One has not even caught the ‘scent’ of awareness; there are only unwholesome thought patterns operating, so that one is totally and mindlessly carried away by one thought after another. That is definitely not the path of liberation!
Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche: “Rainbow Painting”
To karma or not to karma…!
In an emotional, negatively charged moment,
we feel that something bad is happening.
We suffer, sick to our core,
with guilt and anger towards ourselves.
.
However.
That present, negative pain
is a result of previous actions – karma.
.
Its presence in the present moment is neutral,
and in itself,
generates no future karma.
.
Nothing is actually happening.
The creation of karma
is contained in our response!
.
Neuroplasticity and Reptilian brain.
I’ll keep this simple, and leave the links to fill in the detail on neuroplasticity.
Reptilian brain is our primitive brain that governs and dominates our response to situations by fight-or-flight-or-inertia. An animal will either attack-run-or-remain motionless. These are the classical three poisons of desire-aversion-ignorance that govern this universe: attraction-repulsion-inertia. Neuroplasticity is the refinement to that reptilian response. Through certain activities – none more so than the non-activity of meditation – this refinement takes place.
Have you noticed in conversations, how, when a something comes up which is not understood or to our liking, the subject is changed and we transfer the conversation? In our mind, we can mentally walk along roads we know and have actually travelled, but when it come to unexperienced territory, we turn round and come back. Our neural pathways have not fired and wired at those places.
Have you noticed how people relive the same experiences? Have you noticed how politicians, and officials use identical phrases year in and year out, most of them meaningless ‘Barnum statements’?
If experience is not expanded, intelligence stays stagnant…stays reptilian! I sometimes wonder if this ‘stagnation’ is done on purpose, through the media!
Our brain’s neural pathways are not all connected,
and so we understand some things and not others.
This brain conveys sensory information to the mind.
Our mind then translates this information.
Essence sits and notes.
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Essence already knows what the mind is thinking.
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Through expanding experience and intelligent practices,
we fire and wire our neural pathways, joining up our brain.
This allows more information to flow,
therefore permitting more understanding to occur.
Essence already knows what the mind is thinking.
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If essence is caught up in the reptilian brain,
it forgets its true nature.
In the stillness of meditation
the brain fires up, allowing clarity to naturally arise.
Instead of darting to and fro looking for distractions,
the mind is at peace, and has clarity.
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The Mind expresses Essence’s clarity.
That is loving compassion,
as it has transcended its reptilian fear.
Of course, it still has enough to
get out of the way of an oncoming truck!
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Every year there is conference by the Mind and Life Institute (www.mindandlife.org) and the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama (www.dalailama.com) where scientists and Buddhist get together to discuss these matters.
This videos shows scientist and Tibetan monk working on this subject.
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This is from http://noetic.org/noetic/issue-nine-april/self-directed-neuroplasticity/
One of the enduring changes in the brain of those who routinely meditate is that the brain becomes thicker. In other words, those who routinely meditate build synapses, synaptic networks, and layers of capillaries (the tiny blood vessels that bring metabolic supplies such as glucose or oxygen to busy regions), which an MRI shows is measurably thicker in two major regions of the brain. One is in the pre-frontal cortex, located right behind the forehead. It’s involved in the executive control of attention – of deliberately paying attention to something. This change makes sense because that’s what you’re doing when you meditate or engage in a contemplative activity. The second brain area that gets bigger is a very important part called the insula. The insula tracks both the interior state of the body and the feelings of other people, which is fundamental to empathy. So, people who routinely tune into their own bodies – through some kind of mindfulness practice – make their insula thicker, which helps them become more self-aware and empathic. This is a good illustration of neuroplasticity, which is the idea that as the mind changes, the brain changes, or as Canadian psychologist Donald Hebb put it,neurons that fire together wire together….
The second suggestion is to relax. In modern life, we chronically activate our stress response, our fight-or-flight system, which is related to the sympathetic nervous system. We did evolve to handle bursts of stress, but not chronic stress, and it’s hard to be mindful when we’re stressed out because stress activates the skittery, monkey-mind tendencies in the brain. To calm that monkey-brain as it scans for tigers in the environment, so to speak, it’s important to calm down sympathetic arousal, and the way to do that is to activate the parasympathetic wing of the nervous system. This is the rest-and-digest part of the autonomic nervous system, the part that keeps us on an even keel. A great way to activate the parasympathetic system is through our exhalations, because the parasympathetic system handles exhaling. As few as three to ten long exhalations will light up the parasympathetic circuits and calm down sympathetic arousal. Similarly, because the parasympathetic system handles digestion, relaxing the tongue or the lips also helps to light up this system.
It’s a good illustration of self-directed neuroplasticity. This practice reliably stimulates the neural substrates of mindful attention, and over time, stimulating the neural substrates of mindful attention will naturally strengthen them, because neurons that fire together wire together. We can use this knowledge to build up the neural substrates of compassion, self-esteem, resilience, spiritual insight, and deep concentration. Pretty great, isn’t it?
Simple animation:
Most important of all this shows we are not fixed entities. However because we react out of habit, we re-enforce our fixed neural pathways, thereby fixing our karmic imprint in the mind, And , that’s why we get stuck in the MUD!
All suffering, without exception,
arises out of desire for one’s own happiness.
Be kind to this recognition,
as it is only a pattern of behaviour we have got used to.
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This only happens because we did not recognise
what we were doing.
Be kind to this recognition,
for we knew not what we did.
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Desire for one’s own happiness,
is within everyone.
Be kind to this recognition,
for they know not what they do.
Not knowing is being stuck in the mud.
Knowing is recognising the mud.
Be kind to this recognition,
by not clinging to it.
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Stay mudless!
Swallowing Modern Psychology:
The Science of Exploitation
This world is dominated by psychology: it is our psychology that creates a picture of who we are. It governs how we think of ourselves, how we project ourselves, and how we maintain this projection. It is psychology that creates classes of people.
From that, all the other acquisitions come about to express this projection. So we can conclude that modern psychology helps us to promote a desired picture of ourselves, and an aversion to anything that seems to go against this picture. In this, modern psychology wants us to ignore the quest to realise our true nature, which is beyond this imagined, created, maintained personal identity. If we did realise our true nature, it would put psychologists out of work!
In this world dominated by psychology, the outcome is troubled minds and hearts, as we can see all around us, and in the number of anti-depressants being swallowed. People are constantly trying to fit into an ideal caricature of their choosing, which is never realised.
The ideal cannot be allowed to work perfectly, as there would be an end product of perfect happiness, and that would stop the never-ending struggle of people trying to ‘better’ themselves. As we can see, in absolute terms, no one is happy. This impermanent, material-driven world is the very cause of frustration, and more importantly, the creation of addiction.
