Organisation Controls The Way We Think
Organisation controls the way we think.
Time and space are precious in order to reflect, to meditate, to realise the truth about what we are – which is beyond any organisation. In doing this, we realise all the utter nonsense that’s being pushed on us.
As long as people are given something to fear and worry about, their precious time and space is being filled.
Be the light;
it’s what consciousness is – clarity
New Realisations And Old Brain
Some things are difficult to explain, because we’re working within an old, traumatised brain that is still running in the background even though we have had new realisations.
We might be able to talk about the Dharma and compassion, but our actions may not match up because our old brain is still functioning as if our outward display doesn’t matter.
Realisation is a piece of cake compared to dropping our habitual, mental patterning. Every time we open our mouth, old brain shows itself.
Whatever we’re thinking or saying, be aware that that is not what we are. Once we identify with anything, we become a biased observer.
What we truly are is observation without an observer.
It is this realisation that frees us from our past.
Memories cause pain.
Dharma Is Repairing, Making Good, Making Whole
We have been broken into pieces, disjointed, confused … not working properly. Repairing means putting back into good order, realising the connection between seeing, and that which is seen. By virtue of seeing, the seen is known. This is what is meant by oneness.
Our broken understanding is built on complexity – ‘me’ and ‘thatness’.
The Buddha’s teaching is based on realising the Vedic teaching of not-two.
There is nothing religious or complex about this.
Not-two is wholeness.
Self Is Just A Habit In The Mind
Self is held together by words and ideas in the mind.
This is not our reality.
When we drop the idea of self/ego/I,
peace and wisdom arise.
No more interference.
🙂
Shunyata, Emptiness, Pure, Uncontaminated Consciousness
It doesn’t matter what word we use, it is direct spontaneous experience, before the mind starts identifying.
We can become hung up on words, and that is precisely Mara’s trick – it’s the dark side of our nature.
It’s common to be divided by words (ideas)
but rare to be united in clarity (just seeing).
Whatever words we say,
invisible consciousness is always present.
Our Dark Side Is Our Path
When we can acknowledge our dark side – our ideas about me and mine – this recognition is the light of consciousness illuminating our addiction to phantoms in the mind. These phantoms seem so potent to us that they destroy friendships and relationships.
Divide and conquer is the way in which we’re separated. Our path to enlightenment is acknowledging our confusion … which doesn’t actually exist. It’s all in the mind.
Our path is sharp discipline to drop our fixated ideas.
Worse Than Groupthink? Groupfeel
Groupthink is people accepting the same set of ideas, and voicing them in the same way.
Groupfeel is when these ideas go deeper and infect attitudes, causing subtle emotions; the result is that each individual learns what not to say.
Groupthink creates an unhealthy atmosphere of conformity which discourages free thinking and blinds the members. Cult behaviour is an extreme form of groupthink – and religion isn’t far behind.
Groupfeel gives rise to the emotional blocks that prevent individuals from expressing concerns, in case they’re seen as ‘negative’ or ‘contrary’ to the groupthink. In other words, there’s a fear of rejection due to insecurity. We want to be accepted and liked, but feel we have no status to speak up. Worrying that we lack enough data to back up our observations, we have a fear of appearing irrational and hold back possible solutions to any problems – while groupthink sees no problems.
Getting along is a unspoken norm, so people wait for meetings to be over to present their queries to others. This turns out to be a big mistake as, although others may initially agree, they quickly close ranks and shun these concerns – and the person, who may be quieter or more thoughtful than other members, finds that their views simply aren’t acknowledged at all.
This is the time we move on from all those emotions, fears, mistrusts, insecurities which may be present in a seemingly ‘harmonious’ group.
There Is Nothing New
There is nothing new
– just different words about the same subject.
We are pure consciousness.
We obscure that pure consciousness with thoughts.
Freedom is acknowledging this fact.
Simple Life = Happy Life
It’s been said for thousands of years,
“A simple life is a happy life.”
Otherwise, we evolve into the machine.
With a simple approach to life, we take time to appreciate a oneness with everything. This isn’t an airy-fairy lifestyle – it’s being practical; clear the drain properly, change and reseat the washer in the tap, repair the wood in a rotten window frame … We aren’t fascinated, just pragmatic; neither ignoring situations nor people is actually satisfying.
