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.

Knowing What’s Within Teaches Us What’s Without

A teacher is something or someone whose advice can dispel anxiety, alleviate worry and enlighten darkness, so giving confidence. A mind-wound or trauma from early life may still be present, but now it doesn’t take over our life. Healing starts from within when we realise causes and effects – things don’t just happen. Living with karma is living with the effects of our previous decisions and learning from them.

Teaching isn’t about being obliged to obey a set of rules or conform to the mould; it’s about personal experience and how life is for us now. We are not all the same at the same time. People are imprisoned by opinions that they’ve adopted from others’ opinions. In other words, we live our life guessing. 🙂

‘Dispel’ is an interesting word. We dispel darkness when we are no longer under the spell of the illusory mental fabrications which causes confusion; the outcome of that confusion is the blankness of not knowing. The Dharma (the teaching) dispels darkness through the light of wisdom that is already within. We all know but haven’t learnt to express it, and that’s why we feel uncomfortable.

Expressing what we know is challenging. This isn’t about repeating what others – even a teacher – say. It is realising the essence that connects it all, which results in originality.

Understanding the Dharma – and everything – is the same as understanding the escapement mechanism of a clock, which is the essence of all clocks; this is what connects and drives all the parts.

The essence of pure consciousness is clarity that expresses itself in compassionate effulgence. 🙂

Differing Views Cause Conflict

We may differ on what we see, but we can never differ on pure awareness. People can argue about this and that quite eloquently; humans are very good at making their views believable, but we cannot deny that which is pure observation, before words.

People who object to that have a limited understanding, and won’t be reading this anyway. 🙂

I used to be ‘Buddhist’, but now reflect on the understanding of the Buddha, who reflected on the Vedic understanding of the mirror and reflection of ‘not two’ = non-duality = the unity of opposites.

When someone tries to abuse or criticise us, consciousness brightens, and we feel alert. At that moment, we can either become upset and retaliate, creating duality and more karma, or we can realise that that brightness is pure consciousness, the unity of mirror and reflection – the maintenance of non-duality.

“Not a lot of people know that.”
🙂

Our Minds Have Changed Ownership

Our mind changes ownership when it believes something, and becomes an acquisition no longer able to tell the truth – mundane ‘political’ facts perhaps, but not truth.

We may think we own our mind, but why is it the way it is?
Our mind isn’t what we are.
We are the observation without an observer.
This is only realised in meditation practice.
Mind is a tool – a reactor – and, as such, a teacher.

If we want to know what’s going on in the world, we only need to look into our mind and see how it reacts to names, words and, strangely, music, which create the effect of earworms. Earworms are said to be associated with music, but it’s much more than just that; during the second world war, Goebbels was aware of the power of repetition.

An earworm – or brain-worm – is a catchy piece of music or a saying that occupies a person’s mind, triggering emotional flashbacks long after being played or spoken. Thoughts don’t just happen – pre-bunking (being primed) has already taken place.

Never take anyone’s word as truth;
test it for yourself.

Does the mind light up, or just accept?

Long-Term Subliminal Reactions

It’s amazing how many non-theistic people say,
“Jesus!” or “Oh my God!”
when something suddenly happens.

What gets in, stays in,
unless we are aware of it 🙂

‘I’ Is A Fiction, And A Misdirection

There is a trap in the English language which we all fall into that reinforces the idea of self. That word is ‘I’, which comes from the Latin word, ‘ego’. In consciousness-awareness terms, ‘I’ means a reinforcement of attachment to a constructed self. This trap creates egoism ie self-interest as the foundation of moral behaviour that we don’t notice in operation. As such, we become immoral because of self-interest, hence the misdirection; the hallmark of this is the arising of emotions.

It’s not easy to shake off! 🙂

Sometimes, we may use the word ‘I’ in a friendly manner, as in “I hear what you are saying”, which sounds better than “There is acknowledgement of your words.” 🙂

Just being aware of the use of the word ‘I’ can help us navigate communication in order to stay objective. First, we notice how much the word ‘I’ is used in everyday conversations to reinforce opinions rather than facts, thus arousing emotions. When we use the word ‘I’, we prop up subjectivity. It’s a mental trap.

