Catch It While You Can
We may say, “There is no God”, but we’ve been brought up in a system that promotes the idea of God.
Let’s say we’re Buddhist; when something suddenly happens, we might automatically exclaim,“My God!” or “God! What was that?” That is old brain at work, and we didn’t notice it.
We never say, “My Buddha!” 🙂
Old brain has been indoctrinated, and affects our current mind.
Catch it while you can!
TRUTH IS ON A NEED-TO-KNOW BASIS
Truth Is On A Need-To-Know Basis
Those who don’t need to know think they already know.
For those who need to know, the door will open.
Irrelevant Communication Wastes Life
As humans, we have the ability to talk and communicate at the highest level.
So, what do we talk about?
Our speech is a manifestation of our mind,
and our mind is a manifestation of our interests,
while our interests are a manifestation of old brain.
And so we are reduced to being recording machines swapping histories.
Communication should be about being homo sapiens = wise beings,
but we become fluent in flaunting our foolishness.
Simple speech, pure speech, is always about now.
The Great Psychosis
Psychosis is a severe mental disorder in which thoughts and emotions are so impaired that contact is lost with reality. It’s how and why we’re here – consciousness has lost touch with reality.
This is a mental state; if we don’t realise that our reality is impaired, we are, in fact, deluded. When we realise that enlightenment is our reality, we are free.
This delusional state is promoted every day in order to maintain conflict and confusion and. of course, if something is repeated often enough, we think this state of being is normal. Beware of idolising ‘personalities’.
We have to add up all the absurdities for ourselves.
Exploiting Feelings
Feelings: the emotional side of someone’s character; the tendency to respond to an idea or belief,
especially a vague or irrational one.
Emotions are a direct result of clinging to thoughts around the feeling of a self – an imaginary being
in a ‘magic cloak’ pretending to be more than we are. It is this that causes us suffering, always responding through fight, flight and freeze, or hope, fear and ignorance.
Manipulative minds understand the psychological weakness of people governed by their emotions which affects their behaviour; this has been known for thousands of years. What happened in the past creates precedents, establishing guidelines for the future. That’s how evil maintains control.
People are encouraged to identity with their feelings, which are irrational; they are the reason why we are easily upset, being made anxious and fearful. By this confusion and deception, we’re won over to lack tolerance for those who don’t believe what we believe. It’s why relationships go sour.
The promotion of hurt feelings is used as an excuse to control people’s thoughts, with the claim that not believing in someone else’s beliefs (which is acceptance without proof) is a hate crime or heresy, thereby maintaining mass confusion, guilt, fear and conflict.
There are agents or influencers who provoke and exacerbate this situation. These wind-up merchants know our vulnerabilities and enjoy provoking to get a reaction, thus gaining control.
In truth, we are pure consciousness, and none of the above. Through just being aware in meditation, we learn to recognise what makes us tick. If we don’t do this, others will continue to wind us up.
Unwinding is done by breath control.
It makes us feel lighter.
🙂
The Not-So-Invisibility Cloak
This cloak is the idea of self which we project to others – who are doing the very same thing. It has no reality, but we believe that others can’t see our disguise. Pure consciousness is x-ray vision, while we ignore this in favour of a mutually accepted social contract of behaviour.
When we’re young, we are taught to believe the dream, and ignore that we have a true reality. We play and act in others’ dreams. Just take watching a sport; first, we just see it, but then we watch others over-react and do the same. Instead of silent appreciation, we make gross noises.
That is the disguise we all wear, be it politics, entertainment, science, religion … we jump on the bandwagon of illusions, never admitting that we aren’t actually interested in the hoopla, and all the unnecessary fuss because we know that such an admission would upset those around us.
It’s all smoke and mirrors*; when examined closely, it proves to be an illusion.
This is our life.
But there is so much more.
*Smoke and mirrors is a metaphor, originating from 18th and 19th-century phantasmagoria shows, and describes deceptive, fraudulent or insubstantial explanations.
Living With Old Information
Old information (something we are used to) gets us to bark up the wrong tree. We need to re-evaluate what we thought we knew. The information that we’re allowed to see is a red herring; we’re voting for the same two horses pulling the same cart of manure. Nothing changes.
“It is easier to fool people
than to convince them that they were fooled.”
– Mark Twain.
The last thing anyone wants to hear is, “I told you so.”
We’re fed titbits of information which is of little real interest but promotes gossip, speculation and division. It is all a distraction with which we unconsciously comply.
We must wake up to the foolish ideas we live in.
We are so much more, by being so much less.
😀
What Do ‘Proper’ People Do?
Proper people: conforming to conventional established standards of behaviour and manners; correct, with good taste and being right.
Improper people: not in accordance with accepted standards.
Aggression towards the established view, whether political or spiritual, unwittingly perpetuates division. When we can detach ourselves from this eternal play of opposition, everything serves as a reminder that heaven and hell are a unity.
Spiritual progress – the realisation of our true reality – is remembering what is true and constant, and what isn’t. Conventional confusion is a perfect example of what not to follow.