When we cannot cope, we find something to be addicted to…it’s our comforter. This could be anything – alcohol, drugs, culture, work, entertainment, Buddhism – anything that we think makes us feel better about ourselves. I once saw a t-shirt which read, “If you’re well adjusted to society, then you’re really f**cked up”. We are talking about fear of just being ourselves.
Tibetan Buddhism, which is also the psychology of the mind and heart, can play its role in taking apart our troubled hearts and minds, dissolving confusion and addiction. We can engage with society, while understanding that it has no absolute reality, save the reflection of our true nature in that relative reality.
I’d go as far as saying that modern psychology is involved in poisoning the mind and body. Remember, he who pays the piper calls the tune: the person who provides the money for something has the right to determine how and why it’s spent.
Be careful what you swallow!
It may be indigestible
and will keep repeating.
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There is no end to the search
for corporate, pre-digested happiness,
served up to us in pretty packaging.
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Malnourished and hungry,
we are driven in endless circles,
when we have everything we need
in our awakened taste buds.
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The deliberate dumbing down of America, and it’s coming our way .
For years I’ve wondered if people were being dumbed down. People are losing their ability to think, becoming a caricature with learnt jargon.
This video is proof of this.
It’s just a taster of a full length conference available on disc.
Here is a PDF link to Charlotte’s book at deliberatedumbingdown.com
Buddhism is disappointing.
If one thinks that Buddhists will be any different from other people, then one will be disappointed! Let’s be honest, people are people, and we shouldn’t expect too much. People can acquire a lofty attitude, but at least it’s the start of becoming a better person.
The Dharma is the teachings of the Buddha. Buddhists are people who are attracted to those teaching, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that we are perfect practitioners. In fact, being in the company of Buddhists is bound to wind you up, when you expect more from them!
Now to the real disappointment:
You will get nothing out of Buddhism!
There is absolutely nothing there.
You will meditate for years
chant mantras, sing pujas
bang drums, perform mudras,
just stare and stare,
and get nothing out of it.
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Don’t expect praise for finding nothing.
You won’t get a badge.
You will be ignored.
You will experience doubt.
And nothing will happen.
After years of this,
you will finally realise that
nothing is happening all the time.
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The great disappointment is that
you will lose everything
you are holding onto.
What a relief!
In looking for the Truth…it will never be found!
This is as daft as a man on a donkey riding from town to town, asking people whether they seen his donkey! The truth is that which is looking is the truth. You are it. It is nowhere else..it’s now-here!
The problem is that we are seeing through a filter of karmic programming. Therefore we have no generosity, discipline, patience, perseverance, meditation or transcendent knowledge.
As soon as we see anything and give a value to it, and it becomes a seeming reality. We invest a value judgement on appearances, and in doing so we totally forget our pure awareness; that which is actually seeing all this.
Of course, this doesn’t help us, as we immediately fall back into usual confusion, and so we continue searching. You’ll have to admit that there is something daft here! It’s like peek-a-boo – now you see it, now you don’t!
Our karmic programming is very heavy, that’s all. If we can just admit and recognise the habitual confusion, then that very recognition is our awareness. Hooray! Then the karma kicks in again. Boo! And so, we go round in circles: that is called Samsara.
The only way to break this vicious cycle of existence is to recognise the nature of awareness. To be aware of awareness. In that awareness, nothing is found. That nothingness, that emptiness, that uncontrived-ness, is essence. There is nothing more…that is the truth. It’s not a million miles away.
But of course, while knowing this, we still find ourselves stuck in Samsara. But now Samara is merely the karmic programming playing itself out. What happens now will depend on our reactions, and this is where the six paramitas come to the fore: generosity, discipline, patience, perseverance, meditation and transcendent knowledge.
Once we have a glimpse of pure awareness (in the Dzogchen tradition this is called Rigpa) the continuity of that is conduct. Conduct is the practice while the mind is in Rigpa, and also in everyday life. The words: generosity, discipline, patience, perseverance, meditation and transcendent knowledge, have deeper meaning than at first glance.
The six deeper paramitas.
These six paramitas – generosity, discipline, patience, perseverance, meditation and knowledge – are included in Rigpa/pure awareness.
Rigpa Generosity. Generosity here is non-fixating and so there is no clinging. Non fixation is the practice of generosity. Rigpa generosity is not the generosity of giving away which is conceptual generation of merit. When it is included in Rigpa it belongs to wisdom – it is transcendent generosity. So we are practising generosity at the relative level, and the absolute level at the same time, as they are inseparable. The essence of generosity is non-clinging.
Rigpa Discipline. In Rigpa there is no attachment and that is the paramita of discipline. In keeping discipline one may become conceited and attached. Discipline has the function of binding your negative actions so that you can remain in a virtuous state. But it has side effects – you can become conceited because you are so pure, and this can make a social I. This can also happen with the view – we can become attached to this view also. The essence of discipline in non attachment.
Rigpa Patience. While you are in the continuity of Rigpa there is no fear and that absence of fear denotes the paramita of patience. The essence of patience is fearlessness.
Rigpa Perseverance. In rigpa there is no effort, and so therefore there is no perseverance. When you are distracted you make effort. The essence of perseverance is effortlessness.
Rigpa Meditation. This is not being distracted. The essence of meditation is effortless abiding.
Rigpa Transcendent Knowledge. This is Rigpa wisdom itself – pure awareness, this is wisdom resting in the ground in its innateness. The essence of Rigpa is clear view.
Within Rigpa, conduct is meditation in action – the six paramitas. Our mind does not leave the clear view. Conduct is the 6 paramitas being automatically expressed, without effort. You will be naturally generous, etc.
There are the paramitas that are practised with effort, and those that come automatically out of the view (the all-sufficient king).
It is like a healing coming from within: if we are doing something wrong, when Rigpa is remembered, it will have an effect on our outer behaviour.
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Why Compassion is so important.
Compassion cuts through all our negative emotions: pride, jealousy, anger, fear, and especially ignorance. It cuts through all our wrong doings.
Compassion is ultimate intelligence.
Compassion is ultimate sanity.
The emotions only seem to flare up when others are present, because projection meets projection. It stands to reason that when someone holding on to their mental image of themselves (this thing we have to protect, maintain and defend) meets another’s projections, there’s bound to be a clash. Then, “Oy!” do we suffer!
Compassion cuts the c**p:
one’s own c**p,
It can also cut through the c**p of others.
Even in compassion c**p is still c**p!
With compassion, awareness is now focused on the other, rather than on one’s own projections. When recognising other’s projections, we can also recognise our own, and so, out of loving kindness, we pay attention to their needs and thereby take ourselves out of the picture. This, of course, is challenging…to our ego! That is the whole point: the spiritual warrior is prepared to face this challenge, by taking a back seat and…listening.
