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.

We All Hear And See Differently

The difference is in our personal mindset of memories – our translator. Every time we react or respond, our particular, peculiar mindset – the ‘product’ – is revealed. This mindset is activated when the brain sees something it recognises and lights up, before we (consciousness) are aware of it. This is known commercially as ‘brand awareness’. Our ‘product’ is picked up by others through their ‘brand awareness’. 

Without even talking, we are attracted, put off or indifferent to others. When we’re aware of our habitual reactions, we recognise that communication is probably not possible. 🙂

Conscious communication is rare 
as it needs an open conduit of pure consciousness both ways.

We Should Never Assume That We’re Talking To Sane People

People look sane until they start speaking, and then they reveal what’s in their minds.
We may think, “Surely there must be more! Perhaps they talk about reality at home?” 🙂

For over fifty years, I’ve been involved in ‘spiritual’ groups, and it was the same then. All one hears is dogma – do this, do this, do that. Dogma is a formula, a belief held definitively and without the possibility of reform. 
Dogma: from the ancient Greek  – opinion, belief, judgement.

Reform isn’t about changing the words; it’s about personal experience of the meaning of those words, where we don’t just repeat them, we live them. Compassion is often spoken about, but rarely lived. Words create feelings – a duality, which is up for interpretation. Experience is non-duality where there is no form, just essence – pure awareness.

Duality is making a big deal of everything we see.
Non-duality is just seeing.

We are accountable for our every word and action = karma.

Believing The Truth

‘Believing the truth’ is an oxymoron. 
Belief has been our greatest deception.
Belief is the opposite to knowing. 
Belief obscures knowing.
Belief is suggestion.
Belief makes us stupid.

To believe is to accept that something is true without proof. We are governed by this principle, but if we believe the truth, then we will never know the truth. To know is to be aware, through observation and recognition. 

All sentient beings are scientists, constantly weighing up situations and proving them. Only then can we actually know what is beneficial and what is harmful. Why would we believe anyone who believes? This make-believe reality, with its power of persuasion, has kept humanity in darkness for a very long time. 

We are governed by deception. 
Govern: from Latin gubernare, ‘to steer’.

So what is the truth that is indisputable, and in which no one has to believe?

It is conscious awareness; without this faculty, we wouldn’t have survived. We are stupid when we censor the clarity of awareness with our preconceived ideas.
It is conscious awareness; without this faculty, we wouldn’t have survived. We are stupid when we censor the clarity of awareness with our preconceived ideas.

Conscious awareness knows.
If we don’t know this, 
then what do we know?

Recognition

Questions Induce Recognition
Questions aren’t about getting the answer.
Questions are about our answer along our path.
Interaction creates an open atmosphere
for the answer we need to know at that moment.

Looking Back On Stupidity
I look back on life and see how stupid I was – and why. It was the trauma of believing in hearsay, idle chatter and stories, which are all only words. Understanding how we are attracted and held by words creates empathy for others who are caught up in the same predicament. 

The challenge is trying not to suggest that we all live in stupidity. 🙂

The Joy Of Letting Go Of The Past 
The joy of letting go of past traumas
is the release from suffering.

If You Want To Understand The Actual Dharma
If you want to understand the actual Dharma,
look at what’s looking.
It’s cheaper,
and it tells us everything we need to know.

‘Path’ Means Levels Of Understanding

Our path is not one idea, one identity that we carry along with us. Our path is a continuous refinement of understanding, which means constantly dropping what we thought we knew, and the type of person we were. 

Holding on to any ideas of self, culture, race, religion, words, we end up in hell, talking about our past, where no progress is made while we just use jargon to impress the impressionable.

At the bottom of the comments list on this page is an image of Padmasambhava; I find him both totally scary, and a reminder. 🙂

(Guru Rinpoche, also known as Padmasambhava, lived circa 8-9th century, and made several prophecies about the future of Buddhism and world events. Some of these include predictions about the spread of Buddhism, the degeneration of the Dharma, and the arrival of Maitreya, the future Buddha.)

Transmission And Receptivity

No communication, no transmission, no reception,
no spontaneous insight, no magic, no open mind, no blessings.

An open mind clears all channels.

There Is No Dharma In The Present Moment

In the present moment, there is nothing to hold on to 
– not even the Dharma, words, devotion …
These separate us into a duality – me and something.

The greatest trick evil ever played 
was to make people believe in words. 

The real Dharma is the present moment.
What else is emptiness?
🙂

Dharma without hardship … without anything.

Being Taken Over

Capturing the mind en masse is a war we never noticed.

We don’t notice that we’ve been taken over by a gradual cultural change until it is too late. When people have taken on ideas, they’ve have been assimilated. We’ve been processed. People self-censor without noticing, which means they cannot be honest or trustworthy. Our communication skills are woefully inadequate, and we never realise that there are those who are out-thinking us. 

An example: we may feel good about ourselves playing a game, not realising someone else wrote the rules. We think we know everything because we catch up with the news, not realising that someone chose what we read – and that someone could even be AI nowadays.