Dzogchen isn’t for proper people. 🙂
Dzogchen is escaping opposites by realising that they are a unity.
😀
Spiritual Text In The Common Language
The common language is that of the people’s everyday usage. There is no reason not to use it.
Throughout history, the common people have had to have intercessors, teachers, gurus to comment – and elaborate – on spiritual texts. This means that people have to be dependent on a mediator, and believe in the teachers’ words, and thus something other worldly. 🙂
Of course, someone who has gone through the process is part of our process of learning, but the Buddha warned, “Do not take my word for truth; test it for yourself.” In your own way.
The Dharma is concerned with what we already are – pure and simple. We don’t need a special language to know what we are. All spiritual text is about our origin; it’s not a history lesson about others’ realisation. If the teaching is made ‘impressive’, we’ll have artificial expectations, and never think we’re good enough to realise it.
This is such an important subject, and it’s what this blog is all about.
Wherever ‘I am’, pure consciousness is.
(I once said to a Tibetan lama, “I feel a million miles away from all this.” He just looked at me. Much later, I realised that the teaching is within all of us, right now.)
What Are The Two Truths?
Are there two truths? Yes, in the way in which we see. One truth is pure seeing, while the other ‘truth’ (which we believe to be truth) is relating to and interpreting whatever is seen. One comes first, while the other ignores this pure moment and starts relating. The problem with relating is holding on to interpretation or belief which fixes our behaviour, contaminating all future interactions.
This is the basis of the Buddha’s teaching.
There is absolute truth that is constant, pure awareness; it’s what we are.
And there is relative truth, where awareness forgets its uncontaminated purity, relating to everything and holding on to this relating; we mistake that for what we are.
One is natural, while the other is an invasion in the mind.
One is at ease, while the other is dis-ease.
The more we practise, the more we notice this.
Pure awareness is non-dual – appearances and emptiness are simultaneous.
Ordinary awareness which relates is duality – time is taken up with naming, speculating, judging, reacting … and we are no longer in the pure present moment. We are in our dream state.
In simple term, absolute truth is present before relative ‘truth’. Sentient beings are lost in relative truth by misunderstanding their pure presence.
It’s quite a shock to realise that the majority of the inhabitants of this planet has acquired a false view of reality. Seeing this is the teaching.
The news – or anyone’s views – is a selected version of events = relative truth. If the version of events is deliberately selected, then it’s a lie. We are absolute truth; holders of relative truth want us to deny this. They become spreaders of disinformation because they cannot help themselves.
Training in knowing the difference between absolute truth and relative truth – and realising that they are inseparable – is essential for liberation. By virtue of one, the other is known.
There Is No Free Speech Without A Free Mind
We hear much about free speech,
but if our minds have been contaminated,
how can we have free speech?
Everything in our mind is an acquisition that we’ve adopted through suggestion. Depending on our personal environment (family, friends, work colleagues, what we read and hear etc), our mind will have those communal ideas.
It’s only when we are liberated from these concepts through the clarity of meditation that we are free to speak openly. Hmm … is that true? If meditation is just an idea or a lifestyle acquisition, then we aren’t free – we are acting.
The hallmark of freedom is to have no fear of present moment encounters, so we don’t seek safety in formula, which a list of ingredients (ideas) from which something is made.
Formula: early 17th century from Latin, diminutive of forma ‘shape, mould’.
Meditation is breaking the mould,
not making a new one.
If we must act, then we act as if we have made no assumptions;
only then will something fresh occur to us.
Evil constantly primes us to react – and then calls that hate speech.
😀
Mind Training = Mind Control
We train the mind through meditation so as not to be distracted at every moment, and be able to control our self and our behaviour. If we cannot do this, our mind is being controlled by others. How? Through all forms of communication.
A simple example. If we’re asked, “Where’s the nearest post office?” our mind is taken up with someone’s question or suggestion. It’s simple hypnosis.
When we know our natural state of mind is emptiness, we have something to return to after an exchange, or having been ‘taken up’ by something. If we have no foundation of reality, we remain ‘taken up’ 🙂
We’re mostly ‘taken up’ with our personal history, our personal groove.
Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to reorganise itself by forming new neural pathways throughout life and in response to experiences adopted by consciousness and stored in the mind which mould the brain. While the brain usually does this itself in response to injury or disease, when humans focus their attention enough, they can slowly rewire these pathways themselves = mind training!
How To Make A Better World?
Know what you are.
Act with the understanding of what others are.
We are all pure consciousness.
Are we the same pure consciousness?
That is an unanswerable question
until enlightenment.
We manifest according to our understanding.
If our mind is bothered about other things,
it will never be a better world.
Emptiness – Between This And That
We spend our entire lives comparing ‘this’ to ‘that’ – judging, evaluating, reasoning – trying to achieve satisfaction. We never notice the gap in between, of just seeing before we leap.
Shunyata or emptiness
is our undisturbed, natural, neutral state,
where we couldn’t be happier.
🙂
Going Beyond Rational Thinking
Rational thinking is conventional thinking; we do this and this, because we always do this and this. It makes sense, to a certain level.
