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.

Get The Experience, Then You Know

I do go on about this, but we do not get experience from scriptures.
The absolute truth is beyond conceptualisation.

This is why a simple person can get it, while a scholar discusses all the terminologies, and still doesn’t get it. When we get it, everything ties together, and there is no confusion, no suffering, no division.

When we dwell in conceptualisations, we become full, with no empty space for wisdom. The experience is emptiness beyond concepts and mantras.

How do we get it?
Let go and observe what remains.

There isn’t even an observer – an observer is interference.
There is just observation.
There is just pure awareness.

We can still get it at any moment.
In fact, every moment is pure awareness.

Pre-Bunking is Mind Control

Pre-bunking is the opposite to de-bunking. Pre-bunking is priming people before an event. If you want to see mind control in action, this is it. Our ‘controllers’ say that pre-bunking is to prevent their information from being questioned, by the suggestion that questioning is manipulation and misinformation.

It’s a constant trick being played on us all, but do we see it?
“No one can pull the wool over my eyes.”
Oh really?

It’s like saying, “I’m open-minded.”
As long as an I is present, there is no open mind.

Those who claim power over others think disbelievers are a virus. They say instead of treating an infection when it has taken hold (that’s the de-bunking), it’s better to vaccinate so that our body – the whole population – is inoculated to believe. Pre-bunking is the same approach, because ‘disbelievers’ pass it on to others, and our controllers don’t want that.

We live in a tricksy world.
Tricksy: ingenious, intricate, or complicated: a tricksy little device.

Our Environment

People react to the environment – that which surrounds us.
The mind is our first environment.

If our environment is contaminated with concepts which obscure our direct awareness, this affects our entire life. When obscurations create stress, it is we who contaminate the environment for others, in a chain reaction.

How do we clean up our environment? We empty out the pointless junk. First, we have to see that we have junk in our mind, causing stress, seriousness, and attachments. This is done through meditation, of just being aware of awareness. Meditation is the broom that clears the path so that we can see with clarity.

There are some who expect more out of meditation; they want to acquire exotic junk, not realising that their environment will become even more heavily contaminated.

Life is beautifully simple. Through wisdom, desire becomes clarity, aversion becomes impartiality, and indifference becomes empathic understanding.

Our original nature is already clarity, impartiality and empathic understanding, but we became lost in a confused self-identity. So we are conditioned to continuously be governed by our likes and dislikes

A good environment is a clear atmosphere
of an open mind and pure consciousness.

Drawing Accurately As Meditation

This isn’t about drawing well. It’s about observing one’s inaccuracies. If we want to do ‘art’, then we can be good enough but here, we are drawing exactly what we see. This the same when studying anything – there is just observation but, once a skill is mastered, we get carried away.

This method of drawing is known as the ‘atelier’ method, called sight sizing, where whatever we see is exactly in line with what is on the paper. For this, we can use a straight edge to measure all the salient heights so that we know they are accurate. Then we can consider the widths. It’s all about angle and proportion; we’re are not drawing an ear, we are drawing the shapes – or negative shapes – within an ear.

To start with, we look at the ‘envelope’ shape that encompasses the whole figure so that we can place it on our paper. We then block in the big shapes very lightly, and shade the shadow areas in one flat tone – we’re not looking for detail yet. Once the big shapes are established, we then look at the smaller shapes, and readjust where the drawing has gone wrong – not where we have gone wrong. We are not identifying with being good at something; it’s a private investigation. 🙂 We don’t have to finish the details, but just get the big picture … with less pressure.

If drawing from a photograph, this can be turned upside down, which can trick our brain into just seeing shapes without identifying them.

Again, this isn’t about being ‘good’ at drawing; it’s watching our attitude. If we do become good at drawing, arrogance can creep in, and then we are just a mechanical machine. It’s about relaxing with a 6B pencil. 🙂 Gradually, we don’t have to measure, and then we know that our brain has been trained – and changed.