Compassion is so, so important. The moment we recognise compassion, we take a step out of this world, and into the celestial realms. Anywhere we go in this world, conversations will always be about ‘me’. One can sit and listen to anyone for an hour, and the conversation will be solely about them. We are sitting there, wondering when it’s our turn! That’s very funny.
(This is particularly meaningful for me, as I sometimes have a stutter, and therefore give the impression of being a good listener! When people talk non-stop, I find it very difficult to join in. I have to wait for them to take a breath, and then I don’t make sense as I’m addressing something they said five minutes ago! That happens a lot… 😉 )
Imagine someone you find obnoxious. We know that underneath all that c**p there is a enlightened being, just stuck in a haze of festering habits. We have to acknowledge that we too are talking through a haze of festering habits, so we should be a little more compassionate and empathetic, like a spiritual ‘ninja’. This doesn’t mean we accept their actions and reactions, but we give them a little more space. The trick – and hope – is that they may calm down (bringing down their and our inner wind of loong). Of course, this doesn’t last, as we are bound to get irritated again, at some point…or not! That’s the work – our conduct. Our skilful conduct.
Of course, people don’t want our compassion and love. They want to continue creating a construct. However (and this is guaranteed), a very tiny part of them will appreciate you just being there for them.
Compassion is wisdom being expressed.
Wisdom, our empty essence, cannot be broken.
It can neither gain nor lose.
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Do this, and you will die with a good heart!
Ready for the next step.
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Be in good heart
Be in good heart
Be in good heart
The Georgia Guide Stones.
We need to recognise how others may feel: that’s the definition of empathy.
A few days ago, I mentioned that Tibetans go to practise in graveyards at night to test their fear, as they believe in ghosts. The Georgia Guide Stones could be as scary for us…but needn’t be!
The Georgia Guide Stones in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, are a set of eight monoliths in eight languages, with ten instructions on how the planet Earth should be ‘sustained’. The first new law is that the Earth should support 500 million people – there are about 7 billion of us! It doesn’t matter whether we believe these instructions are being implemented or not – others do, and this causes fear and suffering.
Someone thinks the Earth is over populated. This is untrue: we are just badly organised.
Whether we take this seriously or not, there are those who think this is the case. According to rumours on the internet, six and a half billion people are expected to die, either by natural or unnatural causes. Of course, this is scary stuff, and idiotic.
In the life time of this planet, we can expect everyone to die – it’s what we do! We are born, we dwell and we die.
It is said that a natural catastrophe could take the form of a huge meteor, an electrical-destroying sun flare, or a pole shift. It is said that an unnatural cause could be pollution of our food, water, and air, causing fear, stress and disease deliberately. It is said that governments have built huge networks of underground bunkers to save themselves and their wealth – made by us!
So that’s the scary story, more or less. The 1% against the 99%.
NOW, LET’S HAVE A GOOD LOOK AT THIS!
This 1% elite wants to create a New World, starting with an evil self-first intent, and somehow believing it to be good. There have been many madmen throughout history who have wanted to stick their flag on other’s land, and call it “God’s” work. The accumulation of all these endeavours has created suffering, which causes distraction in our own minds: this is an added pressure on our already fragile ego.
You’ll have to admit, the world is a pretty screwed up place!
We can see that absolute power does indeed corrupt. The intent to build this new world will be founded on an evil seed, resulting in heavy, bad karma.
We can recognise that when we are taken over by negative emotions, we become momentarily insane. Just consider how insane this elite will become if they get their way. No one will trust another! The planet will know no goodness, but only fear and extreme suffering in the hell realms. It will just never work. The people being used to facilitate all this – the lower middle men – are starting to blow the whistle on what is going on.
Of course the majority of the planet hasn’t a clue about what is happening: we continue to pretend our lives away. But when prodded, most people do feel that things are “not right”.
WHAT CAN WE DO?
First; look at our own morals. If the 1% suddenly disappeared, the 98.9% would probably aspire to take their place at some time, as we all come under the same universal laws of attraction, repulsion and inertia.
Second; know the mind and what we hold in it – our stubborn confusion.
Third; be aware of awareness itself.
Fourth; realise our true nature, which is uncontaminated empty essence.
Fifth; recognise that this empty essence is in everyone else, and so compassion arises.
Six; express love.
Seven; know that silly people will always run around, trying to control everything.
Eight; leave this body with a good heart.
Nine; know that all appearances are mental projection.
Ten; supplicate the enlightened ones for blessings.
It’s not as bad as you think!
In their imagination, it’s as bad as they think!
Fear is only in the mind.
Mind control.
If you are not controlling your mind,
someone else is doing it for you.
We are all influenced.
We have two existences at the same time – dwelling in perception and dwelling in deception. As sentient beings we oscillate between the two – truths! The path of perception involves clarity – mind training. The path of deception involves confusion – mind training of another kind. When we have clarity, we are free. When we have confusion, we are imprisoned. What is and what isn’t in our minds, has an effect on us.
“What we think, we become.”
– Gautama Buddha
In clarity, we are in control. In confusion, someone else is in control. This ‘someone else’ is the ideas we acquire from the outside that we then cling to. It is how we deal with these appearances in the mind that matters.
“Pain is certain, suffering is optional.”
– Gautama Buddha
Neurolinguistic programming uses both perception and deception at the same time. It anchors a deception in the mind, using an element of an untruth hidden within truth. The deception may be attractive to lead awareness to cling to some thing, as opposed to resting in empty essence.
“You only lose what you cling to.”
– Gautama Buddha
Deception and perception is a difficult subject to understand. In many fields we are deceived, not least of all in spirituality, for that involves consciousness itself!
“Our life is a creation of our mind.”
– Gautama Buddha
Use of hypnotic trance, drugs, trauma, word change, gestures, and of course the media, all help manipulate perception – mind control. Basically, people are led to believe in reaching for something, which they think they don’t have.
“The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart.”
– Gautama Buddha
Along the road of perception there is also the road of deception, with its potholes of a tempting easier route. There are clear lights and there are dull lights, and to the uninitiated they are just lights. This is a very delicate and subtle matter, as we become aware of insidious perversion.
“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.”
– Gautama Buddha
There is meditation that leads to non-meditation. This is not the same as saying meditation is unnecessary: that is a misunderstanding. In the moment of resting in empty essence, there is no teaching, no path, no meditator. However, the claim of the new age movement…that there is no teaching, no path, no meditator…makes no mention of the obstacles to realisation.
“I never see what has been done; I only see what remains to be done.”
– Gautama Buddha
The difference is one of experience, rather than the idea of an experience. We may be easily deceived into thinking, “I need no teaching, no teacher and no path.” Saying this reveals a confused ego.