Through understanding our reality, rather than following the crowd, life simplifies when we stop over-reacting, exaggerating and being puffed-up. We no longer go along with all the material, emotional or spiritual excitement.
In dealing with each moment with clarity as it arises, there is nothing special as everything is special. This reduces and gradually eliminates karma which is our habitual response of “I think this, I think that, they should do this, they should do that … ” We’re no longer thrill-seekers, as quality of life is more important than quantity.
The result is a happy life.
It may not be comfortable, but it’s workable.
Life becomes happier when we stop following others’ convoluted ideas.
Those are their affair.
Be aware of monkey see, monkey do.
In our own good time, we drop it all.
What Woke Me Up?
The pretence of goodness.
After following gurus, lamas and students for decades, I realised that there wasn’t much – if any – compassion around. No real lasting connection, but just competitive ‘goodness’. Everyone is caught up in the exotic, without any esoteric realisation of wisdom, the full understanding of being.
Decades of chanting ‘compassion’
while all around showed a lack of compassion seemed fishy.
We’re so easily charmed into worshipping that we ignore the essence of reality within all sentient beings; we may revere names, academic theories or religious rituals, but still have no actual empathy.
When we genuinely wake up,
that is the birth of compassion
No defensiveness present.
No pretence. No confusion.
Just a genuine connection.
We learn to bow and scrape – behaving in an obsequious way to someone in authority. This isn’t waking up. The Buddha wanted us to know directly through experience, rather than becoming reliant on others.
A Buddha cannot wake us up; we need a shock which is precisely measured to each individual’s confusion.
There isn’t one word / pill to suit all.
The Dharma Is A Generalisation
The Dharma is a generalisation.
Realisation of the Dharma is personal.
Neither life nor the Dharma are about learning facts;
that is a sleepy view.
Personal experience is alive, awake and constantly refreshing.
If anyone tells you about the Dharma and you accept it as truth,
you will be living their dream.
Because everyone else is doing it,
make sure you know what the it is that they’re doing.
Know the difference between an act and reality
as it can be confusing.
Waking Up To Foolishness
We only wake up when we realise how foolish we’ve been to believe what others say. Realising our ultimate truth isn’t easy, either in the secular or non-secular world. The secular world is only interested in material words for gain. The non-secular world is dominated by religious words for gain.
Words are a biased filter in the mind; actual experience is seeing directly through the eyes, rather than seeing through the ideologies. Well-educated or well-indoctrinated are the same things – being unable to see clearly.
We acquire ideas and then project them as our own, colouring everything that we see. So, we see through a glass darkly. Even if our words are very clever, it’s still second-hand programming, and we get angry and defensive when others don’t believe us. This is so ridiculous, as we now think of disbelievers as an enemy.
When we wake up, we walk alone,
and we are no longer dependent.
Waking up is not complicated; it is just seeing, pure awareness, pure consciousness without any fixed ideas.
In other words, just seeing without attitude,
being neither clever nor special.
Seeing clearly is the clarity of divine splendour.
It is that magnificent.
Splendour: late Middle English, from Latin splendere – ‘shine, be bright’.
The Point Of Life Is To Know What Life Is
What we think of as ‘life’ is actually a prison of illusions. Our temporary bodies and minds have no permanent reality, while consciousness never changes. As long as we believe that we are this body and mind, we are incarcerated by ideas.
Therefore, whatever we see, fear and protest about is an illusion we’re caught in. Whenever we judge by our own limited understanding, we merely maintain this prison – and that applies to every sentient being.
The illusionists – people who perform tricks that deceive the eye – are entertaining because we want to believe. Nowadays, we cannot help ourself being mesmerised and transfixed by a screen.
‘So are you calling us stupid?!’
Stupid actually means amazed or stunned 🙂
Stupid: mid 16th century: from French stupide or Latin stupidus, from stupere -‘to be amazed or stunned’.
Aren’t we all amazed at tricks? Something appears and something disappears, and perception is deceived. However, when we know the trick, we’re no longer amazed – or stupid. The point of life is to recognise that life – consciousness – never dies; it only appears to disappear.
Life is consciousness.
