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.

Know Hell, Know Heaven*

When we recognise hell,
we recognise heaven.

Part four

Since beginningless time, sentient beings have wandered in samsara, experiencing unbearable suffering. Samsara is the vicious cycle of existence, in which we are constantly going up and down, and is expressed by our emotions which are manifested in one or other of the six neurotic realms, or psychological states. This comes down to three factors: ignorance of our true nature, which gives rise to desires and aversions.

These are three maras: demons that cause trouble for us. Just feeling uncomfortable is mara activity. Even if we say “Well, my life is wonderful!” (the god realm), we then hope this will last and fear that it will not. It’s all down to mara activity of ignorance.

We live in a vicious cycle of existence – samsara – and it’s hell. Feeling depressed is hell isn’t it?

The depression comes from dissatisfaction: we then attempt to cover up the effect and the cause of this dissatisfaction in one of the realms. This activity creates karma, which is our mental reference library. It will take more than a pill to be liberated from samsara. Pills will merely make suffering even more unnoticed.

We are all in it together, acting as demons for one another by projecting the desires and aversions of the “I”. The “I” likes to get its way.

This demon activity is the MUD that surrounds the BUDDHA – us!
For those who are theistic: this demon activity is the MUD that surrounds God– us!

So, how do we get out of trouble? We merely recognise and acknowledge hell.

Hell is conventional, impermanent reality, and a useful tool in its varying degrees. That very recognition – that which recognises – is ultimate reality. Our essential nature. Heaven or nirvana.

You see, the two are inseparable. Once we are enlightened, we realise that hell never existed, but for now, it is our path to enlightenment.

In Tibetan Buddhism, we speak of “Ground, Path and Fruition”:
The ground is heaven, our essential nature.
The path is hell, and our essential nature is obscured.
The fruition is recognising that the path never existed and that heaven was present all the time.

When we recognise hell,
we recognise heaven.

It is all down to us. We need discipline, generosity, patience, perseverance, meditation and wisdom – and from these, compassion naturally arises. When we can love ourselves we can love others. Mud and all…LOVE THE MUD!

Hopefully, this blog gives some indication of wisdom, which is transcendent knowledge. The rest is up to us.

*Here, the terms “heaven” and “hell” are used in the sense that heaven is our ultimate nature and hell is our mistaken nature. This mistake encompasses all the six realms.

Not Going to Heaven or Hell

Why the human realm is important.
Part three

Here we are looking at the human realm, which is very significant as it is the key realm to unlocking the door to our prison. The human realm is the psychological realm of excessive activity, desire, and frustration. It’s not satisfying at all! And that is its key.

This realm is the escape route. However, we find ourselves still locked in because we either want to ‘better ourselves’ in the samsaric prison, or ‘blame’ the samsaric prison: it is for this reason that find ourselves going up and down. We hope that these two activities – bettering ourselves and blaming – will be the answer to our problems. Because the human realm is the desire realm, and these desires are never fulfilled, we become frustrated, and resort to our education and philosophies which in turn keep us programmed in the samsaric state. Frustration has another purpose beyond our dreams.

It is only in the human realm that we can communicate. We find that we cannot talk to those in the other realms, as they are occupied in a fixated state…

“My life is wonderful!” (god realm)
“You can’t say that!”(jealous gods)
“That’s not allowed!” (animal realm)
“It’s all mine!”(hungry ghosts)
“Nobody loves me!”(hell realms)

…all so very occupied!

The human realm is uncomfortable as it’s full of dissatisfaction – desires and frustrations – and this usually leads to addiction, so we re-enter one of the other realms.

The realm of desire and dissatisfaction is the cause for liberation. Once we recognise the fact that we are suffering, wisdom can dawn.

“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

In this speech, Hamlet is telling Horatio that earthly education and philosophy can’t explain everything: now that they’ve seen the ghost, their previous beliefs are turned upside down.

NB More detailed information about the six realms is available elsewhere.

How Heaven Becomes Hell

The Six Realms
Part two

Even though we reject everything,
there is still a rejector.
As long as there is a rejector,
there is a path.

As long as we keep rejecting,
we are collecting something.

We have to accept
not to accept or reject.

Materially – or spiritually – we can become stuck. Life is pleasurable. We enjoy it – “I have arrived”. This is spiritual materialism, so there is the weakness. We are holding on to something! This is the god realm of pleasure.

In order to understand how the six realms work, we have to be honest with ourselves. For example, it’s easy to be taken in by people who inhabit the god realms, as they talk the talk, and it’s important to recognise this in ourselves – we can also talk the talk, can’t we?!

The problem is that if we don’t recognise our natural essence as clear empty space, we won’t recognise that there is a problem! We will continue to believe that the neurotic energies we experience are unique to ourselves. Because we are constantly holding on to the past and projecting into the future, we cannot find ‘now’. ‘Now’ is clear empty space – nothing doing! But we keep filling this space – this sacred space – with something or other. We could call this space ‘pure consciousness’ if that helps – it’s no man’s land.

We can start anywhere, so let’s start with the god realm – our perfect life – heaven – our achievement. The god realm is the environment of pride. Because of this weakness (pride) we are easily disturbed, which which is expressed through projections and justifications.

That is when we enter the realm of battle: the environment of the jealous gods. We pit our energy against that of others, and become very busy, picking at everything, grasping and taking. We take advantage of situations; this is the realm of envy. As we get more and more carried away, our desires become stronger, and we descend in to the human realm.