In the Dharma, we take refuge in the Buddha (teacher), Dharma (teachings) and Sangha (upholders of the teachings). However, most important of all is the living teacher, from an unbroken lineage, for without them we would not understand the Buddha, Dharma or Sangha. The teacher represents the Buddha, and so we take refuge in the teacher also.
In saying, “I need no teaching, teacher or path,” the question may arise: does this come from a misunderstanding, or has it been introduced deliberately in order to confuse? If it’s a misunderstanding, then all is well, as it is merely a learning process. If it is deliberate, then we have a serious problem. Neurolinguistic programming is an intrusion into consciousness: it’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing. This bring us back to, why mind-control? Simply put, is someone wanting you to believe something, for their benefit? Or to benefit you? Control is power: either we have it, or someone else does. Power can be used to increase, or decrease the emotions. That all depends on whose hands it’s in! If spiritual instruction makes us feel at peace, all well and good. If it makes us feel guilty and angry, we will suffer – and thereby be controlled.
“You will not be punished for your anger: your anger is the punishment.”
– Gautama Buddha
The point of transcending the emotions is to avoid being controlled by them. Understanding the nature of the emotions produces unshakeable confidence and joy, and compassion for others.
“If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.”
– Gautama Buddha
If we are under the control of the emotions, we are still in a samsaric existence, manipulating and being manipulated. Know the difference!
“There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.”
– Gautama Buddha
Neurolinguistic programming uses the instinct of conforming (herd instinct) to control. It’s what advertising, marketing, government propaganda, hypnotists, news sponsors, and even comedians do: they all take the audience along with them. This is a control mechanism. Our culture is built on it. Reading this piece of writing is the same, and that is why we need to be aware and not lost, or occupied.
The final result is our compliance. If the motive for this is beneficial, for example asking us to form a queue so that no one gets hurt in the rush, then that’s fine. But…if this is done without empathy, for political purposes, or out of greed, and creates suffering, then it is evil.
Evil exists when we act on our likes and dislikes.
Conforming out of fear creates fear of not conforming.
The weak conform to the standards set for them.
The strong serve the weak by uncovering obstacles, not creating them.
The weak engage in futile diligence.
The strong are diligent in compassion.
If evil exists, it exists to destroy.
Indifference is apathy, which allows evil to sneak in.
Indulging in anger, fear, desire, pride, jealousy and ignorance are forms of evil used against another. We employ them to control a situation for our own selfish benefit. And so, there are winners and losers. That is the devil in us!
When we rest in the opposites of evil – harmony, love and compassion – everyone benefits. Everyone is a winner. That’s the enlightened quality in us!
“Happiness never decreases by being shared.”
– Gautama Buddha
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Feeling change will never happen?
Change can never happen if we keep holding onto the same attitude! That’s logical.
The Dharma is logical.
The Dharma is accurate.
The Dharma is a precise description of our psychology.
We merely need to look more closely at our minds. Just change something! We need a change of energy – put odd socks on …anything, to disrupt the habitual patterning. Much of our feelings reside in our subtle body, and leave a residue. A “smell”!
We will hold on to this smell, until enlightenment. That smell is our path. Sometimes, we may feel that change is not taking place, and a feeling of pointlessness sets in, which drains our energy.
Admitting how we feel is the first step, then identifying the cause, finding a way out, and then doing it. Oh! That sounds like the four noble truths!
Putting up with one’s lot is not the same as unconditional surrender. One is laziness and dullness, and the other is wisdom and clarity.
Holding on is preventing change. Change is tearing down the mask and revealing our true face. We are supposed to be enlightened!
There is more to meditation than just sitting. It’s recognising one’s pattern of behaviour, cutting through it and resting in one’s true nature. We need energy to do this: this energy comes from inspiration. Genuine inspiration.
The emotions are our obstacles. When observing others, two come to the fore – pride and jealousy. It is in the recognition of the two wisdoms of All-accomplishing wisdom and the wisdom of Equality that we transcend our habitual view.
You are what you seek, and seeing it in others means that you recognise those qualities that are also in you. Thereby lies great merit and energy. When this happens, you reach the point of no return. You cannot fall back.
Change is inevitable.
Things change all the time.
They deteriorate,
and we reconstruct.
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Change is inevitable
when we recognise impermanence
and do not reconstruct!
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Imitate or emulate the Buddha’s teachings?
To imitate is to copy.
To emulate is to equal.
To imitate is to be inspired and that is how we start: it’s a good energiser. To emulate is to appreciate the process, and become what we know. It sustains us, and so we are willing to put up with discomforts.
We have to know the difference between these two ways of being.
To imitate is to copy, to repeat. Feeling uncomfortable about a situation, we attempt to mask our discomfort, by resorting to repetition and dogma with great diligence. We use antidotes to make us feel better, as we don’t like the mud. We cannot be totally honest about our feelings. That’s ok: we are just not ready yet.
That should raise some hackles! Tibetans go to grave yards at night to test their fear, because they believe in ghosts. Westerners don’t – but what we do fear is our own reactions!
To be honest, what scares me is Dharma centres…far too holy! 🙂
By emulating, we are willing to feel an uncomfortable situation, and to transcend it. Such a situation arises when an inner conflict presents its ugly face. It’s one of many of crossroads in life, where we have a chance to take a new direction, a finer direction – a change of perception.
The only thing my wife Kathie and I argue about is the state of the world. Why bad things are happening to people en masse, causing suffering. She says it’s just greed and selfishness in all its forms, and I agree, but for greed, one needs control. So for me, it’s about evil, obsessive control, and it’s done deliberately. We get quite heated…staring and glaring at each other…and waiting, smouldering! It’s like something is coming to a head for us individually (sort of synchronistic)…mind blowingly uncomfortable. However, we know it will pass.
Something happens – a gap, a blessing, goodness knows what! – and the atmosphere goes pouff! We then have a cup of tea, and say, “What was that all about?”
Each time this happens, we move closer. Being honest about how one feels is very uncomfortable, but infinitely liberating. And, drinking tea together remind us that love cannot be broken.
The same pouff! in the atmosphere happens when I go and see my teacher. We don’t say much, but there is an honesty there. I don’t want to copy him, but emulate..to have what he has, and give what he gives. He is emulating his teacher, and so on, all the way back to the Buddha, and back to us again.
If the ego isn’t feeling uncomfortable
then the ego is in charge!
Emulation is the highest form of appreciation
and devotion.
It’s not your fault!
It’s not your fault, as nothing ever happened!
Whatever happens to you now is not your fault: it is a product from the past. However, the past doesn’t exist, the future doesn’t exist, and the present cannot be found, and so nothing ever happens. Things only appear to happen in the dream-like play of the body/mind experience.
Dream-like karma plays itself out in a dream-like world, and we did nothing…we never did! This dream-like body/mind merely experiences by consent, through a belief that it is all real.