When consciousness leaves the body,
there is no life in that body.
Consciousness moves on to find a new host,
until it exhausts this cycle of existence.
It Matters
Everything we think, do and say matters to our well-being, and the well-being of those around us. Just repeating conventional facts and rituals smothers reality, and that’s the intention. We are so much more than facts and rituals.
When people are suffering or depressed, or feel that they don’t fit in, they need someone to listen and empathise with them, rather than being treated as unimportant, or an inconvenience.
What we depressed people get is doctrine, and absolutely no empathetic understanding. We have to ‘take it or leave it’, as no one is prepared to discuss it., and that response says much about this world. When we trivialise everything, it is we who become trivial. As we sow, so we continually reap.
It matters that we know what our reality actually is. Very few people on the planet know that they are original pure consciousness; people think they are their experience, which is just the memories we call ‘myself’.
If we think this doesn’t matter, we lead a wasted life.
It Matters That We Cannot Find Consciousness
We cannot find consciousness because it’s what we are;
we cannot look at that which is looking.
When we look for reality in a dream-world, all we find is the imagination in our mind. This is not reality. This dream-world is not of our making, as we are born into obscured perception.
That is why we’re here – to put our understanding right.
It Matters That We Recognise The Great Scam
A dishonest scheme of being in heaven, but living in hell.
What if there is a caste of people who see themselves as a group which inherits exclusive privileges, and is socially distinct by degrees of ritual purity? They don’t care about us because they see us as suckers – someone who is easily fooled and taken advantage of. In all walks of life, everything is exaggerated and speeded up to excite and distract.
It Matters That Humanity Has Been Corrupted
Humanity has been corrupted, and we never noticed.
Why?
We were born into a dream-maker.
Why?
Like attracts like.
Realising that we’re in a dream-state, we awaken to our reality, as consciousness recognises that it is seeing through a mind of memories. News is daily corruption. Why do you think there is so much of it? It controls our minds, persuading us to believing in words.
It’s simple to see, but it’s not easy to get free.
It Matters That We Know We Are Being Lied To
Then everything makes sense.
🙂
The Light That Eliminates Darkness
It’s possible that, while meditating, we fall into a state of vacancy where there is no thought, but no wisdom of knowingness of our true essence of pure consciousness either. If there is no wisdom, there is no compassion. We may feel good, such as when we go into a temple, but there’s nothing lasting as there is a reliance on a feeling that is a ‘right’ place to go to.
Merely become aware of this situation, without mental comment, realising that there is nothing else. That is ever-present pure consciousness; that is the ‘right place’, our original place.
We are so used to doing something to feel good – praying, chanting, prostrating – that we can fall into the other extreme of nothingness, which can turn into feeling of pointlessness.
The middle way is neutral awareness – not too tight and not too loose, neither accepting nor rejecting.
We each have to decide what is real.
Appreciation Of Evil
Having an appreciation of evil is a matter of fully understanding a situation.
Evil tries to persuade – ‘Let’s pretend’ and ‘Believe me’ should set off alarm bells.
And that’s when evil becomes our teacher.
If we do not recognise an intention to persuade us, we have nothing to work with. A thousand-Buddha temple is not going to protect us. Evil relies on confusion, and its elimination requires constant vigilance regarding distractions both gross and subtle. To confuse is to confound, mixing up words with experience.
Evil is not an enemy; it’s just confused thinking.
Having compassion for evil is not about feeding confused thinking;
it’s understanding evil’s obsession.
Mistaken views sound an alarm which brightens consciousness. That is our natural intuition, before we conform to stereotypes.
Evil is a powerful tool which works against itself, and so works for us.
We need to train in recognising that all appearances
are spontaneous clarity – divine splendour.
Intuition = spiritual insight.
Real Joy
We live in confusion, and have a gross misunderstanding of everything, often with a false security that makes us feel vulnerable and unstable. For some, this is totally unsatisfactory.
We look for something better, and spend time in spiritual or philosophical groups, trying to fit into a culture where people have developed (sorry to say) an attitude lacking true confidence and joy.
So where is the real joy? Once we get the gist of a teaching or method about anything, we then need to test it personally under all conditions, rather than just going along for the ride with others driving the bus.