The human realm is the psychological state of excessive activity, desire and frustration. Here we see the development of addiction, because we feel that we need more and more (gradually, we are becoming aware that in every realm, the sacred space becomes more solid and frozen). This realm of desire, where we crave excessively, becomes very complicated and confused and so we attempt to simplify by categorising and pigeonholing, which then limits our view. We move to a coarser level where our intellect and humour are diminished and things become mechanical: and so we enter the animal realm of survival.

The animal realm is embodied by a rigid approach where we become habitual and territorial. We’re constantly trying to make things work, but there is never enough and we always need more: we take and take but cannot digest or share. And so we enter the realm of the hungry ghosts.

The realm of the hungry ghosts is the height of poverty. We are insatiable, always wanting more and more. Utter selfishness leads to aggression: we fixate and want to destroy everything. This is the powerful realm of hell: we either become very heated or very cold.

This is the journey from heaven to hell, and it can happen in a split second. Once we recognise that we are bound up in hell, the process reverses and we make our way back up to the god realms again. This is our psychological lot, up and down all day like the game of Snakes and Ladders! We may find ourselves predominantly living in one realm, perhaps throughout our entire life time – this was our choice.

It is important to recognise this pattern in others – not to condemn or label and then dismiss, but to understand and thus feel compassion. We can truly show compassion because we empathise, having been there ourselves, and got stuck. Spiritual knowledge is neutral: it is part of our psychological make up, and it all depends on whether we use this knowledge as a weapon or a wisdom.

The god realm is more ethereal and the hell realm more solid, but all the realms describe space under various conditions.

The six realms are unconscious consciousness.
Ego is unconscious space.

It is possible to transform this unconscious space into conscious space,
and that is done through the recognition of clarity.

The moment we recognise a realm,
we recognise the emotion associated with that realm.
That recognition is wisdom…
…the Buddha in the Mud.

That is the key to freedom.

How Heaven Becomes Hell
a description of how easily we slip from one state to another without noticing

The Six Realms
Part one

We are sacred space: pure intelligence, pure awareness, crystal clear. Emptiness. Shunyata. However, it’s recognising what we do within this sacred space that matters. We fill it up with conceptual fixations, making it more and more solid or frozen.

To see this in action, we must observe our emotions, and especially the particular emotion to which we are holding on, and which is driving us. This may be seen in our behaviour – both short term and long term – which becomes our personality for this lifetime. If we do not recognise our sacred space, then we live within an emotional realm with certain identifiable characteristics.

We could say that there are as many realms as there are sentient beings, but that’s too much to comprehend. In Tibetan Buddhism, it is said that there are 84,000 types of beings and so 84.000 types of disturbing emotions – and even that is too large to understand, so it has been narrowed down to six, which correspond to the six basic negative emotions. To be more precise, there are three fundamental disturbing emotions – desire, aversion and ignorance – and the basis of that is ignorance of our true nature, pure awareness.

Identifying these realms – these emotions – is good news as the emotions actually relate to the wisdoms and specific Buddha families (wisdom families). The Buddha family to which we relate is the wisdom through which we express ourselves*. The moment we recognise is the moment of freedom – this is the Buddha in the Mud! The healing is in the recognition: it’s that simple. But first we have to identify the problem before it can be healed.

The six realms are the god realm, the jealous god realm, the human realm, the animal realm, the hungry ghost realm and the hell realm. These are psychological states, and create the type of world in which we live – or choose to live. From this point of view, the realms are varying densities of emotions, filling sacred space. We could understand this basic space as our essential nature, or we can dig in our heels and never find complete fruition.

I don’t want to make this too long, and there are fuller explanations available elsewhere. What is important is to have an overall view and see the realms in action, especially when dealing with others – the smug, the argumentative, the addict, the mechanical person lacking humour, the greedy, the blamer. We are all of these – or rather, our mindset is.

* this will be expanded upon in another essay

The Magic of Compassion
There is nothing wiser than love

There is relative, conventional compassion, and ultimate compassion – conditional and unconditional. In Sanskrit they are called relative bodhichitta and ultimate bodhichitta. It may sound surprising, but we first have to understand ultimate compassion before we can understand relative compassion.

It’s quite simple!

When sitting quietly, we become aware. This is stillness: I am aware. So awareness is still relative: this is relative reality. A duality – ‘I’ am ‘aware’.

When we become aware of awareness itself, and find nothing more other than just pure awareness, that is emptiness. Ultimate reality, where duality dissolves into non-duality. There are your two truths!

Back to sitting quietly: if we recognise this duality, that recognition is non-duality. Not ‘me recognising”. Just recognition. When we recognise this unity of emptiness and awareness, a deep appreciation of that recognition arises. That deep appreciation is ultimate bodhichitta. Ultimate compassion. It’s a little goose-bumpy!

That deep appreciation is the same as in devotion. Devotion is a deep appreciation for symbolic radiance. This may be directed toward a symbolic appearance, or towards the symbolic teacher of daily life.

Once we recognise and appreciate ultimate bodhichitta, we can then acknowledge and recognise it in others. It is covered up, but it is nevertheless there. That recognition is compassion – love.

So where is the magic?

Ultimate compassion opens the doors to everything.
From this single realisation,
in the moment of letting go
everything that needs to be known is known.
That guarantees unconditional love.

In daily life, we re-enter the madness
in order for the magic to arise.
We see everything differently
as life is now our symbolic teacher.