A dream-like reality
Appears to dream-like beings
To show them the dream-like way
To recognise dream-like reality.
So how do we make this practical? How do we merge Dharma with the daily life we are experiencing?
Because of our belief in how we exist, imprints were created in the mind, which, in itself, cannot be found. Show me this mind! To be practical, we have to work within this dream-like experience; to wake up from this dreamlike state…tricky!
Teachings can only take us so far, and then we in free fall. However, we can only be in free fall if we are clear what it is we are letting go of…tricky!
So, back to being practical. If we try to change this dream-like state, we merely continue to dream, because all reactions are a holding on. Through analysis, reflection and recognition, we realise that there is nothing to do but recognise. In recognising, our grip loosens. That’s it. When we feel a tightening, re-recognise and the grip loosens again. Take three times a day with every meal…and with everything that occurs!…and the dream dissolves.
When we wake from a dream, the experience dissolves, as it never actually happened!
In beliefs, we tighten.
In recognition, we loosen.
In beliefs, we harden.
In recognition, we soften.
In beliefs, we are limited.
In recognition, we are limitless.
In beliefs, everything happens.
In recognition, nothing happens.
In beliefs, we sleep.
In recognition, we awaken.
In conduct, we love.
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Ignorance.
As with all the emotions, ignorance has two aspects: the neurotic aspect of indifference, and the wisdom aspect of All-Encompassing Space. Ignorance arises when empty awareness forgets its true nature, and that of others. It therefore lacks compassion.
Another way to look at this is by using the word “thoughtlessness”. This can mean non-thought, or it can mean carelessness. One is empty, and the other doesn’t care. So, All-Encompassing Space can appear as spacious – or spaced out
This is how ignorance works with the other two poisons of desire and aversion, and their correlated aspects of the three wisdoms, Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya and Nirmanakaya
Nirmanakaya: compassionate energy correlates with ignorance. This is due to a lack of awareness of the indivisibility of the other two kayas.
Sambhogakaya: awareness correlates with aversion.
Dharmakaya: emptiness correlates with desire.
Our being’s essence is emptiness – pure sacred space. Desire arises, with concepts filling this sacred space.
Our being’s nature is awareness – a knowing quality. Aversion arises when awareness creates an “I” through forgetting its essence, and we start judging.
Our being’s expression is unconfined compassionate energy – joy of being. Ignorance arises when empty awareness forgets its own true nature and essence – emptiness and awareness – and that of others.
In practical terms, when we experience ignorance/indifference/not caring/lack of compassion, this means there is a knowing quality present – meaning that we are aware of what is going on. That awareness, that pure awareness, is essence. At that moment, confusion dawns as wisdom!
When we understand the simple
we can understand everything.
Empty space encompasses all that exists.
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Still depressed and dissatisfied?!
You are absolutely right to be depressed and dissatisfied, because everything around us is feeding our mind with concepts! We have two obstacles: one is that we do not know our true nature, and the other is that we are maintaining this not-knowing. In Buddhism, these are known as the two ignorances (co-emergent and conceptual).
The great news is that we can see this going on: we do not have to cover it up. In its most raw state, this can be really painful, as everything we believed seems pointless. When our beliefs in how things are supposed to be are shattered, we have nothing to hang onto. Scary!
We are looking for reality in a fabricated world…the only thing that is real is the awareness of this unreality. We have a conflict between relative truth, which is “seeming reality”, and absolute truth, which is your pure essence (pure perception).
We have become familiar with this seeming reality: we are not yet familiar with the true reality, which is our natural state.
Everything we know isn’t wrong: it’s just mistaken. If someone tries to get you back to ‘normal’, walk away! They just want to get you back to their illusion. Of course, it’s tempting to go back into the field and be shepherded, but a glimmer of reality is such a relief – just being free is a little scary, until one toughens up and builds confidence.
There is a step-by-step approach to understand this – it is logical, and is known in Buddhism as Mind Training. It uses meditation to arrive at non-meditation.
The first thing to do is recognise that we are suffering. This is an essential step.
Next, we have to recognise the cause of that suffering (which is normally the fixated ideas that we hold, which produce negative emotions and obscure our view).
The third stage is to find a method (a path) that leads away from the suffering.
Finally, we tread that path.
This is the Middle Way, between the two extremes of nihilism (everything is pointless) and eternalism (everything is real).
We have every right to be dissatisfied,
and in that,
we shall find our answer.
Desire.
The human realm is one of desire.
Desire leads to frustration,
that maintains the desire,
which becomes an addiction.
That’s how we get stuck!
Desire fills emptiness – our essence.
Desire is the neurotic aspect of the wisdom of emptiness.
The opposite of emptiness is desire.
Through attraction, empty space is filled.
Our pure sacred empty essence acquires adornments.
which fill that space.
Essence becomes preoccupied, forgetting itself.
Space becomes excited, and that very action creates ego.
Desire is very precise. Its enlightened quality is Discriminating-Wisdom.
I desire tomatoes on toast (I normally do!). This thought brightens my mind. Now, I can have tomatoes on toast if it’s available, or just let it be. I don’t have to hunger for it at all costs. I know precisely what I would like, and if it causes no harm and is available, that’s okay…and I have to eat! Either way, I am satisfied.
We are not vegetables! We have emotions! These emotions can either create suffering, or redirect awareness to recognising its true nature. The desire to know one’s true nature is a tool, and once realised, the tool is no longer needed.
If we fear our emotions, or think we shouldn’t have them, we will be troubled by guilt. Or even worse, we will accuse others of having them. In this way we go round in circles, lost in Samsara.
Now, here is an important point! Be very careful to whom you talk! There are those whose temperament may not be the same as yours. They may fear emotions, or claim that you need an antidote for your affliction, as the emotions are something to be removed. For them, this is their way of coping with their mind. These people can easily project fear – their fear – on to you.
It’s the same when people project their ego on to us.
There is a traditional story: Two monks were walking along a road. They see a girl who cannot pass, as a big muddy hole is in her way. One monk lifts her up and carries her over the obstacle and puts her down. When the two monks arrive at the monastery, one monk said to the other, “You should not have touched that girl.” The other replied, “I put her down at the mud hole.”
Buddha in the mud is all about the secret life of emotions, revealing their wisdom aspect. So be careful, as others may not see it that way. Merging Dharma with life means living Dharma, not separating life and Dharma.
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Recognition in the Kali Yuga
The Kali Yuga is the dark age of strife.
Its hallmark is confusion and despair,
created by our own likes and dislikes.
Mara/demons lies in ambush,
feeding on this confusion and despair.
We have two natures of dark and light
and need to recognise both, constantly.
Shakyamuni’s final helpers were Mara –
so it’s not all bad news!