Dropping all attachment to groups and teachers, we find we are living the Buddha’s advice – ‘Do not take my words for the truth; test them for yourself’. This is genuine, raw, uncomfortable experience 🙂 and we don’t get that in a monastery, or in any kind of groupthink.
Having dropped all the old hopes, fears, anger and confusion, they will all come back. The theory was merely a temporary antidote; emotions don’t just go away.
They’re what we actually have to work with!
This spark of brilliant, uncomfortable rawness
is the light of wisdom illuminating consciousness.
These moments are alive.
That is real joy.
We are no longer what we were;
we are now full, vibrant experience.
Does this make us nicer people? That depends on what we call ‘nice’ 🙂 and on what we think compassion is.
The joy of this realisation is so great that, even if reincarnation isn’t our reality, life is now worthwhile, enriching and supramundane. This joy comes with a great deal of sadness, as anywhere we go in the world, we see confusion, insecurity and anger.
Our path to enlightenment starts with the recognition of the suffering of others.
What Alternative Facts Would Wake You Up?
We all know the facts of life: we’re born, educated, work, breed, eat, play games, holiday, worry, die.
What if there is a caste of people unknown to the public who saw themselves as a group that inherits exclusive privileges, or who are perceived as socially distinct by degrees of ritual purity?
Caste: mid 16th century from Spanish and Portuguese casta: lineage, race, breed. Feminine
of casto: ‘pure, unmixed’, from Latin castus ‘chaste’.
How do they see humanity?
‘As Above, So Below’ Is The Great Illusion
‘As above, so below’ is a common chant among the proletariat, but this is the great illusion.
We may think there is a higher self – something above – because it’s portrayed in all religions and philosophies that way. This has kept us wanting, seeking and hoping … bound in the dark dungeon of existence.
Ultimate reality is at eye level.
Realisation is at eye level.
Enlightenment is at eye level.
Direct perception, pure awareness, pure consciousness
is right here, right now.
Our perception is misdirected,
kept below eye level in the mud of confusion.
Why do you think that is?
Proletariat: mid 17th century from Latin proletarius, from proles ‘offspring’, denoting a person having no wealth in property who only serves the state by producing offspring.
That is to say, slaves … captive and captivated.
Intelligence = Empathy = Wisdom
Intelligence is not in what we know;
it’s knowing what we are.
Intelligence is revealed in empathy.
Empathy is brought to light through the quality of our reactions.
Wisdom is adaptability in the application of empathy.
Have We Been Duped?
Duped: deceived, duplicated.
Unless we know what the real thing is, it is impossible to recognise a deception. When we believe, we are part of a duplication system of ideas which demands conformity. Our minds have been guided; we only ‘think’ we have choice.
When we realise our original reality,
which is pure consciousness,
pure consciousness becomes a lie detector.
This is intuition.
Use it or lose it
The Truth Is So Simple
The truth is so simple you won’t believe it.
You don’t have to believe it.
🙂
The truth isn’t in a book, in words, in exotic phrases. It is that which is seeing the words.
The moment we start understanding the words, we are in mind-games, which is a dream-state. We read ‘spiritual’ texts to gain something, which is just a reminder when we forget what we already are. It’s the same as meditation; we meditate when we forget what we are. Once we realise what we are, we drop the meditation. We wake up when we recognise that we are in a dream-state.
Becoming hooked on words is the same as being hooked by numbers on a page – you don’t have to add them up or make something out of them (not unless you have to) … 28. 2. 47. 3. 20. 🙂
In the first instant of every moment, the senses and mind are wide open, just experiencing. That is the revelation of the presence of pure consciousness, and that’s all we need to know. 😀
It’s idiotproof and foolproof:
incapable of going wrong or being misused,
without risk or harm, and never-failing.
Revelation: the making known of something that was previously secret or unknown. From late Latin, revelare -‘to lay bare’.
Misunderstanding Buddhism
Buddhism is not a religion or a philosophy; its essence is scientific compassion – concern and understanding of troubled minds through empathetic observation.
Having said that, for some it is a religion, a philosophy, a style of life, a culture.
Buddhism is about that which looks down the microscope – the arbiter of observation. Through training, we refine judgement.
