What Is Practice?
Practice is training in remembering that,
before we are human, we are non-dual consciousness,
and aware of illusions.
When we train like this, we become practitioners
who learn from life’s experiences of the unity of opposites.
When we no longer see difficulties as an obstacle,
we are practising in a practical way.
Training is demolition of illusions.
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.
Symbols Are Only A Representation
Symbols are only a representation and not the real thing.
It’s a trap we all fall into.
Symbols are ‘brand awareness’, when the brain lights up before consciousness is aware of it. Symbols are therefore subliminal, operating below the threshold of consciousness. A name, face or uniform has the same effect, resulting in a subtle reaction or emotion of attraction (a feeling of being at home) or repulsion (a feeling of unease).
This is why a hypnotist – or a police officer – will hold a person’s hand, interrupting the pattern that the mind has established by grabbing the wrist or pulling the subject forward and off balance. With the pattern interrupted, the subconscious mind is suddenly open to suggestion.
We have to be aware of what power words and actions have on us, and off we go! When seeking the truth of our reality, we may arrive at religion, but religion isn’t the truth itself; it’s a symbol below the threshold of consciousness to which we become attached. Or, for others, it is a symbol of unease. 🙂
Religion represents the teaching, but isn’t the real teaching itself. That comes from personal understand through experience resulting in realisation (and not many get this). The symbols can be buildings, objects, rituals or intellectualisation, but these are not the real ‘thing’ itself – we’ve acquired and identified with ‘things’, that’s all.
Know when the mind has been taken over by the invasion of ideas – even good ideas – that merely become a crutch. Information is just like that, as it isn’t personal realisation. Information is symbolic representation; people repeat symbolic words which have little intrinsic value, when there is a lack of panoramic vision and empathy.
We use focused vision when we engage in something. Panoramic vision, on the other hand, allows us to see all around without moving our head or mind, becoming aware of how everything is connected, and allowing information to come to us, without grasping at anything. Otherwise, we know in parts, seeing through a glass darkly. When partiality falls away, however, we see clearly.
Become aware of intuitive sensations
below the threshold of consciousness and the mind.
There is nothing new in the teachings.
What is new is our personal realisation.
Corinthians 13:9-12
“For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”
We Know More Than We Think
Whatever we think is not the truth,
and that is the conundrum we live in.
It is our limited thinking that inhibits us from knowing everything that we need to know. Knowing everything? When we know the basis of creation, we don’t have to be a mathematician or believe in an external God to see the primary laws at work.
We simply have to realise that everything – galactic, atomic and emotional – is created by attraction and repulsion. The effect of magnetism = attraction and repulsion = hope and fear,which is the cycle driving gross existence.
When we go beyond thought, we realise that we are pure consciousness, intuitive, insightful, and seeing all phenomena as the guru. Detached understanding remains open-ended, and can therefore adjust to conditions. Not too tight and not too loose, otherwise we become fixated and incapable of change or development.
Awareness or observation tell us more than verbalisation.
Awareness is spontaneous, while words depend on memories.
We are stupid if we only think we know, when we already know.
😀
Aware Of Being Awareness
Being aware of being awareness is a subtle state of being. The subtlest state is realising we are pure awareness. Awareness has no name; it is individual consciousness. Calling this something creates an identity, a group dreamthink where we follow the house style guide. Whenever we are in thought or use words, we are relating, creating movement or agitation, and individual clarity is lost.
This is how meditation creates a pause button throughout daily activities,
where we refresh the page/mind.
🙂
Being aware that we are awareness is the awakened state outside the usual collective dream state. This natural moment is always present, but is ignored. When we are doing something, no thoughts or words are necessary; there is direct perception, at one with the tool. When washing our face, mowing the lawn, driving a car … thought isn’t required – awareness is. We naturally adapt and adjust to the moment.
We are constantly being split in two – mind and consciousness. Meditation is noticing the mind taking over; in being aware, consciousness lets it go. We are fully aware of distractions but we do not follow and become attached to them.
Refreshing the page/mind updates and is invigorating.
This is the middle way; the seeing of extremes and possibilities.
We Dis+cover What Has Always Been There
The enlightened essence of all sentient beings merely needs re+cognition. We dis+cover what has always been there. Racing around like hungry ghosts, looking for where it’s at, we are where it’s at already.
When we stop this busy-ness and find we are in a state of vacancy, we look to that which notices this state. Under a rock, in a piece of wood … that which is looking and seeing is the supreme essence of the universe.