We are kept in a maze of concepts. Our culture is being managed in the guise of evolving, but in reality, we are conforming to chaos and conflict, and this will then be used to create more aggressive processing.

When we know our own mind, the essence of which is pure consciousness, we are free to see with clarity – divine splendour. Never say, “I know my own mind.” What is this ‘I’ that knows? 

In the first instant of anger or annoyance, wisdom or pure consciousness is present. Something is seen and the mind brightens – that moment is our reality of divine splendour – but then, our processing kicks in and we are captured again with an emotion, and we react.

We merely have to notice this processing, and we are free. 
Enlightenment is never being taken over by appearances.

What People See And Don’t See

Which is more amazing –
what people see, or what people ignore?

Magic is the art of deception. It has captivated and enthralled us for over 2,500 years. The first recorded magic act was by the magician Dedi, who performed his tricks in Ancient Egypt in 2,700 BCE – and we’ve been watching magic ever since.

The art is not in what is done; it’s in the words, which keep us in thrall. 
Thrall: from Old English thrǣl ‘slave’, from Old Norse thræll.

It takes place in theatres and temples, and on screens. 
Why?
In childhood, we learn to believe, and that stays with us as a trauma.

What Is ‘Going With The Flow’?

Whatever comes our way is due to our previous decisions that cause our re-actions now. It’s our programmed mindset, which is called karma in Sanskrit. Karma is showing us our judgemental re-actions which just create further karma, maintaining our fixated view of life and therefore perpetuating conflict and suffering. 

Whether pleasant or unpleasant, every situation is potentially our teacher to release us from our habitual, limited way of thinking. 

When people assume that there’s only one way to live, they suffer, and think that change isn’t possible. They go up and down, round and round, following adopted ideas. Realisation is working in the opposite direction to this conventional, not-so-merry-go-round

In ‘going with the flow’, life qualities of tolerance, perseverance, discipline, morality, concentration and wisdom develop. These refined qualities let us off the merry not-so-merry-go-round, and we become a witness, rather than witless. 🙂

What Is More Important?

What is more important,
our thoughts or the awareness of those thoughts?

One is our original reality, while the other is our interpretation, 
which is either a generalisation or a fantasy. 

One is the common element that unites us, 
while the other divides us.

When we actually realise what is important,
all conflict stops.

Ideas Separate People

It’s obvious that ideas separate people, but we still cling to our ideas.
Why?

It’s a habit, and it’s wilful – this is me, that’s you – so we appear to different, while in essence we’re not. We all hold on to our ideas because of a subtle fear of being misunderstood.

As long as we hold on to ideas – political, religious, scientific, cultural, racial, social – we take sides, and therefore, we see others as not like us, even if they’re interested in the same subjects as us.

What actually unites us is pure awareness, which is always present before our ideas. but which we ignore. It is this subtle ignorance that causes the conflicts in the world.

Once we cling to an idea about life, we fossilise our self image – this is me, that’s you. Realising what we are is an extremely rare event, where we’re always seeing things afresh. There are no mechanical replies. We ask,“What is this reaction ..?”

In realisation, there is a constant assimilation – an absorption and integration in the process of becoming one with whatever appears. 

The light of clarity acknowledges the darkness;
the darkness reminds the light of our true reality.

The light is the clarity of pure awareness.

Existentialism Is A Misnomer

Existentialism: a philosophical theory which emphasises the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will.

The misunderstanding here is that it makes us believe we have free will in our own development, when we are actually puppets to others’ ideas. Existentialism is an illusion promoted by pseudo-intellectuals who think but do not look, and so cannot see.

What is free will?
Is it the mind or consciousness? 

Exist: from Latin exsistere ‘to come into being’. 
What comes into being?
A consciousness governed by emotions of pride, hope and fear…

Our true reality, which is pure consciousness, has the potential of free will only when consciousness realises its true reality, and is no longer governed by others’ thoughts.

It is consciousness that observes the plotting in the mind.

Blaming The Distraction

There is suffering in the world, and we blame the effects but not the actual causes. Nothing just happens; problems are orchestrated by the ‘right elements’ in order to create suffering and produce a desired effect. Why? To control the narrative. We cannot blame nature, so we blame human intervention, but blaming the effect obscures the intention in the cause.

We should never accept whatever we are told as that’s always someone else’s version. The Buddha said, “Don’t take my words for the truth; test them for yourself”. These words were spoken for a very good reason, as adhering to words alone is either misinterpretation or can be used to orchestrate an agenda, whether religious, political or other. If this is true for the Buddha’s words, it’s true for lamas and gurus and philosophers and the presenters of the news – and anyone we meet. They are all echoes. 

Orchestra: Latin from Greek orkheisthai, ‘to dance’.
To dance to someone else’s tune.

Don’t even trust your own mind – it’s reverberating with echoes. Trust pure awareness that is without comment, bringing intuition and insight where no words exist.

The blame game is endemic in life. It’s always someone else’s fault. We are not going to put the world right, as so many take sides and become extremists.

Silent observation is the way: our path.

Is Enlightenment Simple, Or Out Of Reach?