Arbiter: from Latin – judge, supreme ruler.
It is a matter of understanding the nature of reality of the universe, our minds, and consciousness. The word ‘karma’ means that if we do this, then that will happen – cause and effect. This is the law of the infinite universe.
It’s a big subject, and one which gets ignored.
Humans have made such enquiry into a religion, turning it into symbolism to be ‘interpreted’. This is like worshipping a fruit tree, and never tasting the fruit. It’s what the garden of Eden was all about – knowing what is good (beneficial / positive) and what is evil (does harm / negative).
Evil isn’t what we see in horror films;
that’s what evil wants us to think, to obscure reasoning.
Buddhism goes further as the observation of negativity is positive. Simple put, it is the light that sees in the dark. Not many people understand this, precisely because of the levels of indoctrination into form being seen as more important than essence.
Our reality is pure seeing, which is spontaneous direct experience that does not rely on memories, programming or doctrine. Through this understanding, we acquire empathetic compassion for those who are ill at ease, and those who assume they’re happy.
There are various levels of suffering
which create the various levels of understanding.
Suffering is being uncomfortable with our self, our imagined being. The release from suffering is the realisation that we don’t have to suffer, or believe in a permanent state. The teaching is the recognition that we do suffer through causes, and it is thereby possible to eliminate it by not being captivated our circling thoughts, and realising our true reality of pure consciousness.
There is an awful lot of misunderstanding which does harm
– that is to say, maintains evil.
So why is religion so weird? Humans make a big deal about whatever they think they know, and this creates elaboration, confusion, misunderstanding … and volumes of words. This blog has over 100,000 of them 🙂
Do not believe any of them.
The term ‘Buddhism’ cannot define Buddhism, as there are many traditions which can contradict one another. Some avoid negative emotions, while others realise that those negative emotions are the ultimate teaching, alerting and brightening consciousness. It’s all about the level of individual understanding, and the personal ability to comprehend.
When we start asking genuine questions – rather than those intellectual questions that we hope make us sound accomplished – what we think we know does not actually satisfy. This means we are moving up a level.
Don’t just accept – dissect.
Buddhism Is Not A Belief System
Buddhism is beyond human constructs; it is realising that we are pure consciousness, the same as the timeless Vedic teachings.
Any material advice such as, “Do this, don’t do that”, are temporal matters as opposed to what occurs naturally.
Never mistake form for essence.
Buddhism Isn’t A Place To Go To
Buddhism isn’t place to go to;
it’s where we are.
The Unity Of Doubt And Confidence
We all have doubts, and some of us have confidence, but both can be – and are – mistaken. Doubt is associated with low self-esteem, while confidence is connected to high self-esteem.
However.
Within doubt, there can be confidence – a sense of wonder.
Within confidence, there can be doubt – a sense of wonder.
This wonder is the moment of emptiness.
We cannot know emptiness as we are that.
‘Proper people’ know ‘everything’, but their confidence is misplaced, so doubt doesn’t exist for them. We may want to be ‘proper people’, but ‘proper people’ just do and say what ‘proper people’ do and say, and there is no wonder. Those who doubt find confident people confusing.
Proper: from Latin proprius ‘one’s own, special’.
Property: from Latin proprietas, from proprius ‘one’s own, particular, special’.
Any owned self-image, whether low or high, is characteristic of an illusion.
Giving up owning ourself releases us from suffering. This is why and how we can have empathetic compassion for all who doubt and all who are confident. 🙂
Feel Good Versus Reality
Wanting to feel good is sentimentality; it’s the path of insecurity that avoids unpleasant situations. Do we really care more about being ‘inspired’ than we do about realising the simple truth of what we are?
Genuinely feeling good is letting go;
it’s the relief of having nothing to defend.
That is happiness.
Reality isn’t in a special building, on a mountain or in words; it’s in the seeing.
‘Seek and ye shall find’ … ‘Under a stone, in a piece of wood’.
The devil (our imaginary self-importance) wants to feel good. It feeds off feeling good. It is competitive in order to feel good. This is nothing other than desire. Spirituality is wrong if it means we become reliant having to feel good.
The promotion of feeling good is the great illusion of taking advantage of emotionally vulnerable people while pretending to support their needs.