It’s not complicated. Thou art that. But to that, we say “Not this” so that we do not hold on to another version of self. We are the seeing – pure awareness.
It’s so simple,
and the reason we cannot find reality
is that we are it.
When you get it, it’s a shock.
There is nothing religious about this;
there is no obligation.
Does life change?
No, it’s the same, but attachment lifts off
and we see more through clarity.
Everything and everyone is special
as we know what’s underneath.
That is dis+covery.
Meditation Is Just Being Aware of Awareness
When more people meditate, the world will change for the better. At the moment, people are all about ‘me-and-what-I-know’. This limits understanding of an infinite reality.
Just being aware can be at any moment, anywhere, under any conditions. We do this naturally but it goes unnoticed, in favour of ‘me-and-what-I-know’. That is our confused cycle of existence.
Meditation or awareness isn’t about being perfect at it; it’s about noticing when our mind takes over and obscures this pure awareness. Meditation gives us a pause button in daily life. It’s definitely not a matter of superior to others – it is being what we are; effortless awareness.
Through clarity, we are no longer blinded by ideas.
We’re not becoming mindless – we’re becoming mind aware.
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.
Book Learning – News Learning
Book learning: knowledge acquired by reading books, as distinguished from that obtained through observation and experience.
The result of reading too many books and commentaries is confusion and doubt. Been there, done that. We are reading about something rather than actually experiencing for ourselves. Book learning creates disjointed thinking, lacking a coherent sequence or connection, because the authors have various views from the books/news that they’ve read. Too many ingredients in the soup nullifies the taste.
Once we are fixated, disconnected thinking occurs and this obscures pure experience.
The evil in the world hides reality.
Clarity comes from direct recognition without fixations.
Obscuration comes from attachment and is full of fixations.
Evil obsesses.
Evil is stupid morality. Why? Because the evil in us thinks that evil people are just evil, without acknowledging that, before violence occurs, there has to be an idea introduced. And where did the ideas come from? A book is a generalisation – it is not direct experience.
How Did It All Start?
It didn’t.
The universe is infinite, so there is no beginning. If we try to speculate on this, we will never, ever understand reality. Infinity is something we just have to accept; there is no starting point. That … is when we start to investigate reality. We cannot think ourselves into reality – there is only now.
Never get into a discussion with people who have strong opinions, as they are not open-minded :-). They are ‘concern trolls’ who express worry about an issue disingenuously, with the intention of undermining or derailing genuine discussion. Stress is man-made because we become involved with others’ exaggerations, which causes anxiety.
We are the reality
– and it’s not what we think.
The only way to discover the truth is through stillness of the mind,
so that it too becomes infinite emptiness within pure consciousness.
Everything in the universe is changeable, except consciousness.
The world around us wants answers, but that’s merely intellectualisation, and causes no end of trouble through speculation and conflict. There is no big bang, no beginning. There is infinite space, infinite matter, and infinite consciousnesses. There is nothing outside of this. Everything is governed by the laws of attraction, repulsion and inertia. The beings on Earth are countless, and there are other places and dimensions.
Between death and rebirth are countless beings seeking a ‘comfortable’ home due to their karmic misunderstandings of reality, causing everything to spin around in cycles.
This movement stops the moment we stop.
Reality has nothing to do with religion or science or speculation;
it is beyond words.
Does Death Matter?
It will happen anyway.
What we think happens at death will have an affect on how we live. Death will happen anyway, so why not consider all possibilities about what may occur then? If we do not think about death as a part of life and just die, of what value is life? Do we muck around for a while, accumulating facts, then just die? Considering death can bring much value to life.
The alternatives are that we go heaven or hell, or we just die and don’t exist anymore, so all that we pride ourselves in is pointless. Most people seem to live without bothering about death, and ignore the consequences of ignoring. They die vague and confused 😦
If . . . reincarnation is a reality, then we can and have been reborn everywhere in the universe in some form. Why? Because we ignored what we, in truth, are, and took on a form to that degree of understanding. Sometimes we need a little mind-boggling to get us out of our humdrum assumptions that devalue life.
Life is precious.
It doesn’t matter what we think it will happen at death, death will happen anyway, so why not consider the best possibility for enlightenment? Whatever we will have to face in the future will depend on what we understand now.
We choose.
It doesn’t matter what others say, it is our choice.
Personally, I have too much déjà vu to pooh-pooh* reincarnation.
Déjà vu: to know again, already seen, recognition.
Being vague devalues life.