Enlightenment’s simple. 
There is nothing to it! 
🙂

If we become stuck with the idea that our true reality is something out of reach, extra special, secret with complicated rituals, we will remain half-hearted about enlightenment, and enthusiastic about the rituals. There is no potential in this – just hope – when we are already what we seek.

It’s religion that has made enlightenment (or wisdom) an elaboration.

We have a choice. Enlightenment is either something to hear about and chant mantras about, or it is right here, right now, spontaneously present, without an off-switch.

How do we know when we’re enlightened? We’re already enlightened, but we ignore it. 
Pure consciousness is already present, but obscured either by indifference, or enthusiastic performances. 🙂

Between every thought, there is a gap.
We are this gap. 
It’s that simple.

Or we can do more mantras.

How does this seem to you?

Leaving the Auditorium

We live in a theatre, repeating our script every day, and making our entrances and exits. Karma sees to it that we are always on cue, our signal for reaction. All the while, we misuse the space in which we dwell, unable to break out of character.

Conscious awareness stops all acting by asking, “What am I doing here? How did this awful play come about?” 🙂

Realising our true reality of just being (pure consciousness), we are released from the performance. In other words, we’re free. And we realise we are on our own.

The shock is that everyone is on the stage, 
and the audience is the producers 🙂 

The wise have left the auditorium.
Happiness is the relief of not having to do this all again.

Once We Realise The Truth

Once we realise the truth, 
we realise what is a substitute for the truth.

The Pointing Out Instruction And The Realisation

(Previous pointing out instruction at https://buddhainthemud.com/?s=the+pointing+out+instruction)

The way we hear this will depend on our being mentally uncluttered, having the right intention, and being totally confused (which means we aren’t holding on to any ideas. 🙂 )

Maybe it’s a matter of luck, good fortune, right karma that we get it. 🙂

We either get it, allow it to permeate our being or, as happened to me … “Is that all!?” 😀 “Oh, that’s all!” I then spent the next twenty years contemplating it, and the past 11 years writing about it on this blog. 

It is we who have to see, and test it. This has nothing to do with religion; after all, the Buddha wasn’t Buddhist.

It’s all about re-cognising what we already know and what we already are, which we have ignored. It’s what we’ve been looking and longing for. We are what we seek. Different people come at this in different ways.

However, we mustn’t be greedy in thinking that this is a short cut, or get angry or disappointed if we find this is too simple. This entire eleven-year-old blog is about the pointing out instruction, but it’s for the reader to relax and live with.

In front of you is space. Whatever takes place in that space, space doesn’t change. We spend our entire lives enthralled by things in space, while ignoring space. Now look at the mind which is trying to figure it all out. Again, we are enthralled by our thoughts and ideas, while ignoring awareness of these thoughts. Awareness of this commotion in the mind doesn’t change. That unchanging awareness is consciousness. It’s what we are. We’re not all the same consciousness, but we can be at one with each another, and in harmony. 

Being only aware of things in space or the mind is a materialistic view of life. 
Being aware of awareness is the spiritual view of life; this isn’t being religious.

Now the point. 
While consciously aware, we come to realise that there is nothing else. 
Consciousness is empty of thought; that is pure consciousness. 
The true essence of mind is pure consciousness. This is what we are. 
In Sanskrit, it is called ‘shunyata’ – emptiness – which is fully aware because of the presence of clarity. 

The hallmark of realisation is genuine, unconditional, empathetic compassion for others who do not realise this.

I’ve received this instruction many times, the first about twenty years ago. It is something that increases in value, as we see the ramifications of ignorance of this reality in society.

Rather than believing anyone, it’s all about personal practice of pure seeing.

The Satisfaction of Accuracy 

We all have different levels of satisfaction
because of different levels of accuracy.

This is why one person’s satisfaction is another’s poison.
That same poison, conversely, is another’s satisfaction.

Negative emotions (poisons) become wisdom.

The more accurate we are, the more we see life differently.
We can go with the flow.

We Grow When We Feel Uncomfortable

We are sensitive creatures living inside a hard shell.
Times of stress signal growth; we evolve through adversity. 

If we yearn for a pleasant life,
and have people only say nice things about us,
we cannot grow.
Ego just expands.

Growing up is outliving our past.

Dealing With Vacancy In Meditation

In meditation, it’s easy to fall into a state of vacancy – a not knowing, that creates sleepiness. Merely be aware of that which is aware of this state; that is our true reality.

We can take the same approach when the mind is busy.

In meditation, it’s easy to fall into a state of distraction – a not knowing, that creates a dream state. Merely be aware of that which is aware of this state; that is our true reality.

Stupid People Don’t Have A Problem

Ignorance is bliss.
🙂

It’s we who have the problem … 
that’s if we’ve recognised how stupid we’ve been.

We cannot engage with stupid people, because we will always be talking at cross-purposes or with contrary intentions. Unable to communicate with each other in the quest for happiness, this misunderstanding creates obstacles which leads to tragedy. 

This confusion – this failure to communicate – arises because people have different goals.