Ordinary meditation is the same. We are watching our self, our mind, continually trying to take over, clouding awareness. One problem with being good at meditation is becoming arrogant and uncaring.

The completion of a drawing is not what matters; it’s about having a firm foundation by training the brain to see with clarity. That allows divine splendour to shine through naturally.

A method creates the foundation for transcendence
into true compassion of no self.

The more accurate we become,
the more we notice what’s missing.
🙂

Giving Up The Past

Giving up the past
is giving up attachments,
giving up karma.

First, we have to become aware of the effect that the past has on us now. Are we stubborn? There are many things that we may regret, and cannot put right. Let them go. Likewise, there may be things we enjoyed but still, we must let them go. We can be mindful of the past, but it shouldn’t dominate the present moment. Giving up the past is part of transcending the levels or yanas.

Don’t fight it; move on.

If we don’t give up ideas of the past, they become luggage that carries more of the same attitude. Our attitude is our karma, our programming that made us the way we are; a release is needed in order to move on. We may feel that we have nothing in common with those we knew, which is both sad and liberating.

The moment when we recognise this, we may feel uncomfortable. There is a conflict with the past and the present, as the old brain is still in history mode of our ‘normal’.

Gradually, by living with dropping it, we become free. We’ve finally worn out the old me that was holding back our naturalness, energy and intelligence.

Wisdom is our naturalness outside the programme,
which others may find uncomfortable.
🙂

The Social Engineers And The Spiritual Engineers

Humanity has been manipulated by gradual social engineering for millennia, through politics, science and religion, resulting in irrational beliefs.

These memes that we mimic affect social behaviour in order to steer it in oscillating directions. This is so subtle that we don’t notice that no matter what is said, the opposite happens, and lives become more burdensome. Every generation is primed to create the next generation’s social engineering, with each revolting against the previous one. It’s wound-up wokery, resulting in irrational beliefs.

For a few who seek something deeper, this pointless activity cannot be what life is truly about; science merely adds to the excitement, and religion dulls us.

We may look behind the scenes of the spiritual circus, and if we’re lucky, we might discover the psychology of spirituality, and become spiritual engineers. Once we know how our mind works and why, we recognise the social engineers at work, seeing how they plan their cycle of events.

Most of all, we realise that our reality
has nothing to do with events in this make-believe world.

Confirmation Of The Dharma Through Research

Research: the systematic investigation and verification of information in order to establish facts and reach a conclusion.

Confirmation is what the Dharma is about; it is verifying whether what the Buddha taught was correct or not.

It’s not a collection of poems to remember and repeat.
It’s how to live, experience and realise the truth of our being – which we have always known.

The sustaining of research
is empowered through realisation

The World Will Not Change

The world will not change until enough people meditate.

For those who meditate, their world changes because their ability to reason changes.
When enough people meditate, the world will change.

Unfortunately, even the Buddha couldn’t change the world,
so we can’t wait for others to change the world for us.
We have to change our world by changing our mind about everything.

Don’t just sit there … breathe … be aware of awareness … drop being aware for awareness to just be … The world has now changed from something which appeared solid to transparency. That is the clarity of divine splendour.

That which we reasoned was real is now an illusion.

If Our Mind Hasn’t Been Blown

If our mind hasn’t been blow clear,
then it’s still full of cobwebs, spun with ideas.

We will never be free to think for ourselves until we can think with clarity, which is defined as divine splendour. That definition, in itself, should blow our mind 🙂

Don’t just read and acquire information;
dare to experience and realise it.
There’s a huge difference.

Just reading about truth is fraught with undesirable results, when we are laden down with confused pride that creates confused karma.
Fraught: late Middle English, laden, equipped, loaded with cargo.

If we want something new to appear, we have to give up theories and models, and stop imitating. New is now, without luggage, so that experience can be redefined with a subtler meaning.

We will never hear or read anything new,
but we can realise higher levels of meaning.
To do this, we allow in the inner wind of clarity.