There is magic in love.
Unimaginable magic.
The magic is blessings
of wisdom.

There is nothing wiser than love.

Blaming the Devil

In a world of increasing violence, it’s easy to get caught up in blaming.

There are two points of view which need to be seen simultaneously – conventional reality and ultimate reality. Conventional reality is what we assume reality to be – our accumulated intellect. Ultimate reality is the awareness of the assumption we are making – our intelligence.

The aspect of ultimate reality is to acknowledge mistaken view: it not an excuse not to blame, but rather, it acknowledges causes and conditions. In conventional reality we become part of the blaming machinery. Blame separates and divides. It’s meant to!

Blame diverts consciousness away from ultimate reality, to becoming involved in a conventional made-up reality – a belief system. This makes us feel righteous – but only for a moment, before the retaliation comes back at us, and off we go again.

This is the Devil’s ping-pong, and it does pong! It separates us from one another, and separates us from recognising our true nature. This is exactly what demon activity is. But there is another aspect to demon activity: the path of liberation.

Seeing police brutality on the news, one cannot help but feel sick. Excessive force is being used to create unnecessary suffering, and this is being allowing and justified by higher authorities. It is authorised torture, or even murder. But who do you blame?

That is the key. We are coerced into blaming and reacting – the devil’s ping-pong again. The world is obviously being manipulated (and has always been so) in favour of certain groups. They need people to be divided in order to create tensions, and keep us distracted and ready to obey. Just look at the news, and the sides we take. To the manipulators it doesn’t matter who wins, as they will make their sales. Just ask hedge fund managers! Actually, news is not new: situations are either orchestrated or belong to the constant cock-up theory. Either way the public loses.

How much do authorities care? Police tasers are no different from electric cow prods and are potentially more lethal. Debt and austerity are mental cow prods. Suffering keeps us in hope and fear. We are constantly being manipulated. Ping-ponged!

This is the state of the world at this present time. Blame and reaction play into the manipulators’ hands. The devil mentality makes us believe in this conventional world as reality, as a constant solid – when it’s not! Take away that belief and we cannot be manipulated. There is no devil – just utter selfishness.

Charles Baudelaire said, “The greatest trick the devil played was to persuade us that he does not exist,” thus suggesting that he does. The devil does not exist! Manipulators are constantly trying to persuade us that he does. He’s bogey man in the shadows, the alien, the reptilian… We associate Alistair Crowley Satanism, despite the fact that he actually never mentioned the devil. That is the great deception: he was a show man. But the deceivers have made a huge, huge foolish mistake…

The idea of the Devil and the idea of God have no reality. They are beliefs by consent: we’ve been a little sloppy in our thinking and logic.

There is good and evil, but this is merely a correct understanding of reality and a seeming reality. Good is our true, pure nature. Evil is the obscuration to recognising that true nature. Evil is merely a banal distraction: that which is not good, not beneficial.

So what is the foolish mistake?

The Devil wakes us up and God puts us to sleep!

The Devil is our own self identity, our self image.

God is our own righteousness about that self image – everything is fine, just believe, don’t worry, go back to sleep.

The ideas of both the Devil and God are banal beliefs.

Good and evil are to do with our true nature – pure essence – and the obscurations to recognising that pure nature, which is the excitement of the emotions. That’s all. If we want to blame someone, we should blame our selves. Whatever delusional, evil acts are committed, these are down to our and everyone’s self righteous selves.

That is not something we can stop in a hurry in others, but we can start now with our self. The whole point to this is protecting ourselves from harm, by merely not consenting to believe…anything!

When we understand the banality of ego, we can apply the four enlightened activities:

• pacifying is understanding that nothing truly exists, and there is no problem

• enriching is clarifying that fact

• magnetising is inspiring the recognition of wisdom within ego’s demonic activity

• destroying is merely reflecting ego’s activity

These arise from understanding and recognising our absolute nature of emptiness: evil can not affect emptiness. Emptiness just allows these banal distractions to be, without either accepting or rejecting.

Flawed but Beautiful
…that’s us!
😉

The body is a camera.
The mind is the film.
We need to synchronise body and mind.
Clear film and clear lens = clear perception.

The dust on the film and lens is doubt; the flaw.
This flaw clouds our view
with assumptions to which we are attached.
We just need to trust ourselves, and acknowledge this flaw.
When doubt clears, perception clears = clear view.

The scene is constantly changing. The pure view merely acknowledges.

It is because of the flaws that we notice the flaws.
This space dust reminds us.
Aren’t they beautiful?
Thank you flaws!!!

The Paradox of
Being in Love
and
‘Being’ in Love

Being in love
Being in love is exciting.
We love being in love!
It’s nice…but one sided.

It is essence being in love
with ideas about itself – or something else.
Feeling this has to protected,
we love ourselves more than others.

When we meet people,
we either move towards them – are attracted – I love
or
we move away – repulsed – I don’t love
or
we are indifferent – ignore – I don’t care.

“Being” in Love
This is what we naturally are – being love.
We merely let go of desire, aversion and indifference,
and love naturally manifests at every moment.

The power of love ignites
when we truly recognise
that every sentient being has this same feeling,
but it is covered up, obscured, forgotten, ignored.

The challenge is to love without expectations.
Then nothing can disturb that love.

The Buddha spoke in Pali

The Buddha spoke in Pali: We don’t, and essence certainly doesn’t.