.*Pooh-pooh: 1590s – “a ‘vocal gesture’ expressing the action of puffing anything away”, used as an exclamation of dislike, scorn, or contempt, first attested in Hamlet Act I, Scene III, where Polonius addresses Ophelia with, “Affection! pooh! you speak like a green girl.”
From Information To A Firm Foundation
Information is something we receive, but have not experienced as we are still looking for the conclusion of this information. The result is little or no empathetic understanding, as we haven’t had the experience yet.
A firm foundation is knowing through experience; we are unshakeable, realising we are the conclusion. The result isempathetic understanding of cause and effect.
Understanding is like drawing;
we have to constantly practise to get better
– we cannot simply rely on talent.
The problem with Dzogchen is that we can receive the pointing out instruction into the nature of mind and consciousness, but we then need a firm foundation to support this view by the practice of remembering – being the awareness. When we are present, the clarity of pure awareness is present as it’s what we are. Our moral conduct is that of a decent person, that is to say having an empathetic understanding of why and how problems come about, and that everything has a cause. We are both doctor and patient.
Other paths start with theory and lots of words; we learn to be a decent person, trusting in the path and teacher with regular ritual practice, and then maybe we realise the nature of mind and consciousness – if we’re lucky. 😀
A problem for westerners is being influenced by theistic concepts and mannerisms that colour our approach to everything. By this, I mean that we turn consciousness into a universal consciousness of God, and become religious by being bound to an idea. We adopt certain frame of mind, and miss the point.
We are what we seek.
We are the surprise.
It’s not complicated.
We are the awareness of awareness,
the emptiness of 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.
🙂
Bringing Problems To Light
Meditation is the light of awareness, of seeing clearly without distractions. We can do this in a moment.
When we dwell in beliefs and assumptions, we dwell in the dark, and that is the problem. We are constantly relating. The light is the clarity of awareness. When this is realised, and we have dropped all assumptions, pure light, pure awareness is revealed as being what we are.
Light: from indo-european root, shared with ‘lung’.
Lung: an open space in a town or city, where people can breathe fresher air. 😀
‘Lung’ in Tibetan means wind or breath.
Lung is key to the Vajrayana traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, and is particularly important to understand the illusory body and the trikaya (body, speech and mind).
We are nothing but light, pure breath, ethereal awareness.
When this awareness identifies with an idea of self,
that reification is the cause of our problems.
Reify: make concrete or real.
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.
Karma And Merit
The way the word ‘merit’ is used can sound like a reward
– a carrot held in front of a donkey.
The Dharma is a complete personal uncovering of what we are, which is ever-present.
Any elaboration of pure consciousness is not only unnecessary, it becomes a burden.
When we are hooked on elaborations – ‘charitable’ acts, yogic jobs, selfless service – which supposedly create merit, we hope to reap the ‘reward’. Merit is a two-edged sword, so be very careful – it isn’t a business transaction.
Merit: Middle English – deserved reward or punishment: from Latin meritum,‘due reward’.
When we liberate ourselves from the hook,
we are free of reward.
Empathetic understanding is merit;
that changes karma/attitude/motivation.
We Have All We Need To Know
We have all we need to know.
If we feel that we don’t know but want to know,
the result is eternal neediness.
Being needy, we doubt and become dependent on others, not realising we are knowingness itself. Of course, we all want to know things that are outside our reach, but that is a recipe for a pointless life. We have to go step-by-step before we can become effulgent, and shine. 🙂
Wanting to become enlightened negates that we are enlightened. It’s the trap we all fall into, going round in circles relying on gurus, when the guru is within – much the same as God.
Worldly influencers want us contrary to our nature – to take sides, to believe, to be divided, to be confused – when our nature is pure consciousness. We are both these aspects, in different measures.
It could be said that we are both consciousness and pure consciousness – Atman and Brahman, or self and Self, or ignorance and wisdom, or darkness and light, or dreamers and awakened …
We have all we need to know.
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
Something More Interesting?
Always looking for something more interesting?
That’s our problem.
This, unfortunately, is laziness because we’re not focusing on the truth of the matter; we are looking for titbits. These tasty morsels are for the needy who seek interesting information to clutch at. It is truly a moral maze, full of interesting distractions.
A simple mind is a clear mind through the realisation that we are pure consciousness.
Of course, we note what is going on in the world, as the projections on the wall of Plato’s cave (our mind) must continue to capture the imagination of the witless, in much the same way that theories of Buddhism or God or Science are eternal distractions.