There is a unity in doubt and confidence
that bring us into the moment now.
Dare to look, and wonder.
How Do We Improve Our Intelligence?
Intelligence is improved by dropping what we think we know. It leaves more room 🙂
What we think we know is a limited, fossilised, conventional view. We may even become experts in the conventional, but it’s still a limited understanding, and there is so much more to us. When we hold on to a view, we deny further possibilities.
True intelligence comes from consciousness, not the mind. The mind is merely a memory bank; what we do with those memories – either strike an attitude or apply wisdom – is up to consciousness which stands back from re-acting. Ergo, we stand back.
Memories are experiences which we carry around. Relying on memories/programming, we live through the same old scenarios, and fill up the atmosphere.
Consciousness is always fresh, clear and spontaneous.
Spontaneous: having an open, natural, and uninhibited manner.
We usually steer away from the unfamiliar – when was the last time we were truly uninhibited?
Daring to be alone = one-ly.
When we realise we no longer need support from others,
we have a duty towards them.
Knowing What An Enemy Is
The word ‘enemy’ is anything that harms or weakens something else.
Enemy: from Latin inimicus, from in- ‘not’ + amicus ‘friend’.
An enemy creates a response which fills the mind.
If there is a re-action, the mind has already been primed.
Be very careful in thinking you know who the enemy is.
The enemy wants us to believe that it is ‘out there’,
when it has already penetrated our mind.
Once we see it – no more battles.
Our Reality Is The Gap Between Thoughts
Between our thoughts is a gap, a pause, an emptiness; it is the light of clarity which is what we are, pure awareness. However, we keep losing our reality by becoming attached to thoughts again. We just cannot shut up. 🙂
Enraptured by our words of theories and beliefs about what’s going on ‘out there’, we do not notice the switch in awareness.
Insanity begins when the light is switched off.
🙂
The Art Of War
Sun Tzu – “The very best way to defeat the enemy without fighting is to manoeuvre him into a position where his resistance is futile. If he recognises this, he will surrender.”
This how we fight evil.
When we know its very character, this both awakens us and weakens the enemy.
But first, we have to know what we are, and what the enemy is.
The enemy has already infiltrated our mind with ideas.
Once mind essence lights up, there can be no battle.
Dharma Draughtsman Or Doodler?
Draughtsman: creating precise and accurate drawings, adjusting and revising based on feedback or changes, and ensuring the consistency and accuracy of technical drawings and documentation.
Doodle: to draw or scribble idly, to waste time in aimless or foolish activity. ‘Doodle’ first appeared in the 17th century to mean a fool or simpleton, perhaps from the German ‘dudeltopf’ or ‘dudeldop’, meaning simpleton. It’s the origin of the early eighteenth-century verb ‘to doodle’, meaning to swindle or to make a fool of.
To authenticate anything, it is we who have to decide if something is accurate or not. Therefore, it is we who give the authority to someone, rather than accepting others’ say-so.
This bring us back to the different traditions and levels of understanding of Tibetan Buddhism, where we have to know at what level someone is speaking.
Sometimes, a Dzogchen teacher may refer to a psychological state of mind that comes from a Theravadan tradition, because the students are becoming too cerebral.
A well-draughted teaching may hit the spot,
but a doodle of confusion may also hit the spot.
In crazy wisdom, only you can know.
Finding Our Dharma Feet
Standing on our own two feet is being confident and independent, without help from other people; we can then play our part in Dharma activity. It’s not going to save the world, but it will have a knock-on effect.
It is the subliminal message within all teachings … confidence.
Meditation Isn’t Sitting On A Special Cushion
Meditation isn’t sitting on a special cushion, in a special place, at a special time. Meditation is timeless, placeless, cushionless awareness.
We can pause, just being anywhere at any time, in any place. It’s called relaxing, without sleepiness or drifting into thought.
Just pausing now and again cuts through habitual routines. Even meditation can become a routine, so we drop that as well.
The road of enlightenment isn’t a mechanical process.
We test each step, like a cat.
Never Underestimate Human Stupidity
Humans are governed by their emotions – like, dislike, pride and jealousy – and by not knowing what their essence is.