The Buddha spoke in Pali: This was translated into Sanskrit, and then into Tibetan and many other languages. We may see certain languages as ‘holy’, particularly for prayers and mantras, but the actual experience is beyond any language or culture. Writings, in whatever language, have to be archived as a source of knowledge, but wisdom comes from experience…actual, pure experience. The truth is revealed in our intention and openness.

Calling Buddhism a religion limits its appeal, and causes people to repeat phrases which they do not understand, and so confuse themselves and others. An example: “If you see the Buddha on the road, kill him.” People repeat this to mean that you are your own Buddha, and so place no one above your head. The teaching is that conceptual knowledge isn’t actual knowledge: concepts are ‘killed’ or dissolved by cutting their roots. We have to do the work to experience the wisdom of the Buddha’s inspiration, and not just his words.

Buddhism is the study of the psychology that obscures our true nature: it doesn’t add to it. Modern psychology merely studies the human mind and its functions, but not the nature of mind itself.

We can find ourselves caught between exaggerated holiness, and modern quick-fix remedies (actually, modern quick-fix remedies delay our spiritual progress, and neither are they a quick-fix!).

Monasteries and shrine rooms with eight foot tall Buddhas and a thousand smaller Buddhas are very shiny and very ostentatious – and not totally necessary. Every time I walk into one of these, the first thought is, “How much did this cost?!” Donations are called merit, and artisans can make a living from their skill, but we will not find the truth in either a mental or physical construct.

Centres are good for people to go to for support, but Buddha – or God – doesn’t actually live in the temple, or in a book, or on a this screen…Buddha is reading this now!

Jesus said…
“The Kingdom of God is inside you, and all around you,
not in mansions of wood and stone.
Split a piece of wood…and I am there.
Lift a stone…and you will find me” (essence).

It costs nothing to to recognise essence.
It costs nothing to love…
….enough said!
😉

The Spontaneous Moment: The beer is optional
Finding contentment in satisfaction

Satisfaction has two aspects: contentment and mechanical, obsessive addiction. We all think we know the effects of addiction: those little rules we make up or conform to, in order to justify our status and existence. We chug along finding satisfaction in this and that, be it beer, Mozart or even meditation. This is why we are limited, sentient beings, enslaved by our desires. Corporations and governments use psychologists to maintain this enslavement, through unseen but effective propaganda (look up Edward Bernays*).

Finding contentment.
If we want a beer, there is satisfaction in actually sitting down with one, and satisfaction in drinking it. Like anything else, there is satisfaction in starting something, and completing it. If we look closer, we see that we have described two moments. Moments! The beginning and the end. Being satisfied with those moments, we then desire more of the same, and that is how addiction starts, resulting a mechanical personality. That is the desire and satisfaction of corporations!

We have associated those moments of satisfaction and contentment with an activity – just like Pavlov’s dogs – and so we want more of the same.

Let’s take a closer look. The activity of drinking that beer was made up of many moments, each having a beginning and an end: a series of sips. If we are one with those moments, we need nothing else – we merely sip the beer and nothing else. There is our contentment. The activity allows us to be focused on the moment, in the same way as shamata meditation watches the breath. When we are not sipping, we are merely aware: that is vipassana meditation…the beer is optional 😉

When sitting, a realised person just sits. When eating, they just eat. When walking, they just walk. This is spontaneous presence, needing nothing else. We are usually so busy between the moments that we do not notice the moments passing. We fill them with thoughts, or a vacancy: “We sleep perchance to dream…”

When there are moments, there is time.
When moments dissolve into one spontaneous presence,
awareness rests in timelessness.

The obscurations of busy-ness and vacancy dissolve
and original wakefulness is revealed.

The body clock is still running, but essence just is.

* Edward Bernays was the master of influencing and shaping public opinion: he developed ideas of earlier social psychologists and the work of his uncle, Sigmund Freud, in order to create techniques to manipulate the subconscious desires of the masses.

Finding Inner Peace and Staying There
…in a busy world

Inner peace is clarity.
Clarity is clear space.
Clear space is emptiness.
Emptiness is purity.
Purity is wisdom.
Wisdom is recognition.
Recognition is understanding.
Understanding is inner peace.
Inner peace is clarity.
It’s all one.

So, how do we maintain inner peace in a busy world?

Well, within this inner peace, clarity, space, emptiness, purity, recognition, understanding, wisdom, there is a residue of karmic reactions that arise in the mind like a movie from the past. This maintains our involvement in this world-mind. The way out is to merely accept it: don’t reject it. Let it come and let it go.

But… But… But!!! No buts. We can either stress ourselves – and those around us – by constantly getting involved in the multiplex movie theatre, or we can live in our spiritual understanding.

Don’t expect our karmic reactions not to be there, as they are our path.
Our path is our confusion; our misunderstanding about reality.
Our human life is merely our karma playing itself out.
As we sowed so we reap.
Inner peace comes when we accept this.
Some days our path is smooth, and some days rough,
but inner peace is always present.
Know that.
It’s our natural state.

We have to learn to accept everything with one taste, and not become too involved. When our day is smooth we don’t bother, and when it’s rough we become annoyed. Inner peace is stability. In this age, life is cheap. Every day there is news of killing: it is as if the earth is one great conveyor belt on a killing machine.

That’s the Kali Yuga for you. If it’s not killing bodies, it is killing inner peace.

We all have to die, and we need to die in peace, for the next part of our journey. While we are here, we do what we can with the abilities we have. The more inner peace, the more we are able to help others.