There are two aspects to everything
– one captures, and the other sets us free.
Look no more.
Just see, and don’t make anything interesting out of it.
🙂
Being Taken In
We are all taken in by appearances
when, in actuality, appearances are taken in by consciousness.
That is the secret conundrum.
This world of deception is also our path to enlightenment.
The real teaching takes us beyond any appearances.
Don’t be taken in; take it all in.
Sizing Up A Person
We look carefully at a person or situation so that we can decide how to act. In the first instant, observation without judgment is taking place to see what clues are given out; this is pure consciousness at work, before we react. What does this observation tell us? That is a moment of teaching – do we use string, a screw or a hammer?
Sizing up a situation tells us what to do, and what to say. Much depends on our ability to empathise, in order to understand what sort of compassion to use.
Most people size up through their bias and fixations, and that causes and maintains conflict. We, as meditators, must show more understanding and not judge – or at least able to put that aside.
Part of meditation is sizing ourselves up. 😀 “Why do I think the way that I think?” When we know why, then we can empathise with others as we recognise (know again) the projection. 🙂
Empathy enriches experience, and tests us.
Confusion And Meditation
Even when the mind is confused or we feel that we cannot meditate, consciousness is still present and unaffected. We areconsciousness and, as such, remain unaffected, but our attention goes to whatever is on our mind, and we become distracted. That’s all.
Always remember that whatever is on our mind, consciousness is never affected. We are not confused; meditation is just being aware that consciousness is present – we are present.
So we have nothing to do but realise this to regain clarity and peace of mind, and everything falls into place.
Ego Is Not A Monster
In its usual state, ego is a narcissistic creation which lacks empathy, but this mythical creature is also our precious teacher, as it’s with us at every moment until enlightenment.
Ego is consciousness clinging to a confused idea of itself. Consciousness is the student who identifies with gathered information, and only becomes a master when it realises emptiness, completeness.
Consciousness can see the ego at work
by reactions and emotions.
That is precisely why it’s our teacher.
There are two aspects to Tibetan iconography – peaceful and wrathful deities – both of which manifest love, depending on our ability to understand. One invites us, while the other sharpens us up.
Monster: from the Latin ‘monstrum’, from the verb moneo – to remind, warn, instruct, or foretell.
We are very interesting creatures 🙂
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.
A Lie Has An Element Of Truth To Be Believable
The Buddha never asked us to believe,
just accepting his words.
People who believe do not know; they assume, and follow others. It’s shocking to see how many just accept whatever they’re told, and repeat this belief with fervour. Belief takes the truth and downgrades it. The esoteric becomes exoteric. Sounds good but that’s all – nothing is transmitted, and there is no clarity and awakening.
This is why we have to be careful when we listen to spiritual teachers;
do they sound good, or do they actually hit the spot?
To capture people’s minds with an outright lie obviously doesn’t work; there has to be an element of truth. This is why we must be mindful and question everything. People who know the truth cannot be told to believe the truth – they are free of beliefs.
Reacting to others’ beliefs is not the answer, as this just makes us reactionaries and complainers about something that does not actually exist. That is the great illusion at play in the world. We have to utilise deception and see it as an instruction. How? The way something is being promoted tells us everything we need to know, if we are mindful. That very moment of recognition is the moment or pause of pure awareness. It’s the … “What?”
Pure awareness can never be a lie,
and can never lie.
The Buddha Was A Whistleblower
He provided evidence contrary to the established belief that there is self. The instant when we identify as a self or atman or spirit, we create and maintain a subtle duality. The moment of pure consciousness is the moment of non-duality where there is no time to identify; there is just pure awareness.
Any idea of self limits understanding, and we are relying on a belief, rather than realisation.
Belief is the promotion and acceptance of a self-identity, which causes the emotions of hope, fear, pride and jealousy due to ignorance and, most of all … reaction. Reaction is the tell-tale sign of belief (another way to look at this is crowd control).
In pure consciousness, there is no reaction.
We all need to be whistleblowers of our mind, because it has been brainwashed into the partiality of worship.
Our mind is like a grain of rice in a pot of boiling water; when one grain is ‘cooked’, all are ‘cooked’. That’s how groupthink works.
Cooked: altered dishonestly; falsified.
To a cooked mind, evidence is irrelevant, as such a mind has no experience of anything other than received information. Anything outside established acceptance does not register. We get a blank look from a blank mind – there’s no talking to most people. 🙂
What did the Buddha whistleblow about?
The immoral activity of not knowing
what is beneficial and what is harmful to our being.
