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.

Living Outside The Matrix

Living outside the matrix is living outside the mind. Our mind is formed by the society we live in – the collective social mind of limitations, and the topics we don’t talk about; if we do talk about other things, people feel uncomfortable, and are even hostile.

We can, however, live comfortably in society, even though it has no constant reality. It looks real, but everything in society is changeable and malleable, the same as the social mind. That is what forms the matrix.

Now and again, we meet someone in an semi-awakened state, but that’s usually when they are depressed. Depression is suffering, and the acknowledgement of that suffering is the first noble truth on the path to enlightenment. Unfortunately, depressed people keep returning to the very cause of their suffering for relief, and so continue the vicious cycle of existence.

The meaning of life is in the present moment, through close observation.
For that, we need a clear mind that is outside the matrix.

When Spiritual Becomes Political

Political: social manipulation to secure and maintain influential positions, motivated by belief.

When spirituality is organised, it becomes a religion, with the creation of hierarchies to maintain influential positions by belief. This causes dependency within a form. We are not trying to convert others. It is only individual responsibility that can awaken; we don’t do this en masse.

There comes a point where there is no one to refer to – not even books – as referring brings us to the corporate level, thinking within a recognised entity. Politics is outer power, while spirituality is inner power.

Belief is not free will.
The Buddha was outside politics, saying, “Test it for yourself.”

Politics is everyone swallowing one pill.
Spirituality is suck it first and see.

Our Other Problem

Our other problem is that we are far too inventive; we’re too clever for our own good, and very proud to be regarded as being in-the-know, all of which distracts to a state of madness. 🙂

Perhaps it’s not a matter of how advanced enlightenment is; it’s a matter of how much we have deteriorated, and moved away from our natural state. We’re so distracted that we haven’t a clue about reality. Realisation of our true reality is simply pure consciousness, but this is not easy to sustain because of all the attractions around us that we’ve come to depend on.

The most excellent news is that, if we are truly aware, these very distractions are our vehicle to realise we have everything we need for the divine splendour of clarity.

Acknowledging the harm of attachment
is the path to enlightenment.

Divine Discontent

We all feel there is more to us, but we don’t know what that is.

It’s the knowing itself.
It’s that simple.
It’s that subtle.

And it’s what we constantly ignore.

Hollow Forms

A form is an empty mould into which material is placed in order to activate a replica, a copy, a clone. That is what has happened to our minds, and is the reason why we are habitually and predictably in conflict with our true nature. Who created the form?

The reality of a hollow form is its emptiness. When the mind is empty because of the realisation of our essential nature of pure consciousness, we live in the reality of all potentials.

At the moment, we’re no different to Schrodinger’s cat – placed in a sealed box (mind) not knowing if that mind is dead or alive, until the box (mind) is opened.

Until we open our mind,
we won’t know what’s in it,
and why we do and say what we do and say.

The distinctive feature of an enquiring mind is ? not !

Why Do We Make Excuses?

Excuse: justifying a fault or injustice.

Why are we so ready to take sides?
Do we make excuses for a cosy life?
Is “I believe” our downfall?

Why do we make excuses for others when what they say doesn’t make sense? We turn a blind eye to possibilities because the truth may be uncomfortable, or even too shocking. The Dharma is about what is actually happening behind the scenes in our mind. When we accept propaganda – misleading information – as truth, we are bound to confusion.

There are two aspects to every situation; the form and the essence – what something looks like and what it actually is.

Pure consciousness sees all, but the mind judges unfairly through bias, based on very few factors.
We comfort ourselves with excuses. It’s lazy thinking as we fall into cliches to sound caring and honourable. This enables the misleading state of affairs to continue.

For the wordly, absolute truth is uncomfortable;
they rely on very old news (thousands of years old)
rather than seeing the effects in their mind right now.

The Science Of Meditation

This is the most important science that we need to know about what we are, otherwise we are literally dreaming, living in our minds. That’s no way to live. It is only through meditation that we are able to verify that we’re not just consciousness, but pure consciousness, which cannot be realised by thinking, reading or talking about it.