If we can accept this, then we will find satisfaction in life.
Satisfaction is being in the moment.
Spontaneous presence.
Inner peace is inner dignity.

Satisfaction lies in experiencing every moment
without expectation.
Thus, we maintain clarity and inner peace.

Are you looking for the absolute truth?

Well, there’s only one thing that is stopping you….you!
That which is looking is absolute truth.
It is really that simple.

However we just don’t see it. Why not?
Because we expect to become enlightened when we see it.
It doesn’t work like that 😉

We simply realise that that which is seeing is our true absolute nature,
but we still carry a karmic load – an attitude.
Collapsing our karmic reference library is the real work.

This is done moment by moment,
while at the same time, not creating more.
For this reason, we have to be extremely careful.

If we are half-hearted about looking and recognising,
then we merely maintain the status quo.
If we are committed to looking and recognising,
then we exhaust the status quo.

Holding on to me and mine is what stops the realisation of absolute truth.
So what am I? That which knows in silence.
It’s that simple.
The continuity of that knowingness, moment by moment,
exhausts all karmic effects.
Then we are free.

The Illusion of Reality

The Illusion of Confidence
The Illusion of Capacity
The Illusion of Knowledge
all create
The Illusion of Reality

We, as humans, are either over-confident, or lacking in confidence. It’s all the same thing: the expression of over/under confidence is a projection of confusion as we do not understand our true nature and what we know. We become caught up in either accepting or rejecting to whatever appears, based on an unstable memory, and ignorance of our natural knowingness.

Relative reality is fixated on accepting or rejecting: there is no spontaneous presence, but just a karmic memory – a product from the past which we repeat.
Absolute reality has no memory: it neither accepts nor rejects – just a spontaneous presence without any karmic product from the past, and so nothing to repeat.

We all have a ‘knowing quality’, which is awareness (this is not ordinary perception – it is pure perception). It is the one thing we can trust. What matters is how we (essence) relate to this awareness. Is it pure awareness? Or fossilised awareness?

We react because of mistaken past experiences, and therefore we recreate situations, thus deepening our karmic memory. Feeling guilty about a negative emotion only serves to recreate more emotions. Reaction is a product from our past; our fixed ideas about ourselves and everything. We exaggerate our knowledge, and we make assumptions based on a mistaken memories.

Breaking the illusion is recognising awareness. That’s all we need. In the moment of being aware – of recognising an emotion – there is liberating space. It’s that simple. But then we want to play with it… 😉

In the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, the ultimate answer to life, the universe and everything was Forty Two, but they never found the ultimate question to fit the ultimate answer. Whatever question we can come up with to that answer, which was wrong, the question would always be…Faulty Too!

It doesn’t matter how clever or dim we think we are, this judgement will always be an illusion, because knowingness is naturally present. And that is why we go round in circles, playing with the illusion, trying to make it fit reality… Forty two! Faulty too? Forty two! Faulty too?

The Value of Ritual
(of course rituals can become mechanical and only feel nice when they stop!
Meditation can get like that.)

This is connected to the illusion of knowledge – merely repeating and not understanding. We can easily fool ourselves into thinking that we know something, mainly because we don’t ask the question…why?

As humans we are naturally ritualistic – we follow routines. It’s that old habitual patterning again. If we took an aerial shot of our lives, we’d see our deep tram lines of behaviour on the map: just check your browsing history on the internet. We are addicts ;-)! (incidentally, internet and phone surveillance records record these patterns. The funny thing is that those who are doing the surveillance will also be surveyed…like dogs chasing their tails…crazy!)

Spiritual ritual does have a value: it’s a ritual within a ritualistic life. It’s a reminder to stop being busy, but it can easily become part of our busy-ness…crazy!

Throughout our spiritual lives, we gradually pick up practices, and there are more formalised ones in spiritual centres. They do help to set a space aside from the humdrum life of being an information pundit.

It doesn’t really matter why we do ritual practice. It is at least something, and fruition may grow out of our confusion. The point is to be whole-hearted about it, and know what we are doing and why. We do it because it is meaningful to us.

Since doing certain practices, my life has changed: amongst these are the prayers to Manjushri (this helps with memory), Vajra Kilaya (for protection), Chenrezig (for compassion), Dorje Yudroma (for protection), and Guru Rinpoche for (correctness). Most important are the refuge prayers at the beginning, and the dedication to all sentient beings at the end, plus long life prayer for my teachers. Within the practices, there are breaks to just let go…it’s nice to stop…emptiness! This is called the completion stage.

I just couldn’t start the day without communicating with and receiving from the enlightened ones – supplications and blessings.

The recognition that all mental appearances are like rainbows – insubstantial – helps in the death process, where everything is seen as mere projections of the mind and therefore there is nothing to fear.

Should we be confident?
What is confidence? What does ‘should’ mean?

And then there is the illusion of confidence, living in a world of ‘shoulds’…

Confidence: something we feel certain about.
Should: correct, an expected state, suggestion, probability, acceptance, hope.

There are many aspect to this, but the final conclusion comes from Garba Dorje statement:

‘Three words that strike the vital point’:
“Recognise your own nature,
decide on one point and
gain confidence in liberation.”

It all comes down to recognition.

However, we still have to deal with over-confidence (over positive, and not in keeping with one’s actual abilities) and with the feeling of guilt about what we ‘should’ be doing. Confidence and what we should be doing, are connected and this connection is founded in recognition.