People’s morals have become only about personal likes and dislikes
– in which case, our morals are all about me, my self.
The Buddha is saying we do not have morals yet;
we have a substitute,
which is the understanding of unenlightened people.
Not Knowing Good and Evil
Most humans do not know what ‘good and evil’ is. They have a vague, self-indulgent and exaggerated view. As long as there are humans, there will be good and evil. Evil exists because humans are easily lead to accept the state of affairs which favours the upper crust (the self-appointed elite in a society).
As long as the majority of people accept this status quo, evil will thrive. Evil obscures human potential by keeping it suppressed. Goodness clarifies human potential, bring an end to suffering.
The question is, do we identify with the form or essence? The form is appearances, while the essence is that which sees appearances.
Evil obscures.
Goodness clarifies.
Two sides of the same coin.
Realisation is the unity of obscuration and clarity.
By virtue of one, the other is known: mirror and reflection.
Evil is the path of confusion.
Goodness recognises the path,
thereby transcending the path.
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.
Controlled Opposition
Controlled opposition
dilutes deeper inquiry.
Controlled opposition is a protest movement that is actually being led by government agents. Nearly all governments throughout history have employed this technique to trick and subdue their adversaries. Vladimir Lenin said, “The best way to control the opposition is to lead it ourselves.”
The shocking thing is that it works, as it still goes unnoticed.
Spirituality is no different. When spirituality is used as a counter to everyday life, as in “We are going to tell you the truth, so now follow these special rituals”, this is controlled opposition. We’re led by being offered answers which stops us questioning. It’s been happening for thousands of years, so we think trusting the official narrative is normal.
How it all works:
https://buddhainthemud.com/2024/05/15/the-psychology-of-wisdom-and-demons/
A Cluttered Mind And An Uncluttered Mind
It is rare to meet an uncluttered mind. Think that’s far-fetched? The traditional allegory says, “To realise our true reality is as rare as a blind turtle rising from the bottom of the ocean once every hundred years, and placing its head through a floating rubber ring.”
Shocked? Do we see the predicament we are in? Probably not, as we are too busy being cluttered by untidy ideas. We’re educated/coerced to fit into this cluttered system, and expected to simply obey the clutter.
An uncluttered mind questions the clutter.
A cluttered mind cannot understand the question.
An uncluttered mind becomes confused;
a teacher comes along and says.
“When you’re totally confused, you’ve arrived at pure consciousness,
because there are no further explanations.”
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.
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.
You Don’t Have To Become Buddhist
It’s all about our mindset.
You don’t have to become Buddhist to realise the precious teaching of the Buddha, who realised the nature of our essence, the non-duality of appearances and recognition in the moment of pure consciousness (the Vedic teaching of “not two”). This is nothing high-faluting and complicated; it’s what is behind the eyes, behind the mindset reading this right now. You don’t have to do anything, just acknowledge what is happening.
Realisation is not the same as ‘knowing’ about it. We can read and hear about this “until the cows come home”, but we have to experience – with needlepoint accuracy – distractions that carry us away.
Buddhism, like any institution, creates formalities, and lots of wondrous and enthralling toys. “Aye, and there’s the rub…” Toys are captivating and expensive – and hard to let go. People have their ways and that’s okay, we can leave them to it.
Going beyond is the realisation that our reality has no needs, and we can finally let go. We don’t have to be perfect to let go, as letting go is the path. We can work with what we have – our karma – which is how we react to whatever life brings our way.
We have no need to tie ourselves in knots through rigidly following others’ formal displays. The discipline of a form or mould helps us become decent people, adaptable, open to possibilities and with sympathetic empathy. We’ve been through the wringer*!
Once established, we can break the mould and become the original ‘shape’,
unencumbered to express this freedom
– without arrogance.
* suffering a very difficult or unpleasant experience.
Belief Is An Infection
Belief is an infection,
and it’s surprising how quickly we catch it
and pass it on to others.
This subversive activity happens in every encounter, and supersedes our original nature of pure consciousness; we lose our empathy through our obedience to an idea/emotion.
Beliefs are injected into a society to create a culture of groupthink, where we find it difficult to separate the chaff from the wheat, and decide what is important and what isn’t.
In fact, two opposing views are infiltrated into a society to cause friction between so-called left and right. Conflict ensues because, “You don’t believe what I believe.” People feel hurt, and that overrides reality. This is the state of affairs we are under.
Because people easily identify with a belief, they take sides to fit in, and that is being mind controlled.