Meditation is scientific because it is personal investigation into the nature of mind, and its effects on consciousness, and our behaviour. This has nothing to do with being ‘religious’, as religion is a formalised structure of words and rituals, and it’s up for interpretation.

Meditation is the method that leads to the real thing; what we ultimately are, the moment we drop or let go of the method. It’s like wanting a drink of water – having drunk, we don’t need the water any more. Holding on to the water is pointless. It’s the same as wanting inner peace; once achieved, the wanting is futile.

Meditation is cutting through the games of rationalisation we play,
to maintain our pride and stupidity.

The science of meditation
unveils our psychology to consciousness,
and releases us.

Belonging: Property Of

When we belong to any ideology, we are that ideology’s belongings; this forms our bindings, which limit being.

To be a full being, we traverse the path of the middle way beyond sides, beyond stickiness. The middle way is the light of clarity, the shock or glimpse of reality, before we ‘fall’ into memories in the shadow world of the mind.

Whether high-brow – intellectual wrestling – or low-brow – seeking gross thrills – it’s all the same; we identify with a label – believer or non-believer, conformist or non-conformist.

The middle way is neither accepting nor rejecting.
Our belongings are our karmic mental baggages
which serve as our guide;
the pointing-out instruction to remind us to be aware on our path to now-here.

God? Self? Consciousness?

This is a matter of individual understanding, rather than group-think. Some believe in a God-creator. Some believe in a self identity. Some believe they are consciousness.

Eloquent people discuss/argue, “There is God!” / “There is no God!”. These are extreme designations meant to maintain divisiveness and conflict, and this has been working very well for thousands of years.

God, self, pure consciousness cannot be defined. What if they were all the same thing? That is the secret no one talks about. We are what we seek, the supreme being that cannot be defined; the royal seat.

There is no right or wrong about this.
It is an individual understanding,
a realisation that we each come to.

And nothing to get hung up about.
🙂

People do get hung up about this, and they have to come to a realisation in their own good time, when their karma is in the right condition, which is when the I/ego identity is exhausted, creating conducive karmic circumstances.

This is not something to believe in; it is what we need to know.

“It’s Beyond Me!”

It’s not complicated, it’s not difficult, it’s not time consuming. It’s natural. What’s ‘it’? It is the pure, natural understanding of intelligent life within – pure consciousness, beyond self, beyond the mind which is an identification, a limiter.

Beyond my understanding is the essence of life that is not political or religious or competitive. It is natural effulgence that shines brightly. Neither accepting nor rejecting, it is nothing but goodness.

In understanding this, we may be able to understand the essence of the word God. We are bound up in the material world where there is the expectation that ‘goodness’ must do this or that, not realising that we are the supreme effulgence, beyond all machinations. 🙂

A limited view creates misunderstanding and conflict.
A limitless view is without boundaries, and beyond ‘me’.

Trying To Explain Something Beyond Explanation

Trying to explain something beyond explanation
cannot be done.

Any explanation or commentary is inaccurate.
Pure consciousness can only be realised without words.

Relating And Not Relating

Relating to others can only be a generalisation
as we each have individual karmic attitudes.

Words are also a generalisation;
they’re not the real thing, as that has to be experienced individually.

The closer we come to reality, the nearer we are to the open door, but the less we can relate this opening to others. Why? Because they don’t see the same opening. Our true nature is nothing extraordinary: it’s not a common experience as it’s the simplicity that others cannot understand.

When people react to a subject, they’ve closed the door,
and communication cannot continue.

The door is only an opening with nothing supporting it,
ergo, there is no door
– we have been in the open all along.

The open door is pure consciousness.
The result of realisation is a mixture of joy and sadness.

Form And Formless

Stuck and unstuck.

Form is the material world of ideas, rituals, words and symbols.
Formless is what we are – pure consciousness.

Meditation is the form.
Non-meditation is formless.

Form is ‘religion’.
Formless is the fruition when we drop ‘religion’.

Stuck in the form is the vicious cycle of religious existence; the cult of worship.
Unstuck is realising we are that which we seek.

It matters not what others say; it matters how we see.
Enlightenment – the great unstuck-ness.