On an intellectual level, the word ‘I’ is described as that which is aware, but this actually downgrades or obliterates consciousness, as we vaguely assume that consciousness is something ‘I’ use, but never question what ‘I’ is.

Confused?
I am always confused.
“May confusion dawn as wisdom.”
– Gampopa.

In pure consciousness
– which is spontaneous presence –
there is no time for an dualistic ‘I’.

Try not using the word ‘I’ for a day … Kathie and the person who wrote this article did, and it’s very funny 😀

What If Enlightenment Is Not As It Is Portrayed?

Humans are extremely clever, and extremely stupid; both states are distractions.
What if enlightenment is merely understanding, experiencing and realising the fundamental reality of our natural being, of just being aware for a moment or continuously.

We have heard all the wondrous stories from the past, but do they happen now, in front of our eyes?
Has there been a wondrous Buddha in the past 500 years? What if the enlightened are quite straightforward and natural, and the rest of us are so stupid in our cleverness, when we merely have to transcend confusion by not believing anything.

The point is that we may meditate and think that it’s leading somewhere better, when it’s just a matter of dropping the act, with its repetitive script.

But what about religions?
Humans are extremely clever about making something out of no-thing = empty cognisance.

This simple understanding takes the pressure off,
by us not being taken in by appearances.

We Don’t Want To Be Taken In

All beings are perfect in essence but, through ignorance of this reality, we became embodied in a form, being taken in by the measure of our uncontrolled fixations and emotions. We can see ourselves walking, talking, squawking in this atmosphere, and think it’s us.

There is nothing mysterious or fanciful about our true reality; it’s quite simple. There’s no need for long term mantras and chants in a special language. There’s no need for special clothing that separates us from others, and there is no need to be in conflict with anyone.

In reality, we don’t belong to dualistic belief systems; we are free beings, but we’re wrapped in karmic clutter of self-cleverness. The result of clinging to the collective historical clutter is a mountain of utter clutter 😀

When the term ‘emptiness’ is used, it refers to uncontaminated knowingness of awareness. That is the clarity we are, right here, right now. It has no name, ergo we have no name.

We are not unique as we are all enlightened nature, but we just don’t accept this. Why? Because of our adherence to a history and culture created by an ignorant world, full of pride and entitlement. This evil intent – selfishness – causes division through a sense of self-importance.

Spirituality and evil are closely linked. How? Those who don’t care have already been taken in. 🙂 People who turn to religion are at a turning point, but can easily be convinced that appearances are more important than essence … taken!

After realising the truth of our being, it’s challenging to see that practically all beings on this planet think they are someone, with a name, family and job – and that’s it.

It is this very understanding that keeps us from being taken in as well. 🙂

Never Underestimate Stupidity

Never underestimate how much stupidity there is in the world. Enlightened beings are walking around everywhere, but don’t know it. When evidence beyond ‘normal’ thinking is provided, stupidity asserts itself because of a stagnant view in a confined mental atmosphere.

The evidence of stupidity lies in not knowing what we are. The opposite to stupidity is wisdom. The evidence of wisdom is the recognition and knowledge of what we are.

The chance of meeting someone not stupid is rare. Recognising that we have been stupid is the first step towards enlightened wisdom, just before we switch off again. 😀

The practice is remembering that we are pure consciousness stuck in the mud of concepts which have no reality.

The Pointlessness Of Protest

Protest merely maintains the existing structure.

When we protest, we activate, and promote division: “We can’t let them win!”? Either way, ‘they’ win, by the maintenance of the status quo, which refers to the current state of social structure or values. This policy of debate (protest) is to maintain things the way they have always been, and this is why people turn to alternative ways of thinking (religion) that results in more of the same.

The Reformation was a protest against perceived wrong doings by the Catholic Church. The followers of Luther and Calvin became known as Protestants, because of their “protesting.” The same with the Cathars, and the Inquisition … all were heretics against the establishment. Communism uses the same tactics of persecution of individuals who dissent.

Of course, we may disagree with the over-elaborations and complexity, but all we have to do is let go. We’re not going to change it. All through the centuries, there have been convoluted forms created – especially in religion – where those who regarded these elaborations as counter-productive protested. Retaliation was extremely heavy-handed, and included torture and death. Nowadays, it’s media assassination, and the crowds take sides.