An example: we enter a room full of people, and find we act in a certain way. This is especially so with spiritual groups, as people are bound to a precious idea.
We can disinfect ourself,
washing away the infection through silent awareness.
Meditation is the soap,
but we also have to wash the soap off by dropping any attachment to meditation.
If The Dharma Is True, Then Nothing Is True
The Dharma is about the truth of what we are – eternal cognisant emptiness – and the impermanence of all phenomena, including thoughts.
The Dharma is the teaching about the precise moment here and now, which is our reality of pure consciousness. Resting in pure consciousness, there is nothing else. We can still go about our daily activities, caring and leaving the world ready for others, but we do not believe or become attached to others’ ‘reality’. If we cling to any idea, we lose touch with reality, and become bound, prejudiced and biased, as if impermanence is defendable.
We are here to discover and realise the truth of what we are, and therefore, we never become involved in the machinations, scheming and thoughts of our fellow beings who cling to ideas; they merely want to argue to prove themselves.
Truth has nothing to do with what we see;
it’s about what is seeing.
Making Up Our Mind
When people have made up their mind, there’s no talking to them.
There is nothing fresh to discuss, as there are no possibilities.
A made-up mind is a fixed mind, ignorant of ‘able to be done’.
Possibility: from Latin possibilis ‘able to be done’.
In the present moment now, there are no ideas; there is just pure perception, and nothing made up, but this is instantly coloured by our fixations, and the light on the face goes out. It is surprising and shocking how many people have made up their mind, and walk about in the resulting dream – or rather, in the the dream that’s been made up for them.
Over the past 2000 years, there have been approximately 100 billion people on Earth either believing in an external god, or believing that there isn’t a god.
Either way, as long as opposites exist, conflict and confusion exist … and the show goes on, with all of us following the script.
People who have made up their mind
have actually had it made up for them.
Until they can recognise this,
there’s no possibility of communication.
And evil laughs.
When Dogma Takes Over The Heart
You know what I mean …
Dogma is any belief held unquestioningly and with indefensible certainty.
Dogma: from ancient Greek: opinion, belief, judgement … it seems that.
Heart: innermost part or essence.
This is exactly where we go wrong, when we follow the form (words) and only talk about essence and compassion, while essence is the actual realisation beyond words, and behind the scenes.
I’ve been in ‘spiritual’ organisations for over fifty years, and have rarely come across a heart, but there’s plenty of dogma. We must question our dogmatism moment by moment, and take what we realise to heart.
Take to heart: be deeply affected or hurt by something.
It is in the very rawness of life
and acknowledgement of suffering
that our ‘path’ starts to clear.
That’s the good news.
🙂
Are We In A Cult?
Cult: from Latin cultus – cultivate, worship.
Are we sure we’re not part of a cult? We all worship some thing – someone, some idea, power, money, fame – and we cultivate it, cling to it. We worship to gain, and that idea keeps us needy and in mental poverty; it’s a ‘mind field’ we daren’t cross.
Kathie and I have been kicked out from groups and then shunned by ‘compassionate’ spiritual friends for not conforming. We tried for years, but found it difficult to worship, as it always seemed false. Worshipping an individual has nothing to do with having respect for the teaching.
The Buddha knew this, and that’s why he said, “Don’t take my word for the truth; test it for yourself.”
The only way to know is to test it,
which is totally different from just accepting it.
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
Dropping The Practice
We all practise something – it’s our way of life. When we drop whatever we practise, in that moment we are free. We’re taking a break, a moment’s holiday, with nothing happening. Meditation is actually about dropping the meditation. Meditation is the method to focus, become still and not be distracted. But ‘we’ are still aware of ‘doing’ it, so there is a duality present.
Dropping the experiencing and letting be is the resolution of pure consciousness.
Resolution: from Latin resolutio(n-), from resolvere ‘to loosen, release’.
If we are pure consciousness and there is nothing else, that is non-duality, supreme reality, heaven. Heaven is the pure state of mind which is our essence. It’s that simple. We’ve just been persuaded to believe there’s something more splendiferous, but we can’t live on hope. Pure consciousness is clarity, which means divine splendour; it’s right here, right now. Wherever we are, heaven is, but we fear, and are very suspicious. 🙂
Believing in something more than pure consciousness, humanity creates all sorts of beautiful stories, artworks, buildings and rituals to attract the tourists. This makes us needy, chasing after illusions. The more complex something is, the easier it is to believe it. Watch out, there’s a lot of it about! 🙂
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. 