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.

Making Our Connection

When we open to the possibility of realising absolute truth – and that there is such a thing – we have taken our first steps on our path to enlightenment. We start to express ourselves commensurate to the understanding on that step. 

I once spoke to a translator, saying, “I find the word ’empathy’ more accurate than the word ‘compassion’.” He just replied dismissively, “No, no! We say ‘compassion’.” Some people think one word suits all, and it’s for us to make the connection, and decide whether to stay or move on. At each step, words take on a different meaning so there’s no point in arguing. 🙂

The Buddha’s understanding came from analysing the Vedas, and meditating. He made the connection. 

Teachings on truth are timeless, and are not limited to one being. 
It’s not a matter of joining any particular group; 
it’s about making the connection with our own ultimate reality.

Have They Lost The Plot?

They haven’t lost the plot – we have.
Their plot of corruption is going very well.

The plot is to stop us from knowing what we truly are. When things are going wrong, we complain, gossip, tell-it-like-it-is, while never seeing the big picture. People are controlled by their complaints, and as long as people have something to complain about, they’re fixated.

Things don’t just happen; there is a cause (plan) and effect (the consequences of that plan). Because we’re not devious, it doesn’t mean others aren’t!

The universe is driven by attraction and repulsion. Plotters know that the human mind is controlled by desire and fear. In our confusion, we lose the plot of what has been planned for us. 

Everything external is leading us somewhere. 
Meditation puts an end to being led … 
… or it should. 🙂

If we cannot drop the meditation,
we’re still in the plot

Drop the meditation, and lose the plot.
😀

We Don’t Have To Become A Type

Becoming a type is an act.

So-called ‘spiritual’ people are duped into making a peculiar display of elitism and aloofness, which gives rise to a lack of empathy. This is not spirituality; it’s one-upmanship. 

And it’s an act.

When we realise reality, we deal with what life deals us. We do not become something different – we accept what we are, even though others may not. What we are is pure consciousness wrapped up in a particular karmic package. Even if we acquire an intellectual mantle – a cloak of invisibility to cover ourselves up – that package is still visible.

And it’s an act.

Missing The Point

Missing the point –
the point of awareness.

Awareness is the moment now, but for most people, awareness is captured by thoughts and emotions about the world around them. 

What we think we know creates pride. 
What we miss is the original awareness. 

That is the point of our reality – pure awareness. 
It’s what mystics know.

Nihilism = No Purpose: Eternalism = Creating Purpose

Understanding people.

Nihilism is a philosophical and ethical stance which holds that nothing in the world has any meaning, value, or purpose. Eternalists create their own transitory purpose or meaning.

A nihilist believes that life is meaningless and that the only known truth is the existence of the self. 
An eternalist believes that meaning can be created by the individual.
Because each of these standpoints entails belief, taking offence is inevitable.

People are too rational for their own good, maintaining a conclusion that leads to other conclusions which eventually leads either to nihilism or eternalism.

The Middle Way is not being stuck in either of these extremes – but people are.:-) People may see ’emptiness’ as ‘nothingness’ and, as a result, become cold, or they see the ‘form’ as something to believe in, and therefore become hot.

The Middle Way is awareness before it moves out into a religion or a philosophy. 

What sort of person is in the Middle Way? 

They’re nothing special, and they don’t take offence.
The practice is keeping this in balance – not too tight, and not too loose.

We Come With A Manual

We come with a manual;
it’s called ‘self’ – a karmic instruction programme.

Ordinarily, we hear the word self, and just get on with it,
believing that is all we are.

Realising that this idea of self is what drives us, 
this manual now becomes our guide to enlightenment.

Spiritual Pride

Spiritual pride is the most dangerous of prides. Intellectual pride is pathetic compared to spiritual pride, and physical pride of muscle or wealth is even more so.

Spiritual pride separates us from others as we look down on ‘ordinary humanity. People wanting to be part of that is its power. Certain groups in the world feel very attached to an idea that is handed down, generation after generation, with the driving force of wanting to leave a legacy. 