Never underestimate the human ability to transcend stupidity.
It’s stupid to think that ordinary humans cannot transcend stupidity. This is where those who think they’re superior to humanity go wrong.
Humans can be aware that they are governed by their emotions of like, dislike, pride and jealousy, and they can know their essence.
There are always two sides to every occurrence, but these are also a unity, in that you can’t have one without the other. Dark is only known by virtue of the presence of light.
We are so much more than stupid.
🙂
Becoming A Fanatic
Fanatic: from Latin ‘fanaticus’ – inspired by a god or demon.
Fanatics fantasise – they imagine.
In all walks of life, people are becoming fanatics. Everything is zero-tolerance; things are exaggerated and embellished, and the stimulated and reactive audience cheers louder. Being hyped-up and too excited, we are unable to rest or find calmness.
The term ‘hype’ comes from ‘hyperbole’, which combines one Greek term for ‘over’ and another that means ‘cast’ or ‘throw’. So hyperbole describes the sense of over-reaching, or grasping beyond what is necessary in order to describe a certain feeling, experience or response.
Fanatics become bound to an imaginary idea which was created by ‘influencers’ who, in turn, create levels of other influencers who suggest what we eat, buy, value, pray to, become attached to … thus breeding more fanatics.
How do we not become fanatics?
Know that fanatics are addicts.
Once we can admit this, our therapy begins,
one day at a time. 🙂
What Is The Difference Between Us And An Enlightened Being?
We can all just, simply, only – one-ly/non-dually – eat an apple, walk through a doorway, sweep the floor … and so can an enlightened being.
We all get glimpses of this enlightened moment of one-ly, whether we notice them or not. The difference is sustainability; as we train in one-ly being aware, these moments join up.
‘But enlightened beings can walk on water!’
Why?
‘They can do miraculous, earthly feats!’
Why?
Enlightenment is not about what we can do or what someone else is said to have done, but what we, in truth, are. ‘Miracles’ only – and deliberately – put a distance between us and the enlightened ones.
Interesting, that! 🙂
They Are Going To Do It Anyway
It doesn’t matter what we have concerns about, they will happen anyway. We’re manoeuvred by the majority complying, be it in politics, commerce, the military or religion. This is all social engineering which has been going on for thousands of years.
Power maintains power.
The powerful will inherit earthly delights.
Those who question will inherit the light of wisdom.
There Is No Good Or Bad Meditation
Meditation is awareness without comment or judgement;
it is being cognisant of what is happening in our mind.
The clarity of awareness is what we naturally are.
Revealing clarity is what meditation does.
Don’t Believe A Word – The Buddha Said
Don’t believe a word – the Buddha said.
Realise the words through direct experience.
Is The World Becoming More Stupid Or More Corrupt?
Is the world becoming more stupid or more corrupt?
Both.
We are stupid for ignoring the corruption general by those who curtail free speech. It’s all to do with justifying the claim that words can hurt feelings, and this will lead to genocide.
Genocide: violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group, and aims at the destruction of a people.
Of course, there are those whose aim is to create fear in people, but isn’t that done by those who are already corrupted by being led to believe that hurt feelings lead to violence? If a society is unbalanced, there will be a reaction. We humans are unstable creatures.
Disinformation is an attack on the mind.
“Disinformation is false information deliberately spread to deceive people. Disinformation is an orchestrated adversarial activity in which actors employ strategic deceptions and media manipulation tactics to advance political, military, or commercial goals.
“Disinformation is implemented through attacks that weaponise multiple rhetorical strategies and forms of knowing—including not only falsehoods but also truths, half-truths, and value judgements – to exploit and amplify culture wars and other identity-driven controversies.
“Misinformation can be used to create disinformation when known misinformation is purposefully and intentionally disseminated.”
– from Wikipedia
This is why we need to break out of the vicious cycle of existence, by pulling our heads out of the sand and not re-enacting the same state of affairs by refusing to think about unpleasant facts, although they have an influence on our life.
Life is precious.
Knowing truth is precious.
Being natural is precious.
Being kind is precious.
Acknowledging stupid corruption is precious.
These are all precious because they are part of realising the path to enlightenment.