Spiritually, we know that all appearances are mere illusions, but if we knock our shin on a metal bar it will hurt, for a while. Ouch! Many of our brothers and sisters are not so spiritually inclined (too busy or vacant) and their pain will last for a lifetime or longer. The pain we share is the same: that is the root of our empathy and compassion.
In this The Age of Strife – the Kali Yuga – the world is in a very dark place. Strife is profitable.Wars are happening now, and people are suffering and dying – they’re saying more than ouch. There is but one enemy…us.
Here, ‘us’ has two meanings: us as a collective, and us as individuals. We ourselves have created an illusory identity and there are those who use this illusory identity to keep us as a collective, enslaved through materialism and fear. There is an elite in this world, who want to maintain their wealth and power, and use manipulation in order to do so.
Laws are changing. Surveillance is increasing. The police are becoming military. The media distracts. Food is of poor quality, so we need drugs (chemicals). This creates uncertainty and instability – the age of strife! Strife pits people against one another: does anyone you know actually want war?
A word creeping into usage is “sustainability”. Remember that word! Words and phrases can enter our languages to justify something, and here, “sustainability” means “austerity”. This shows a subtle use of psychology and neurolinguistic programming (words that makes me laugh and cry are those such as “collateral damage” and, “Things go better with a certain soft drink”…better for whom?!)
Strife is a double edged sword, just as all emotions are. Strife can work as a catalyst for change, clearly revealing the pointlessness of clinging to our material way of life.
This Age of Strife can brighten our minds (if our brain haven’t had too many chemicals!). The manipulators lack wisdom: they do not realise that they actually enhance the realisation of our true nature. Remember – the last helper to the Buddha was Mara!
We have within us two natures,
Buddha nature and Mara nature.
Light and Dark.
We need to recognise both constantly
as they are the two truths.
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To ego or not to ego?!
For years, I’ve had a problem with western spirituality, especially in Buddhism. When at retreats, people walk around as if ‘they’ are not there, head to one side and slightly vacant. How did we get to that state? I once actually put a sign up on the notice board saying, “A silent retreat doesn’t mean you are a Zombie!”
People adopt an air and become insular, separating themselves off from humanity, compassion and…fun! Humans are constantly fitting themselves into a state, and are in danger of falling into a group mind set, and leaving our brains outside.
We are unique individuals with egos. It is a matter of how to work with this ego that can either free us, or keep us enslaved. The ego is the mud!
If we are practising in a cave on our own, then there is no point to ego. Ego is consciousness clinging to an identity. However, in order to function in society as a good, healthy human being, we need a little ego…it’s fun.
If ego clinging takes over our being, then we are off with the fairies, totally controlled by mental images and concepts. If we deny ego, we are still in a fantasy world, controlled by mental images and concepts!
When ego clinging takes over
we become lost and confused.
Above all,
we lack love.
Likewise,
if we pretend we have no ego,
we become lost and confused.
Above all,
we lack love.
We need a ‘mere I’ to function with others, to be playful. However, we have to know the difference between resting in essence (no ego) and expression essence (playful ego). It’s the expression that reveals love, empathy and compassion.
To put others at ease, we have to act a little (“No! Your bum doesn’t look too big in that!”) We just don’t have to believe that our act is a permanent fixture. In acting, we are playing a part for another’s benefit, not separating ourselves so we cannot be contaminated. Love is fearless: Chogyam Trungpa coined the phrase “Spiritual Warrior”.
All I’m saying is, smile more – and mean it. Don’t lose your humanity! It’s very precious. And above all, be welcoming.
Love is not puffed up:-
Corinthians
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing.
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profit me nothing.
Love suffer long, and is kind; love envy not; love vaunt not itself, is not puffed up,
Does not behave itself unseemly, seek not her own, is not easily provoked, think no evil;
Rejoice not in iniquity, but rejoice in the truth; Bear all things, believe all things, hope for all things, endure all things.
Love never fails: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Choosing thoughts and emotions over ‘being’?
Here we are, potentially enlightened beings, and all we do is remain trapped in our thoughts and emotions, which merely creates suffering for ourselves and others!
Spirituality is about liberation – freedom from these emotions – but we still choose strife. It’s like ‘being’ trapped in a dream-prison, where there are no bars, no doors, no chains, and there is sunlight coming from somewhere…but we choose to stay where we are, festering.
What is keeping us from enlightenment? Habit! That’s it! We are so familiar with our prison surroundings, that we know nothing else. Some of even aspire for a better cell than others, which only makes the situation worse. A few prisoners have mentioned there is an outside (in spiritual terminology, that would be an inside!) but we think these are just stories and theories.
Meditation practice is becoming familiar with ‘being’, and cutting through the habits. However, we choose to wander off into some fantasy. I know I do!
Maybe, just maybe, it’s getting worse. Now that would be fortunate: “The thoughts and emotions are getting worse… and that’s better?” Yes…they’re being noticed! It’s not getting worse – we are noticing more.
How’s that for being positive?!
In meditation we may try to prolong moments of pure awareness…but don’t! The instruction is, “Short moments many times.”
An instant of recognition is all that is necessary. The dream-prison will want to appear again (habit): just re-recognise. It’s like banging a gong once (recognition) – the sound continues and fades (forgetfulness). Re-recognise…and so on. Don’t hold on to anything, neither the recognition nor the fading. Just be aware.
Gradually those instances of recognition become more frequent. What is actually happening is that forgetfulness reduces – the mud is clearing. First we have to recognise the fading, and the thoughts and emotions arising. First recognise…
E s s e n c e does the r.. e… s……… t !
In meditation, what needs to be dropped naturally drops away, and what needs to shine naturally shines.
Depression and Disappointment
What I love about the Buddha’s teachings is that they are so logical, so reasonable, so complete, so provable …everything links up!
We are human, and governed by three negative emotions (desire, aversion and ignorance/indifference) and the three wisdoms (kayas).
We are human, and so we’d like a little more of this, and a little less of that, and we’re not really interested in them over there…
We are human, and so we desire.
We don’t get what we want, and so get frustrated.
We get frustrated and so get disappointed.
We get disappointed and so get depressed.
This depression affects our subtle body,
and so we carry around this weighty residue.
We may have to diet…
Most of the time, life does not pan out as we expected. How can it? Was there supposed to be a master plan? How do we know what to expect? Are we judging by what’s around us? Most of that is confused! When young, we were indoctrinated with so much, so quickly, that we didn’t realise there are other options in life.
If we are depressed and disappointed, maybe what was expected wasn’t for us! If we are not fitting into the norm, did we really want the norm?
Essence cannot be depressed or disappointed. It’s enlightened! It has only empathy and compassion. So it’s the ego – that clinging mind – that has the expectations, and so gets the disappointments and thus, the depression…that’s logical.
But does this help? Not really, because we still feel this way.
