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.

Each Generation Is Indoctrinated

Each generation is indoctrinated to rebel against the previous generation or culture. This how the world’s instability is maintained. There is always something ‘old’ to rebel against – a ‘new’ cause – which is the continuous stirring of the pot of chaos and confusion.

Thinking we’re right, and that our view is right and our life is right is Samsara, the vicious cycle of existence. If we’re too quick to be right, we live on a sandcastle with no foundation for any other possibilities.

The Dharma – Correcting Misunderstanding

The Dharma corrects any misunderstanding of reality.

The Dharma is definitely not about just acquiring answers, and then believing or assuming that we know. That is a misunderstanding; the academic way is reliant on words rather than experience, while the religious way is also a misunderstanding as it relies on belief and ritual.

Our mistake is being carried away by words and feelings, which affects our relationships with others. Attachment to either words or rituals is an addiction that brings a lack of kindness, a lack of empathy, a lack of Dharma. This misunderstanding means that we still have a strong self-identity. 

Dogma before kindness is not Dharma.
Wisdom is seeing ourself in action – it’s not in a book.

Suddenly, The Words Make Sense

We have known words all our life. We’ve known about the words because of what others say, but suddenly we know what they mean, and how they work. 

Why do we suddenly know? Goodness knows – it just happens. All that is needed is the right intention.

What’s the right intention? 
Being open to all possibilities and letting go of our traumas and accomplishments – all those interactions with others that made us feel either uncomfortable or superior, and which are still present today. Once we realise what the words mean and recognise the feeling, we don’t need the words, or the attitude.

Traumas – our likes and dislikes, and things we ignore – will be with us until enlightenment.
We all know the word ‘consciousness’ in our own language, but what it ultimately represents is an individual matter. 

Don’t take my word for it; it’s about trusting instinct rather than our mind, which has acquired what others say. This instinct is conscience.

Conscience: from Latin conscient- ‘being privy to’, from con- ‘with’ + scire ‘know’.

Confidence And Lack of Confidence

This is a difficult subject to read and to write about.

There are two ways of looking at confidence, one from a practitioner’s point of view (someone who is aware of consciousness) and the other from non-practitioner’s point of view (someone who isn’t aware of consciousness). One focuses on the seeing, while the other focuses on whatever is seen.

We can be confident that perception takes place through the senses. 
We can be confident that awareness of this perception is present, and therefore consciousness is present; this is the knowingness before anything is known. 

A practitioner realises that this consciousness is, in essence, pure and without bias, and is what we are. We are not the collection of responses in the mind.

Here, we have to be aware of the different viewpoints of practitioners and non-practitioners. 
To ordinary people, whatever is seen is important; through our memories and programming, we believe that we ‘know’, and that fixation leads to emotional responses. 

To a practitioner, it is the unaffected seeing without fixations that is important. The question, “What is this?” is our first response, as we’re not relying on memories at that moment.

The confidence that is acquired from achievements and social interactions shores up the ego. While we may do great things, beautiful things, there is a vulnerability present; we can become emotional and protective, and even aggressive if this false confidence is challenged – even with a look 🙂

There is, however, a natural, innate confidence which is unshakeable when pure perception is recognised. It is present in everyone but becomes obscured by confusion, doubt and fear, and so we turn to learned confidence to try and boost our feeling of wellbeing; this is unsustainable.

As a practitioner, we can lack confidence in voicing this pure view, as it cannot be expressed. 

I have only once in my life come across someone who expressed knowingness without speaking. He entered the room and sat; there was no charisma about him … just silent, confident awareness. Speaking didn’t add anything – there was a sense of no self-identity present, and it wasn’t an act.

How Intelligent Are We Supposed To Be?

If it’s material intelligence, then we need a high I.Q. 
If it’s social, then none at all. 
If it’s about consciousness, we need E.Q. 

E.Q. – emotional quotient or emotional intelligence – is the ability to understand, use, and manage our own emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathise with others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict. To put it simply – it’s wisdom.

I.Q. is high maintenance: we’re always juggling ideas, arguing and debating based on memories. Intellectual consciousness = pride.
E.Q. has nothing to maintain: it’s just direct perception in the moment now.
Pure consciousness = original reality.

Intelligence isn’t about having special powers (although the intelligencia wants us common people to think that they do. 🙂 ) Simple intelligence is about just being, and it’s what all creatures have in common.

Being convoluted is overdoing it, creating hell in pipe dreams and sandcastles, as opposed to being straightforward and easy-to-understand. Never feel embarrassed about not knowing enough; that is the aspect of ‘acquired’ intelligence. 

It is pure consciousness, the knowingness itself, that is our reality.

Enmeshed

Enmeshed: in a difficult situation from which it is hard to escape.

Just like the ‘news’.
🙂

When we are entangled in the contents of the mind, we’re caught and held. Thoughts are like entertainers that keep us occupied to the extent where they become our prison guards, maintaining groupthink.

We escape the control of thoughts by being aware of them. They just stop. We come to our senses, which are non-conceptual. Few people understand that we can see without thinking about it. Thoughts are merely memories which we impose onto whatever we see, affecting our actions and behaviour. 

Once we’re free, we can think for ourselves.

What do we do then?
Being free of thoughts – which are dreams – we wake up. 
We don’t become caught up in idle chatter, 
or orate for an ovation.
🙂

No longer enmeshed in words,
now, when we do talk, it’s only about what’s necessary.

Boring?
It’s actually allows space for enlightened activity. 

Warped Consciousness

Warp: to make or become bent or twisted out of shape, as a result of manipulation, corruption, perversion.

We use the word ‘consciousness’ generically to describe perception, as in “I have perception”, or “I have consciousness”. That word have is the warp factor.

There is a choice.
If we have consciousness, then what are we?
Or are we consciousness?

The answer affects our behaviour, and the way we live.