Heaven’s Doorkeeper Is The Devil
… and the devil doesn’t exist.

If we spend our life only looking for ‘goodness’, we fall under the spell of pride and evil. It’s easily done, and we become trippers, buying into trinkets. The way is through knowledge of good and evil. The Naga in the Garden of Eden was divine wisdom, which is the opposite to what the magi-cians translated for us.

The ‘devil’ – or Mara – is our own likes and dislikes which lie in ambush to distract consciousness to look in the opposite direction. This is activated through being judgemental, by taking sides.

It is the very recognition of this reaction that opens the door to heaven, nirvana, enlightenment. When we know the secret behind the illusion, this actually points the way. That’s what magicians do; it’s very clever and believable, but pointless to a discerning eye when we are able to distinguish between truth and not-quite the truth.

Our job then is to see through the illusion and actually walk through the door – the mind – and leave it open for others. And to our surprise, we are still here. Heaven is a state of mind which is pure consciousness that has no judgements; habitual judgements come a moment later to obscure the mind.

There are a lot of clever illusions about,
so there is a lot of guidance and teaching about
– if we look in the right way.

The evil is the world is showing us the way. For this reason, evil never works in the way it wants to work, and it’s also why it can never stop, as it’s totally insatiable and confused. If we do not see evil, we are its minions, followers, enablers, servile underlings; as such, we are unimportant, and no threat as we’re easily turned away by the doorkeeper.

Dare to open the door of your mind, and see through it.

NB ‘Magi’ comes from the Zoroastrian belief system of a creator, and originated the area of modern day Iran. Also from that region came the Vedic tradition of non-duality, which is the opposite view.

The Psychology Of Wisdom And Demons

The activity of Wisdom and Demons is Buddhist psychology.

All sentient beings are Buddhas, but aren’t aware of it.
1. Our essence is uncontaminated emptiness.
2. Our nature is cognisant consciousness.
3. Our expression is compassionate energy.

These, if unnoticed, become the demonic activities:
1. Ignorance.
2. Desire/attraction/grasping.
3. Aversion/hatred.

This is a description of the four enlightened activities of Buddhas and bodhisattvas, and the way in which the dark forces (Maras-Demons) can pervert these within us.

Mara is the likes and dislikes in the mind. When we like or dislike, we fall prey to these emotions, which can attract additional negativity. Understanding the emotions is the key to sanity.

The following may seem a little complex, but it is meant for those who like the idea of being spiritual engineers.

THE FOUR ENLIGHTENED ACTIVITIES
We have to be aware that there is another side to these activities; every action can be distorted by the ego! Our level of understanding will attract a specific quality – as we sow, so we reap.

An enlightened person will manifest certain qualities when a particular situation arises. These qualities are pacifying, enriching, magnetising and destroying.

Pacifying accommodates everything. It reveals that there are no problems, and that aggression from the ego is unnecessary.
Enriching brings to light the process of growth, and allows the development of knowledge.
Magnetising bypasses conventional reality. In conventional reality, we continually try to draw desired situations towards ourselves, and fend off undesirable ones. A realised person simply remains as he or she is, attracting naturally without this ego intervention.
Destroying is connected to compassion, and is aimed at ego’s manipulations.

THE DISTORTIONS OF EGO = THE FOUR MARAS
These four demonic activities are directed at building and fortifying our concept of ‘self.’

The Mara of pacifying attempts to make peace by using pleasure and security to eliminate whatever is unpleasant. It is an imitation of genuine pacifying, which is beyond any self-serving strategy, such as “There, there – it will be all right, trust me”.

The Mara of enriching is the Mara of accumulating. Ego takes natural growth and turns it into its own ground. It hijacks the richness, and turns it into my wealth – “See how clever I am?”.

The Mara of magnetising attempts to attract, in order to feed one’s ego with whatever is desirable, based on the possessive emotions – “I enjoy praying for others”.