If a structure no longer satisfies, it is we who must move on, rather than trying to change the situation. The structure/organisation will simply dig its heels in and refuse to change opinions or plans, especially when someone is trying very hard to make them do so.

This how the ‘Yanas’ or levels work;
we refine understanding, and move on to higher realms.

Protesting and shouting slogans/cliches is part of world slavery. There has always been a ‘power’ on Earth that thinks it’s entitled and divides people to maintain its position.

“Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me.”
This phrase was first used in 1650 by the politician, Anthony Weldon.
We should learn from others’ deceptions.
If we don’t, we’re only have ourselves to blame.

Fairness isn’t part of the status quo, unfortunately.
Voting is just organised protest.
🙂

Democracy Is An Illusion

Democracy is an illusion. As all opposites are a unity – you can’t have one without the other – so is government. The two main parties are two sides of the same coin, and other parties are smaller currencies (loose change 🙂 ). Some countries have a blatant one-headed coin.

The illusory sides work to maintain a single agenda of divide and conquer through the illusion of argument and disruption. Science and religion are the same, each dictating the way to go and creating opposition. There are ‘two’ news systems each describing a situation according to one of the ‘two sides’ of democracy. We believe we’re part of this illusory circus … but we’re not.

We have to get our minds straight about the way in which we are dictated to, in the guise of freedom of choice. This trap that we live in is all in the mind; it’s a constant world war on consciousness. Whatever we are led to believe is going to happen has already happened; the usual weapon is delay by conjecture, when decisions are not transparent, and the public don’t find out until the perpetrators or generation have died. We cannot use our usual intelligence to out-think this manipulation,because we think too small.

The only way out is realising that we are consciousness itself, outside manipulation. We step out of this one-ring circus by not believing what we see, while knowing the consciousness that is seeing. Suddenly, we see everyone rushing around like hungry ghosts, believing in this and that, while we remain in the stillness of pure awareness, watching the movement like a zoescope*. We stop being an audience which claps at the entertainment.

The status quo is maintained to keep humanity in waves of oscillating confusion. In fact, the true nature of all beings is the stillness of pure awareness, but they are unaware of this.

We can stop at any moment and, through practice, rest there. This doesn’t mean we don’t know what’s going on, but we are no longer fixated by it.

Democracy is the illusion of a self taking sides with something that doesn’t exist 🙂

*Zoescope: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2t9ttUcLmo
The mesmerising illusion that many people can sit around and be entertained.

Becoming Dependent

Everything is up for interpretation, depending on our perception; perception depends on our experiences, and experiences depend on our environment which, in turn, depends on the collective thinking. What we digest, we become.

It takes close investigation to realise why we think and act in the way we do.

How do we become independent?
We go beyond thoughts, and drop our addiction.

How?
Realise that we are only pure awareness.

How?
Meditate, and then drop it.

How?
See for yourself.

Addiction To Information

Evil is that which obscures our reality and, by doing so, causes harm. This happens through being addicted to enthralling information, arousing insatiable curiosity.

All information creates a formation in the mind. It’s a form of hypnosis, and can be introduced as double-speak, having opposite meanings which causes confusion. Deception has a whole range of weaponry.

Doublespeak: deliberately obscures, disguises, distorts, or reverses the meaning of words can be euphemisms, jargon, gobbledygook, bureaucratese, and inflated language; each is used in business, advertising, medicine, government, and the military.
Inform: Middle English ‘give form or shape to’, also ‘form the mind of, teach’.
Addiction: to become dependent.

We’re all addicted to information or news. News is not truth; it’s about the state we are in due to past information, and perpetuates the vicious cycle of existence. Evil intent wants to keep us dependent in every walk of life; it is only when we are independent that we can think outside the box and be free of addiction, vertical thinking, exoteric thinking.

We are the secret of life, of pure consciousness trapped in an illusory cycle of existence. It is that terrifying.

At the moment, we’re buried deep in concepts and have, unwittingly, become addicted to others’ interpretations of information. Waking up from this is also terrifying, as we see for the first time what we – and everyone else – have been doing.

No Off Switch

Most people cannot turn their self off.
If we cannot switch off, we find no peace.

When, in meditation, we do switch off, we come to stillness.
The silent awareness of consciousness.
Short moments many times.

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.