When we have something specific to do, we should be accurate with it – be correct. Then we will gain confidence arising from ability: the more we learn, the lower we assess our abilities because we recognise that there is more to learn.

When we are not specific about what to do, there are no shoulds – we may chose to do it, or not. It is only when we recognise the significance of what we want to do that we should engage correctly and thereby gain confidence. For example, we don’t have to meditate or do yidam practice, but if we recognise there is a purpose for those practices, we should then do them properly…and thereby gain confidence.

Others can suggest that we do something – that we should do something – but it is up to us to recognise whether that thing is actually worth doing. If so, we should then do it properly, whether it’s changing our mindset or changing a tyre on the car!

A problem arises with group mentality and conforming.
A group can be useful as it may help generate positive energy and give a sense of direction and support. But we mustn’t exchange our initial inspiration to recognise truth for the comforting security of being part of a group. Groups can produce a false confidence, a sort of dogma of rules that we should do. But these have nothing to do with recognising the truth, and knowingness can be missed.

This false confidence is full of projections and over-expression. It is like a lack of confidence posing as confidence, projecting all the right words but without compassion. True confidence feels and tastes the situation: it may not look confident, because it is not fixating – just tasting.

It is because of this tasting and reviewing of our reactions that we can recognise our true nature, decide on that one point, and gain confidence that liberation is possible.

As grandma use to say,
“Empty vessels make the most noise”
Empty here means a lack of confidence.

When we are truly empty
we make no noise at all
as we rest in confidence.
We have arrived so there is nothing we should do.

Alien Contacts

Are there aliens?
Well, yes and no.

We must use logic to dispel fantasy, and see what remains. We then dispel that which remains with wisdom, and arrive at the truth – our essential nature. That’s what it’s all about, after all!

Aliens.
If we consider reincarnation, then we are all (every being in the universe) aliens taking rebirth somewhere, in some realm, in some form. If we have had infinite rebirths, then we have been aliens of all sorts…we just forget this.

In Tibetan text, the Bardo is mentioned. ‘Bardo’ means gap, the gap between death and birth (there are also three Bardos in death, and four in life).

Just after death, we are invited to the higher realms (these appearances may be interpreted in many ways), but because of our propensity to cling to a self image and emotions, we turn away and gravitate to one of the six sentient realms…again! (more detailed information about these realms is on this blog).

Towards the end of the death process comes the “Bardo of Becoming” where we choose our next incarnation (but this is actually dictated by our attitude – karma – which drives us to take a resultant form). Every sentient being in any dimension goes through this process, until enlightened. To repeat: if this is so, then we have all been “aliens”. We are aliens now…I know I am 😉 !

Every reported alien encounter I have read has expressed superficial, vague ideas with smatterings of platitudes. It’s like something from a comic for the needy, given to us by an ‘adorable’ uncle. You know the type I mean! No information purported to have been received from “aliens” ever – EVER – comes up the the standard of the Buddha’s understanding and teachings . From what I can gather, we know more about the nature of reality than these ‘aliens’ communicate to us via these ‘adorable’ uncles.

We even hear from certain people who think themselves sages (‘adorable’ uncles) to whom the aliens speak. Anything that comes into our mind may be – and is – interpreted in many ways. These voices can appear to come from aliens, or God: I don’t know whether this is the same thing, but every day I am inspired to write something. This is due to having received precious wisdom from authentic masters of the Buddha’s teachings, which I synthesise and then write down. I suppose I could claim that this is communication from aliens, or God, but neither would be true. These writings also come from a lot of practice and study, and are provable beyond any belief.

Everything in the mind is a creation…make-believe…and people are highly suggestible, as shown in this video. The Asch conformity experiment http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyDDyT1lDhA
We can be made to believe anything, because we lack true confidence in our true reality. So, we make a reality up, or worse – conform to another’s reality. I’ve attended retreats where this type of behaviour has gone on: sentimentality in the guise of spirituality. In a world of computer games and fantasy films, it’s easy to hypnotise people, especially children, who do not ever grow up. The hypnotist-craftsman merely nudges us along, deeper into the dream.

If you want to contact an alien, just talk to a neighbour or member of the family…even your own self image. What every alien thinks is already in your own mind, and that of others. Have you ever wondered why we, as humans, are so different – despite all experiencing identical emotions?

Conspiracy theorists maintain that films reflect what is going on (especially sci-fi films): they are merely part of the illusion created to preserve our hypnotic state. It is frighteningly easy to make the masses believe anything.

Aliens – you just gotta love ’em 😉

There are couple of French partridges that visit our garden every day.
Who knows?
They could be a two reincarnated Pleiadians.
Nothing is fixed.

NB this is not to deny that there are conspiracies and atrocities going on, but the “alien agenda” is a distraction.

Healing without Healing

If you were a doctor who’d studied medicine but never saw or interacted with patients, your studies would be pointless, as they would not be being put into practice. The same goes for the Dharma, which is also a healing mechanism.

Everyone we meet is suffering in some way, even other ‘doctors’. It all depends how deeply we look. Practice makes perfect: by interacting, we can go deeper while healing our own imperfections at the same time.

Dharma students are potentially holy* people…we need to act like that. We can start by not rejecting those who do not conform to our lifestyle. Simply ask someone how they feel…and listen. This listening involves spaciousness, allowing the other space in which to express themselves, without diving in to correct, modify, elaborate. Letting the person be, in order to see for themselves without any expectation.