The Mara of destroying obliterates everything, rather than just whatever needs to be destroyed. Trungpa Rinpoche wrote, “It begins to get inspired in the wrong way, and uproots the whole tree…and that is the karmic quality of destruction gone wild, unnecessarily”, as in “You’re talking total rubbish!”.

Be aware that worldly demons use these very principles to twist our minds, and divert consciousness.

Understanding these two aspects of our psychology reveals that reality is nothing other than wisdom. We need to look closely at the world we inhabit, and contemplate our most ordinary experiences.

If we do this
– if we let go of what we think and simply let the true being of what we are show itself –
we will discover that it is nothing other than
primordial immaculate wisdom.

This is the blueprint of everything that happens in the world.

How Do We Learn?

How do we learn?
By getting an answer?
No.
By tasting it, and seeing if it works – for us and for others.

If we just accept when we are told something without experience, this is no better than belief, which we repeat. It may sound right, but have we tested it?

How do we test it? By noting our reaction towards others. If it is one of confident, empathetic kindness with genuine interest and no aftertaste, then we know we understand. If it is one of feeling superior for having ‘knowledge’, we’ve misunderstood, and misbehave with much aftermuttering. 🙂

There are plenty of ‘holy’ people and places,
and plenty of followers of ‘holy’ people and places,
but not many genuine, raw-experienced students.

Student: from Latin verb studere, related to studium ‘painstaking application’.

Many think they have the answer, because they have a good memory for whatever they’ve read or heard.
This is exoteric knowledge.

A few have the answer by having a good memory for life experiences.
This is esoteric knowledge.

The purpose of life is to learn,
and realise what we are

The Value Of Comments

To make the Dharma practical rather then believable, feedback is vital – even genuine critical feedback. The Dharma is absolutely adaptable, with different emphases to suit individuals.

One size/pill doesn’t fit all. If we hold back a feeling, we will become stuck there, and achieve no release. This blog isn’t advertised; people come here through serendipity = karma.

(If you do comment, you don’t have to leave a name or email contact – that is a wordpress invention. Just type your words and click ‘Comment’.)

Authorities Monitor Our Thinking

Authorities monitor our thinking
so that we think the way they do.

It’s easier to control people that way.
Whether it’s government, religion, media … it’s all about group-think.

When we can monitor our own thoughts,
we are free to see their limiting effects.

That monitoring is meditation.

We Are Already In Nirvana, Looking Out

Nirvana: Extinguished self

We (pure consciousness) are already in Nirvana, but don’t realise it, in favour of being locked into an idea of a ‘me’, a ‘self’. We are enlightened beings ignoring what we are, and identifying with beliefs which cause us to create, therefore firing-up self.

This identification with beliefs and creation obscures our reality.

Once we realise our true essence, our view changes. What is important changes. We still do our daily chores, but this is to create the time and space to remember what we are.

The world is in a very dark place;
reacting to it deepens our attachment to darkness.

Acknowledge that it is the light of consciousness
which naturally extinguishes the darkness.

Riddles Control Our Thoughts

Our thoughts are cliches, overused to the point of losing their originality, and becoming unproductive. we are merely repeating conventional understanding and so, our thoughts are not our own and we live a narrow existence. We actually talk in riddles, thus maintaining circling confusion.

Interpreting these riddles – such as “Are we created, or do we create ourselves?” – results in speaking in tongues, making hollow sounds with no substance.

When we can experience the rawness of life for ourselves, the question arises, “How do I feel about this?” There is no immediate answer, as there is a cause to discover. When we no longer have to believe in others’ habitual riddles, the mind opens up to all possibilities.

As the Buddha said, “Do not take my word for truth; test it for yourself.”

The word ‘riddle’ shares its origin with the word ‘read’, both stemming from the Germanic verb rēdaną, which meant ‘to interpret, to guess’.

Know the mind,
and know how whatever’s in it got there.
😀