No, we don’t! That feeling is a residue in the subtle body, which leaves us feeling a constant anxiety. We pick up on this residue and continue the feeling, and around we go, heavy hearted (I should know!).
We have to use logic, reasoning and…gratitude. If you haven’t got your limbs hanging off, or you’re hanging from a cliff by a tuft of grass, or you’re being eaten by piranhas…you’re okay! Of course, we don’t have enough. We never will.
We may feel lonely, in despair, fed up, worried about something. Look, you can only do what you can do, and complete that. Don’t react, as this is merely karma playing itself out. Just say, “Hello, good-bye!” Any reaction on our part merely deepens the karma and creates even more suffering. It stops when we stop!
It’s a matter of making friends with, and accepting, who we are and our lot, and then doing the same for others. We need confidence, and that comes from knowing awareness of our true nature. That’s the important thing, for without that, nothing would be known. So, recognising awareness is the start of waking up from the duality of awareness’s projections.
Recognising awareness of awareness, merely look, see, and drop everything. That very emptiness of dropping everything is essence. Know that, know confidence! This is not a feeling of being empty: quite often, we feel ’empty’ inside, and could mistake this for depression. It could be that we have a moment where desire is lacking, and we feel it should be filled with ‘something’. Ego feels uncomfortable when it doesn’t have anything to cling to. Just become familiar with that.
With this true confidence, joy is guaranteed. Knowing this, and that there is nothing else but your true nature and pure essence, be at peace. This worldly existence has no reality: just a seeming reality…an illusion.
Once we get a glimpse of joy, we will know that this is the true nature of all sentient beings.
Then compassion and empathy naturally arises. That is when love starts. Love is the expression of reality.
So you are happy, and have always been so…for no reason other than knowing essence. Disappointment is merely karma dripping away what is no longer needed. It’s time to give up holding on, and let go. Depression is being weighed down with likes and dislikes. People continue like this day in and day out, because they can afford to keep covering up their depression and disappointments with the acquisitions of this material world. But it’s there, in everyone.
We have nothing but that which ego is holding together.
For those who are happy, have compassion.
For those who are unhappy, have empathy.
Being is beyond happiness and unhappiness.
It’s time to look more closely at our life, and take responsibility. Whatever suffering we have experienced will give us the empathy to help others, even just by listening. In helping others, we will find happiness. It’s the same with devotion. Devotion is taking to heart, and having a deep appreciation for the teachings, because they work.
The Buddha’s teachings really do work, as they are logical and complete in every situation.
This a short video on the subtle body practice.
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Right Speech.
Speech is a very profound subject.
We humans are a problem, when we speak.
We humans are a problem when we ignore.
These problems are also our teacher.
Speech may be used to bring about harmony or separation, by disturbing the natural inner peace of our mind, and that of others. In the normal run of life, talk is cheap, and our mouth just runs away with assumptions. In the spiritual life of inner awareness, the use of speech is a direct expression of our inner state, and this can teach us everything about our own obscurations, or spaciousness.
Speech can easily and frequently bring us into conflict. It all depends how responsible we are.
Talking dharma to another student (we are all students) can be a delicate matter, as we can easily talk at cross purposes. The outcome can set an opinion for life, or become our greatest teacher.
Even though we may receive teachings from the same teacher at the same retreat, we may see things differently from others. To just take Buddhism, there are several sects with slightly different approaches and within those sects are nine levels or vehicles. Each one is complete and correct in itself. The same words are used at each level, but the meaning changes as we proceed. So one has to tread very carefully in discussions, as I have learnt to my astonishment.
I’m writing this because, when talking to others who are, let’s say, strong minded, we may assume that we are wrong…which may not be the case. We may get disheartened at this ‘put down’ or by being ignored, but as in ordinary life, there are many who make assumptions, and dismiss others, especially if they consider themselves more learned. My astonishment comes from this lack of compassion!
The dharma considers awarenesses of body, speech and mind as equally important.
Here is a case in point:
At the end of an intensive month-long silent retreat with 10 hours of meditation a day, a fellow student asked me what I had learnt. I was enthusiastic to reply, as I genuinely realised an answer to a inner question regarding the “Yidam” practice I was doing. This was that the three Kayas (empty essence, cognisant nature and unconfined compassion) were in fact the three poisons (three negative emotions of desire, aversion and ignorance). This is a essay in itself…and the basis of the creation of this blog.
He merely replied, “That’s a bit far fetched,” and dismissed me…forever, it seems. He is a very diligent, serious, intelligent man, yet we could not communicate, so we just drank tea. I so wanted to explain this to him, but it would only have sounded like lecturing and would have caused an even greater gap between us.
Sometimes wanting to be right can be wrong!
Never lose inner peace through wrong speech. We can recognise this by the inner wind rising to the gut, heart, throat or head areas, and we feel anxious and tense…we become hot headed, just in time for the emotions to explode! 🙂
When speaking, be aware of the inner wind, and take the breath down to below the navel. In the enlightened activity of pacifying, speech is not about gossip or projection: it’s about dissolving the activity and involvement of the ego.
It is only when we are advanced practitioners, and feel responsible, that we can use the other three enlightened activities of magnetising, enriching and destroying ego’s activities. These four are varying degrees of compassion. However, caution is needed if applied to the wrong person at the wrong time – it can backfire!
Right speech is right compassion.
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Anger.
If life isn’t how we want it, we get frustrated and angry.
There are two aspects here. One is that our fixed picture is being disturbed. The other is that we recognise that our fixed picture isn’t right, and so we get angry.
Our picture is our obscured view. Here we have a problem with a clear essence seeing through the fog of mind – our concepts. The clear light is our pure view, which is translated by our afflicted mind, producing a projection.
If essence gets bound up in the projections of the mind, and comes into contact with another’s projections, we may get angry. This is logical!
The antidote to this fixed projection, this view, is recognising the presence of mirror-like wisdom of essence. Essence merely reflects, and does not get involved. It is mind that causes confusion about the whole affair.
This mirror-like wisdom of essence reflects exactly whatever appears. It is one of the five qualities of our true nature.
The object of mirror-like wisdom is to remind us that all reflections are merely temporary appearances.
The reality is the mirror, merely reflecting. The reflections are temporary appearances.
Anger is recognition of a distraction, a bright distraction. Anger illuminates the mind for an instant. This sharp brilliance is wisdom, which can either create more suffering or realise/ remember pure awareness.
Anger can either run amuck, or express love.
Increase the problem, or restore balance.
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The Terminology of Three Kayas
If you are like me and get confused about terminology, this may help your confusion…I mean, clarify your confusion!
The traditional names for our three enlightened qualities are dharmakaya, sambhogakaya and nirmankaya. These are known as the three kayas.
This is described on three levels: Ground, Path and Fruition.