*Holy: dedicated to spiritual purpose, morally and spiritually excellent.
This doesn’t mean we have to appear affected in any way: that is the path of unholiness, and makes others uncomfortable. If we start to think ourselves as holy, we separate ourselves from others. “Holy” is being one with…wholesome…holy-some… 😉

Abiding in Space

This is the problem inherent in looking for yourself.

Is this self abiding in space, or self-abiding space?
We have to be very careful with what we are told.

‘Abiding in space’ suggests something abiding in space – a me.
Duality.
In ‘Self-abiding space’ there is no something to abide – no me.
Non-duality.

In meditation, this may not be recognised clearly,
and there may be only milimoments of true recognition.
Of totally letting go of letting go.

It is clear that outer space is merely self abiding, needing nothing to be – it just is.
The same goes for inner space.
The only difference is that inner space is pure knowingness/awareness.

It’s good to practise being aware of both – coming in and out of each.

Eyes open and aware of the whole scene including one’s peripheral vision.
Allowing everything to hit the back of the eyes instantaneously enables
this self-abiding awareness to be recognised, without any elaboration.
Like a child walking into a cathedral, one sees everything at once,
without identifying anything.

This is the meeting between outer space and inner space.
When the vase breaks, the space inside and outside are not different.

Not so much idiot meditation, as stupidity meditation

This has to be looked at very carefully: different traditions approach the Dharma in different ways. The approach in the Kagyu tradition is to ask nicely for the mind to retire, whereas in Nyingma, it is not so nice. Although both may use crazy wisdom, Dzogchen in the Nyingma tradition can apply the shock treatment, which is down to the relationship between teacher and student…or an inspired moment which just happens spontaneously!

On retreat, when I first met my present teacher, it came out – in public – that I had spent 25 years in stupidity meditation (just sitting there). This was due to having practised previously in the Kagyu tradition, where one lets the mind rest, and everything drops away: that which is left is Mahamudra (Mahamudra is essence, and is the same as Rigpa in the Nyingma tradition).

Suffice to say, Kagyu didn’t work for me as I didn’t know what I was looking for…even though I had asked.

Anyway, the shock and anger I felt arising at realising I had spent so much time in “stupidity meditation” (“idiot” meditation was my words) was aimed at the right person at the right time. To ask the question whether one had wasted 25 years and receive the response of a nod and a shrug was a deep shock – to be followed by “Are you OK about this?” to which I replied, “No, I’m bloody angry, but I will do as you say.”

This approach may or may not work, and it may take time for the shock to manifest. This is a very important point, as dualistic fixations have to collapse.

Talking from experience, there can be many such shocks in one’s lifetime – they are devastating, and not fun. Very uncomfortable and painful. Not everyone is ready for such devastation, annihilation, mental collapse! After eleven years with a previous lama, he suddenly kicked me out …crazy wisdom? Or not? After five years with an Bengali guru on a path of total devotion, he kicked my wife and me out…perhaps our faces didn’t fit. After nine years with a fourth way group, they kept threatening to kick me out…oh, hang on…perhaps I’m just really annoying! 🙂

Back to the retreat…after the meeting, people would come up to me and try and smooth my mind. This was very kind – and very annoying – as this was something I had to fully experience, and not to try and conceptualise and justify it. I had to truly realise that time had not been wasted, because its fruition had the effect of grounding me, cutting through all expectations, hopes and fears.

There is no right or wrong here, but only what suits the individual. And I now know when I’m lost in stupidity meditation, and when I’m not.

I called my ‘self’ the idiot.
It’s nice to know!

Idiot Meditation – The Banal Self

To become enlightened, we must first identify
the obstacle to enlightenment.
This obstacle is the created image of ourself.
Clever me 😉

This image can be very subtle, so subtle that we
can achieve an enlightened ego, and become a master of
conventional reality – the great illusionist.
This is not enlightenment, but merely a puffed-up idea.
The claim “I am” clearly reveals this.
That is the banality of self. The source of evil.
Because of this we create hope and fear, we feel we have
to defend ourself and attack others.

When practising, one of the problems is being caught up
in “idiot meditation”. Being trapped in a vacant state.
In this vacant state, there is no insight, no knowing,
no emotion, no virtue, no clarity.
This is just a vacant state of perception
– but this is not pure perception, which is pure essence.

The trap is “I experience”, “I rest in stillness”, “I am aware”,
“I am being”…these are still at the conventional level of reality.
This “I” mentality gives rise to sentimentality.

Holding on to an mental image of ourselves is the reason
we repeat everything, with the same attitude.

Through proper instruction, we can break through this barrier,
to pure awareness – pure essence.
Then, there is just stillness, just awareness, just is-ness and just love.
This is not a sentimental love, as it knows the true nature of everything.

Ps, Idiot meditation is a tough lesson, I did this for 25 years!

The Danger of Conformity

This is a delicate subject, as we all think that we’re on the side of good…think again!

We merely have both potentials of good or evil. This video, by Professor Philip Zimbardo, explains what can happen to us when we get caught up in group dynamics.

Becoming involved in any group, we can lose our way. We relinquish our brains, our empathy and our humanity and become a type, a caricature, for good or evil (just to reiterate: ‘evil’ is a lack of active empathy, which can be under the guise of ‘good’).