Evil is religious in its outlook. It wants power, and maintains that power by any and every means. It cares nothing for humanity; humanity is its daily bread through the maintenance of ignorance.

The driving force of evil’s pride is the materialistic belief in ‘awakening’, 
as opposed to the awakening of consciousness.

“My Mind Is Made Up”

Have you made up your mind, 
or has someone made it up for you?

Have you just read something 
and adopted it?

We assume we think for ourselves,
but do we have original thought?

There is no such thing.

Our origin is before thought.
Ever thought about that?
🙂

Clever Things

We are very clever creatures who can skilfully create all sorts of beautiful things for others to admire – and there’s the rub*. We become proud of recognising others achievements – even the spiritual achievements of others, where we become a copy of a copy. It may be a very good copy, but it’s still an imitation rather than the real thing.

The real thing isn’t of earthly or mental beauty. 
It is our reality of pure consciousness
– the insight of the light of clarity.

There is nothing clever about this.
It’s being quite ordinary – commonplace and unremarkable. 
In its completeness, it is orderly.

*’there’s the rub’ from Hamlet by Shakespeare, means there’s the conflict, the problem.

What Gives Evil Its Power?

Our ignorance.

When we ignore evil intent to control, it is we who become the enablers. Evil counts on ignorance to maintain confusion by impregnating the populace with ideas. Evil is anything that causes harm and restricts our freedom to be what we naturally are.

It’s an abusive relationship of ‘gaslighting’. This psychological manipulation causing people to doubt their capability or their sense of reality.

We fear using the word ‘evil’ because we think, “Well, it’s not that bad.” That, in itself, is a sign of resignation – the acceptance of something undesirable, but inevitable. 

It is not inevitable. There are levels or yanas of understanding, and as we ascend by transcending ideas, we see that what we left behind was restrictions and limitations in the guise of goodness. Transcending is a matter of dropping the levels of ignorance, and realising the reality beyond words.

Realisation isn’t for the woolly minded.
Enlightenment isn’t for the woolly minded.
Compassion isn’t for the woolly minded.

An Open Heart Needs An Open Mind

An open heart is caring. 
An open mind is the ability to carry out caring.

Unfortunately, just caring is sentimentality, while just having an open mind without caring is coldness.

Heart and mind need to work together. This is not just a saying – it’s a practicality of life, and it’s how we should deal with one another.

So many ‘spiritual’ people want to feel good, but don’t have the ability to actually care, as their minds are full of doctrine – do’s and don’ts. This used to be called ‘the Hinayana approach’ of self-discipline, self-salvation.

It is imperative that our conduct matches our understanding. Just saying whatever we think doesn’t help anyone. We first have to practise listening with an open mind which has no desires or competitiveness. It’s easy to say, “I have an open mind”, but actually having an open mind is staying silent so that there is no I involved.

The answer to all our problems is in our mind.

The Buddha’s Teaching Is Psychology

The nature of mind.

It’s not a religion. It’s not about being holy. It’s not trying to convince people.
It’s just revealing that we are, first and foremost, consciousness. We may call it ‘spiritual’, but that is because consciousness isn’t material – or anything physical. It’s not a ‘soul’ or ‘spirit’ that we have – we don’t have consciousness, we are consciousness itself.

Seeing, smelling, tasting, hearing, touching aren’t spiritual. These are the senses, wide open, and our commentaries on these events are mental, and not spiritual.

Understanding the nature of mind is being practical, where we know what is worthwhile doing and what is not.

If we are materialistic people, every thing is important to us, and we have some thing to argue against and complain about. People take political or religious views, and defend those opposing, material views. This is all psychology.

The ultimate psychology is pure consciousness, where there is no thing to play with. When we understand this, things are merely trivia to which we’ve become partial.

‘Holy’ just means whole, complete. 
Pure consciousness is complete.

When we make it into some thing, 
it isn’t complete any more.
It’s partial.

Pure psychology doesn’t need a special hat.
🙂