At the level of Ground (being our basic nature), dharmakaya is empty essence, sambhogkaya is cognisant nature and nirmanakaya is expression.
At the level of Path (where we are now: our being is confused about its basic ground), dharmakaya is bliss, sambhogkaya is clarity and nirmanakaya is non-thought.
At the level of Fruition (where we realise that the path never existed and we have been the ground all along), the three kayas are seen as Buddhahood. Dharmakaya is free from any constructs. Sambhogakaya is Light. Nirmankaya manifests as form, to benefit all beings.
NB Expression, non-thought and physical manifestation are levels of nirmanakaya, revealed as compassion. In the moment of non-thought, compassion is stillness. Depending at what level we are working, we may use any of the six paramitas, or the four enlightened activities to suit a situation.
Six paramitas: patience, generosity, discipline, perseverance, meditation and transcendent knowledge.
Four enlightened activities: pacifying, magnetising, enriching and destroying.
Pride.
Pride is a two-edged sword.
Ordinary pride is a feeling of being better than others.
The funny thing is,
everyone feels the same way!
Whatever we achieve,
so can others.
It’s just a matter of time.
And that’s the antidote for pride:
the wisdom of equality.
This shows compassion and understanding.
Ordinary pride ensures
conflicting emotions, illusions and suffering.
Divine pride
is realising one’s true nature.
In that, there are no
conflicting emotions, illusions and suffering.
Identifying with the Lord of Love
manifests
clarity, purity and divine pride.
The divine sword of wisdom
cuts through
ordinary appearances and claiming.
Fear.
If something is so strong
that it cannot be broken,
then there is no fear of it being broken.
If something has no sides
and cannot be found,
then there is no fear of it being broken.
If we realise that this thing
that is so strong,
that has no sides,
and that cannot be found
is our own essence,
then there is no fear of it being broken.
We only fear because
we think we are not strong,
have sides,
and can be found.
Our essence is unbreakable.
Indestructible.
Undeniable.
Unimaginable.
PS I still carry a residue of fears from my childhood – don’t we all? – which makes me doubt everything I do… it’s something we have to live with…
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How do I know, I know?
Language plays tricks. If we remove the word ‘I’ from this question, it now asks, “How does knowing know?” We then realise that there is only knowing that knows. There is no need (or time) for an ‘I’ to know. Knowing is our nature: without it, nothing could ever be known. We are knowingness, or rather, there is just knowingness…we come into the picture a moment later!
When an ‘I’ comes into the picture, consciousness/mind wants to categorise everything. That categorising and claiming is ego activity, and in doing this, knowingness separates itself from knowing, to a thing known. The knowing is transferred to an object, and knowingness is distracted – it forgets itself. It now sees the thing known as a reality, which it isn’t.
Our true nature is knowingness/awareness. When this knowingness/awareness becomes aware of itself, it finds nothing. This nothingness is uncontaminated space = emptiness. That is essence. That is pure being. That is holiness – or wholiness. When knowing/awareness recognises its pure empty essence, that is called the unity of the two truths.
The ultimate realisation of this unity is compassion: knowing what we all are. From this, the expression of love naturally arises.
For convention’s sake, we use the words ‘I’ and ‘we’, as, without these, it will sound a bit dry. It’s just a matter of knowing that the ‘I’ is not a permanent fixture: it comes into the picture a moment later, and that is how dharmakaya (our essence) became desire. In this way, emptiness becomes filled.
There is nothing wrong with an I. Just know its place…a moment later!
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Why do things happen?
Do things just happen? Are they created by causes and conditions? Or do things happen by design?
Buddhism says, everything is created by causes and conditions: everything depends on something else. Our present moment of self-identification depends on a previous moment of self identification.
Anything that is created can be traced back to a cause, even a leaf randomly falling on the ground. In spirituality, everything can be traced back to the creation of an “I”.
Are there accidents? Maybe…maybe not. Certainly, the karma (our mental filters) we carry around with us has an effect on whatever happens. It will ripen in the near or distant future, when conditions are ‘right’: this is cause and effect. For example, if we hold on to anger, and the ‘right’ person comes along and pushes our button, we will explode again…and again…
But what of things happening by design – unseen design? This must still come under the heading of karma, but it is interesting to look into this, as there are influences that seem to be creating problems for us at times. In our religious books, these problem would be termed ‘the devil’s work’. In Buddhism, it is called Mara.
There are entities that do not wish us well: they hate compassion, and try to disturb pure practitioners, feeding off our emotions. Our emotions are the key – Mara are attracted to our likes and dislikes. If we drop these, Mara cannot lie in ambush to cause us trouble!
We are all weak, and are governed by our own likes and dislikes. But there those with heavy karma, who are greedy, ambitious people, easily swayed and influenced by the promise of power. As we know, power can corrupt because it must be maintained. These people are easily controlled by Mara, not realising (or realising!) that they are doing the devil’s work.
Mara plays with ego! As we all have egos, Mara is busy in this world.
There are some who are heavily in debt to their karma, and so desire more power than most. These are very dangerous people, who are so controlling because of their desire to maintain this power and wealth that this becomes an addiction; “A rich man has as much chance of entering heaven, as a camel passing through the eye of a needle” (there is no inherent problem with wealth – it’s the clinging to it that causes the problem!).
Their actions affect others’ lives. One could say that ‘they’ are part of our karma, and I know this may not be easy to accept. However, it’s important to be aware of this, and not over-react, thereby creating more karma for ourselves. Tricky isn’t it?!
Just knowing what is going on can release us from complying, and being corrupted. This therefore frees us from unwittingly becoming involved in another’s karma. Ignorance is no excuse…claiming “I was only following orders,” still generates karma, bad karma. We have been corrupted by association. The implication of this is that we have a duty not to ignore.
There are those who have a long term plan for control, which may not be easily seen. The big spiritual problem for us all is that, if we can realise the frailty of human nature…so can others! In this way, they can gain what they want, without us noticing it. Tricky, isn’t it?!
Just take a look at the world. Is it one of openness and love? Or is it one of constantly changing manipulations and control, and above all, a tendency to blame someone else? Even parents use ‘bogeymen’ to control children!
Is it possible that people’s karma is being used against them? Is our frailty being exploited? To do this requires sophisticated thinking. Could a few people control the many? It’s easily done, if one thinks long term, and if many disciplines work together.
So, do things just happen? That is up to you to decide.
Just consider one scenario: manufacturing is being moved from one country to a cheaper country. Wouldn’t that have multiple effects on the culture of the country that no longer makes things? Then, thirty years later, a mass of problems occurs as a result. Did that just happen, created by causes and conditions? Or was it by design?
It appears to just happen, but was there design involved, utilising causes and conditions that naturally occur in frail humanity? If so, very clever, but unwise…
A word to the wise…Karma never fails!
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. 