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.

Locked In The Mind Through Suggestion

Locked in the mind through suggestion: Middle English (in the sense of ‘an incitement to evil’).

Hypnosis is the power of suggestion. Although not necessarily evil, it can be used in this way, as in believing without proof.

We are all prisoners in our own minds – or rather, consciousness is imprisoned by a mind taken over by suggestions. It’s only when we drop all ideas and just be, that we are outside the mind’s control. Then we are free.

Whatever is happening in the world is not the prison. Events are interpreted for us as a ‘suggestion’ that incarcerates us, while allowing us to choose the lifestyle of our prison.

Suggestions capture our mind. The news is all about suggestion; information is exaggerated to attract us, making us think we know when we’ve merely adopted the ideas of others.

When we are purely aware with no attachment, we are free. It’s really that simple. Remaining open-minded in pure perception, we hear, see, smell, taste and touch, all of which are non-conceptual. That is to say, we can enjoy life with all its ups and downs, but not be attached and imprisoned by events.

If we adhere to the programming, we create our own karmic attitude. However, we all feel there is more to us than that. There is … it is pure consciousness – liberation from all suggested programming.

There are all sorts of things we’re led to believe through suggestion, but we don’t see the agenda behind events.
When we stop believing, we start knowing.

Living In The Real World

The real world is conscious awareness, rather than ideas held in the mind. Life is fruitful when we realise that we are this consciousness awareness: the reality that never changes.

We’re not puppets to have our strings pulled through a belief in stories, pictures and songs; we are here to realise what we are, which is more than just thrill-seekers. Our essence is consciousness, pure and simple while, at the same time, we function as human beings to drop our repetitive karmic attitude.

The path to enlightenment is right here, right now, but we get distracted, which causes confusion and takes us away from being open and natural. Distractions clouding pure vision are thrown at us daily, but these are our ultimate guide, reminding us that we are not those ideas by which we are conditioned.

Living in reality is enriching;
being happy for no reason does not rely on conditions.

Levels Of Waking Up

Knowing there are bad people in the world is not waking up.
Knowing there are stupid people in the world is not waking up.
It’s always been this way.

We are meant to see injustice and react, as this creates conflicting emotions in the mind, and makes us unstable – and controllable.

We start to wake up when we notice the effect of this on our minds, and how we believe whatever we are told, being manipulated to take sides. We realise that our mind is not our own when we only quote others.

Waking up is not about what we see out there; waking up is an internal affair.

Grumbling becomes a ‘comedian’s art form;
it’s very clever, but it’s still part of the soporific show,
making us think we see something no one else sees. 🙂

When we realise something is wrong with us, we start to wake up as we know there is more. What has been presented is just a dream, and an illusion of freedom, when it has actually been slavery all along. People function in a dream state – they only look awake; the higher levels of wakefulness are empathy and compassion for this state.

The Buddha’s first noble truth
is to acknowledge that we are suffering, dissatisfied, anxious.

The cause of this dissatisfaction is an identification with an illusory self, which is just an idea in the mind of how clever I am. That is consciousness clinging to an image. That is the creation of ego-I.

Once we can separate what we are – consciousness – from the mind, we can start our journey of ascending the levels of realisations/wakefulness to pure consciousness.

Meditation clears the mind to see directly,
rather than via others’ explanations.

Never take the Buddha’s word for the truth;
it is direct perception – pure consciousness – that is the unchanging truth.

Our Minds Have Been Colonised

Our minds have been taken over, and we never noticed; we surrendered at birth, because our parents told us how to think, just as they were told how to think. We assume this is normal, but while we argue amongst ourselves about the state of the world, and about who colonised who, we do not realise that our minds have already been taken over.

The ‘news’ and ‘alternative news’ make sure we see injustice. All the things going on in the world are merely a distraction for what has really gone on, and these events are not meant to be hidden as they’re in plain sight.

Can we think outside ourself?

History is a illusion. What went on in the past is happening now, with domination of minds while we argue about trivia. It’s all allowed: wars, conspiracy theories, sugar in food, sentimentality of religion, hatred, division, protests, open borders, clashes of cultures, pretend politics …

All the while, we are already incarcerated; like the cave dwellers in Plato’s cave allegory, we watch the shadows on the wall, believing them to be our reality.

Never think evil is stupid; it’s extremely clever. Never judge it by conventional standards; our minds are already dulled. The world is meant to look and behave crazy, and we’re given toys to play with – which we have to pay for.

We can never think we are free.
We have to know it, and know why.

The Immediate Path To Liberation

Ordinary psychology studies (looks at) the mind. Spiritual psychology studies (looks at) that which looks at the mind – consciousness – which is pure logic, but which ordinary psychology omits.

Proof of spiritual psychology is realised by sitting in silent awareness, bringing up thoughts – pleasant or unpleasant – and seeing that these thoughts have no reality. We have just conjured them up, the same as everything that we relate to. The actual reality is in that which sees – consciousness.

Realise that in this immediate moment,
there is nothing else present
– no comments, no words, no attitude.

That is pure consciousness – non-duality.
The spontaneous liberation from all thoughts and anxiety.

We generally avoid unpleasant thoughts because they create a reaction in the mind that is disturbing, like an emotion we shy away from. But that is exactly the moment to realise that pure consciousness is present. Know that thoughts create an idea of a self-entity, which has no reality; it’s all in the mind. If we believe our thoughts to be real, we remain imprisoned in a mental state of belief.

We are that pure consciousness which cannot be described, and has no name; giving it a name creates an identity which causes separation.

Liberation is the recognition by consciousness
of spontaneous, luminous emptiness beyond the mind.

Short moment many times join up!
Note: No bells and whistles.

Free Thinking

Free thinking and free speech only work in a stable and homogenous society, and this is something we don’t have. When conflict is promoted, confusion and chaos ensues, speech is exaggerated and people become divided.

The Buddha taught not to believe,
but to test the teaching for ourself,
a view at odds with belief.

Belief can only be justified by belief.

Deceived By Knowing ‘About’ The Truth

Our minds are hijacked by knowing about the truth; absolute truth is being the truth. We can actually be deceived by the truth; this is extremely subtle, but not once we see it. The moment of seeing is the spark that, with constancy, illumines into enlightenment.

This is like complaining about the world and being righteous, while not realising that we are the problem. The world wouldn’t be the way it is if we didn’t run around like headless chickens, believing in the illusion of ‘information’.

Knowing about the truth is the great illusion, when we feel self-satisfied and smug (smug: to adorn ourself). As there are levels or yanas of understanding, so too there are levels of misguided intent.

To repeat the Buddha: “Do not take my words for the truth; test them for yourself.” Beware of translations; they may be true, or they may be slightly off. How would you know? Without experiencing we’re easily led astray.

Galileo’s clock escapement mechanism of capture and release is the essence of all clocks. Once this principle is realised, we can make our own clock with whatever is at hand. As long as it functions, does it matter what it looks like? If it works, all parts are empathetic towards one another! 🙂

The more we see that we’re caught,
the more we are free.