If we continue to believe everything that we hear and read, we’re stupid. If the Buddha said, “Do not take my words for the truth: know it for yourself”, then don’t believe anyone.
The Level Of Our Inner Radar
We should take a second look at any information we receive and what we understand by this information. If we think our understanding is the final analysis, we may be further from the truth than we realise. We have to be aware of withheld information – what isn’t being said.
We are too ready to jump on the ‘Bandwagon’.
The bandwagon effect is a psychological phenomenon where people adopt certain behaviours, styles, or attitudes simply because others are doing so. It is a cognitive bias by which opinion or behaviour can alter due to particular actions and beliefs rallying amongst the public.
Understanding is not about what we think we know. The truth is the insight we are born with; the nullification of this spontaneous radar affects whatever we become involved with, interested in, and attached to.
The way we present to the world is not in what we say or what we do; it’s how we are. Are we defensive or open? The world is full of learned orators (or charmers), but we all have the ability to know whether there is partisanship or prejudice coming into play.
Our inner radar can read between the lines. It’s how to interpret the ‘news’. If information is withheld, alarm bells sound in our mind as something doesn’t ‘smell’ right.
Scholars and charmers like words,
but words cast spells and sentence us.
The truth is never in the words;
it’s the experience of the words.
🙂
Serenity Overcomes This Manic World
Serenity: the state of being calm, clear, peaceful, and untroubled.
There are troubling experiences in the world, but even valid protests are not going to stop them as such actions are taken in account as part of the deception. They will only give cause for further troubles. We need to bring the dark into the light.
The deranged powers at work in the world are driven by gaining more power. This hidden agenda is the dark side of humanity. I say ‘hidden’ because what we see is only the effect of a cause.
Intellectuals and philosophers are merely narrators; they do not change anything. To be wise is to know what is happening, but never be taken in – even by a Buddha’s words. 🙂
At this moment in human history, we can only sow seeds of clarity, just as the enlightened ones did. As long as people run around the playground acting out stories, nothing will change. Clever rhetoric merely obscures the problem.
Rhetoric: effective or persuasive communication designed to have an impressive effect, but which is often lacking in meaningful content.
It is serenity that illumines the darkness.
A stable mind creates an atmosphere of clarity.
This is all that is needed.
Silent enlightenment comes before words.
Being Obsessed
Obsession is anything that possesses the mind. We can be obsessed about big things or little things. It’s all about personal gain, while lacking empathy for others, and being possessed is the basis of evil (referring to an evil spirit).
Obsession is the opposite to reality: from the Latin obsidere, from ob- ‘opposite’ + sedere ‘sit’.
In all walks of life, people become obsessed by an idea that drives them, which usually about ‘me’ and ‘mine’. There are certain influential people in the world who are extremely – and religiously – obsessed, and they may even worship a different Godhead to everyone else – the God of gain.
In Buddhism, there are many levels of understanding the same words, so people see in different ways and act accordingly, either for personal gain or to realise wisdom.
It is important to know what we are dealing with – not a person, but an idea. We can think we are worshipping good when, in fact, we’re worshipping evil, whether we know it or not.
How many people realise that they are possessed?
The very moment of recognising obsession is freedom.
All we have to do is dare to look.
Clarity Is Always Present
All sentient beings are the clarity of pure consciousness. It is ever-present, and it doesn’t go away. Without this, there would be no knowing. In fact, it’s so commonplace and simple that we ignore it. Clarity is divine splendour, but it gets sidetracked into, “Oo, that’s interesting.”
We complicate life with trappings – bells and whistles, stuff, bits and pieces – which may be all very clever and interesting, but which are ultimately pointless. It’s the Mara effect – the seducer.
The problem is that when the question of consciousness becomes ‘interesting’, it turn into a form, a formality – a rigid observance of convention or etiquette – a religion. Acceptance of this becomes a matter of course, and is followed without question when we comply with conventions, regulations, and customs.
It’s sad when people only pay attention if it’s a guru who says, “Clarity is pure consciousness”, as opposed to a common person saying it. We so readily display excessive servility to gurus that we ignore our reality.
Precious teachings are not about what someone else is;
they’re all about what we are
… and we have always been good enough.
Denying this is the sleight of hand by Mara that turns our mind.
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. 