Heroes do not conform. Zimbardo uses the phrase “the banality of heroism.” Heroism is quite ordinary. Heroes do not stand around being one of the group, feeling safe. Heroes are confident and clear about what they have to do.

Another phrase Zimbardo uses is, “the banality of evil”…interesting!

It’s well worth studying his work to gain a greater understanding of our potential: there are times when we feel that we can’t just sit on our nest meditating and feeling good, occupied with our own progress and evolution 😉

NB The content of this video is harrowing.

I know, and I don’t know
These are two mental prisons.

How our conventional reality imposes on to absolute reality.

On a conventional level, it’s beneficial to know how to do something, and to admit when we don’t know how to do something. In the first scenario, we can cruise on auto pilot, whereas in the second we can learn something. The problem arises when we become stuck in a realm of “I know!” and “I dunno!”. When this happens, we become a type, a profession, a caricature, and we lose our knowingness or awareness of our true nature. I find I’m in a constant oscillation – lost and found!

If we think we know ‘something’ or can do ‘something’, then we are not actually experiencing it: we are merely repeating a pattern of behaviour, going round in circles, and giving the impression of knowing, of being enlightened. This is pride (we are talking here about function in relative reality). We then project our imagined talents onto situations, and stop refining perception, thus delaying our arrival at the final shore.

A genuine change in perception is moving closer to genuine enlightenment.

There is knowing, and there is knowingness. Knowingness is merely being open to a situation without imposing anything on to it. It is just being aware in a situation. When having something explained to us, we merely listen, neither accepting nor rejecting. The explanation is that person’s point of view, and may not require ‘correcting’ from our point of view. These are both merely viewpoints, again on a relative level.

“I don’t know” has the same effect as “I know”: both dominate a situation. We feel inferior, unfortunate, unappreciated, got at. This is inverted pride (another function in relative reality).

“I know” and “I don’t know” are all about me. There are ‘things’ we don’t know about, but we can learn – that’s if we want to – instead of holding onto an idea about ourselves. When we learn, we then know something. Knowingness is already present, as is awareness, but usually goes unnoticed, because we are straight in there, confusing the situation!

I suspect that even in dementia, when we forget names of thing or who people are, we will still have a sense of knowing, of being aware. Animals cannot communicate to explain the name of things, but still have awareness, a knowingness about a situation.

I know and I don’t know.
Pride and inverted pride.
Both are imprisoned in their own realm.

Pride is a feeling of being special because of being smarter, richer, higher than others.
Inverted pride is a feeling of being special because of being a victim, of being poor, of being insecure and of perceiving oneself to be inadequate.

Pride spends a lot of time talking about how wonderful it is, and how much more deserving. Inverted pride monopolises the conversation with self-condemnation, talking about how unfortunate it is: “Poor me!”.

Both attitudes are all about me, me, me with little consideration of how that focus on one’s self ignores the rest of humanity, and doesn’t recognise that other people have their own qualities and deeds to be proud of, or to regret.

This brings us to the alaya, and the alayavijnana.
The alaya and alayavijnana are two Sanskrit words for the eighth consciousness – the store house of memories – our karmic bank and its contents. The first five are the sense consciousnesses, the sixth is perception, the seventh is judgement, and the eighth is our reference library. The alaya is the hard drive, and the alayavijnana is the software = memory imprints. We relate to the outer world through these eight consciousnesses (there is more information about these consciousnesses in the ‘search’ facility of this blog).

The trap into which we fall is being stuck in the eighth consciousness, which is “I experience”, “I rest in stillness”, “I am aware”, “I am”…these are still at the conventional level of reality, and this is the reason why we repeat everything.

Through proper instruction, we can break through this barrier, to what could be called the ninth consciousness – pure awareness – essence – higher self. Then, there is just stillness, just awareness, just is-ness. One one level, this is called Rigpa, and on a higher level it is termed Dharmakaya, although other traditions will give this other names.

Is your spiritual welfare being looked after?

Neither time nor space exist – but they are the two most precious things we have! In our relative existence, we need time and space in order to practise. Time to just be, and a clear space in which to ‘be’. Everything else we do is just to support that.

Teachers do not have the time to guide every student individually: they can only offer you the ball, but you have to practise and play with it.

Somehow, we have to sustain our own aspiration.

We have to be clear and confident in why and how to practise properly. This brings us to the concept of reincarnation and future lives. Can reincarnation be proved? Well no, but psychologically, a consideration of the possibility of reincarnation has a huge effect on our lives – although of course, not everyone would agree ;-). Much can be inferred from being born with certain tendencies and inclinations, and a recognition that pure essence never changes. There is also the aspect of accumulated good and bad karma which will have effect on future lives.

The main point is that by not identifying with this mind and body, we never feel old. We will practise constantly until the very last breath, resting in pure awareness and unconditional happiness. So the idea of a better incarnation in the future, and a genuine wish to be of benefit to sentient beings because of the sadness that arises from watching others suffer unnecessarily, can sustain us throughout our practice

Softness and Sentimentality in Spirituality

Softness is melting our frozen fixations.

Sentimentality is brittle,
imposing hopes and fears and fabricating emotional pressure.

One is absolute reality.
The other is a conventional projection.

In the heat of sentimentality
there is the potential to recognise the coolness of softening.

And that is challenging,
because sentimentality requires acknowledgement as it is our relative truth.
It can melt into emptiness.

Softness and sentimentality are an interwoven tapestry,
completing the picture.

We can be in love with sentimentality
or be, in love with softness.

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