Rational thinking is vertical programming; it’s colouring in between the lines, thinking or acting within generally accepted guidelines. When we colour inside the lines, we follow the rules and stick to the script.
Consciousness isn’t inside the lines – it’s outside.
It is the meaning of life.
Irrational doesn’t fit in to concepts.
The mind brightens at the unusual – OH!
It’s beautiful, and unexpected.
Dharma Quenches Thirst
If we’re thirsty, it’s the ‘water’ we want, not the glass.
Seekers of elaborations never find satisfaction.
This is how the Dharma becomes very expensive.
Satisfaction comes from realisation.
This how the Dharma is free.
How?
Stop looking and see, then drop the seeing, and there you are – pure awareness.
Our Mind Is A Delicate Instrument
Our mind is a delicate instrument that is easily upset.
It only becomes robust when it isn’t holding on to thoughts and memories
that make us defensive, and therefore vulnerable.
Being robust comes from the recognition of pure consciousness
which is unshakeable because it is indestructible.
We toughen up by knowing what we are – and what we are not.
The Thing About Buddhism …
The thing about the Buddha’s teaching is that you don’t have to become a Buddhist. Just observe with an open mind, free of biased beliefs. Buddhism is the psychology of freeing the mind of duality, so that consciousness can realise non-duality.
Liberation is what we are.
We don’t have to believe anyone or anything.
Knowledge Versus Information
Knowledge unites people,
while information divides people.
Information is just a message.
Knowledge is understanding what the message means.
To receive information and not look into whether it’s true or not
is to live in a fools’ paradise based on hearsay.
Never assume that information is knowledge.
The Three Emotions That Poison Our Mind
The three emotions that poison the mind are, in actuality, wisdom.
Understanding this is how we ascend the levels of realisation.
Greed, anger and stupidity (indifference) are the three poisons that are harmful to our well-being, and the well-being of those with whom we come into contact, causing a chain reaction through pride and fear.
The realisation of the power that these poisons have over us ignites the wisdom which is the source of our being. Wisdom is the realisation that we are uncorrupted, compassionate consciousness.
In not knowing wisdom, rulers and citizens play the dangerous game of partisanship;
in this way, wisdom downgrades into negative behaviour.
Greed contaminates our mind.
Anger results from judgements made by a contaminated mind.
Stupidity is holding on to these contaminated judgements that lack compassion.
We reverse greed, anger and stupidity by being aware of our original reality of pure consciousness which is present before we act out our poison.
Covered By Inventions
A concept is a device, an invention in the mind formed by belief, from being told something and accepting it as ‘authority’. Humanity had been covered in concepts; ‘disguising the truth’ is a variant of the word ‘covert’, not openly acknowledged or displayed.
Public announcements plant devices in our minds. All media, both MSM and ‘friendly-fire’ social media – and even this blog – uses words to convey something. The question is, does it wake us up to our reality, or wake us up to more inventions that distract us?
These distractions are why we find clear seeing difficult, as we are always interpreting; whatever happens in the world is an organised distraction.
The constancy of pure consciousness which these distractions are meant to cover up is always present. In other words, evil intent is to smother us up in concepts. Why ‘evil’? We are controlled by design so that we cannot think clearly, and remain confused.
Even when we are full of doubts and anxieties, which are the result of ‘public information’ or ‘spiritual information’, pure consciousness is spontaneously present, without premeditation. The trick played on us is not just seeing, but seeing something.
Concepts and elaborations complicate and fill our minds,
because we think complexity is better … cleverer!
We are never without pure awareness, because that is what we are.
It doesn’t have a name.
We are simply pure being
that can function very well without this madness.
Alone? Not Alone?
These are tricky questions.
If we feel alone, we have to rely on our own understanding which relies on all the information we have received. Quite often, this information can feel incomplete, and then doubt sets in (and this is a problem with being open-minded).
I could be wrong 🙂 but, through reasoning we get back on track, if we have a firm foundation to start with. That foundation is realising that it doesn’t matter what I think, pure consciousness is always present. Doubt comes from others’ elaborations about this reality, while the inner voice says, “Let them be.”
What if we are not alone? What if there is … ‘other’ help? Inspiration or help that just comes, where everything seems relevant. No one can say we are right or wrong, as that becomes a hinderance.
Things happen that seem to clarify an abstract feeling,
just before a thought is formed.
Maybe it’s a bit of both. 🙂
Vedantic Self Or Buddhist Non-Self?
This question is impossible to answer as it depends on a person’s view. There is consciousness; we are consciousness, and we can agree on that.
If consciousness relates to external events or to itself, then there is a self.
If consciousness does not relate, then there is just consciousness, and no self.
Both can be experienced.
What experience?
Conscious can experience time and timelessness – duality and non-duality.
The Vedanta and Buddhism are not different; it is only how they are realised that is different.
In Buddhism, there are many traditions. Are they different? Only in their form.
It all depends on what works for the individual.
The Buddha’s teaching is no teaching – just realisation beyond teaching.
Karma Is Ideas We Carry Around
Karma is a predictive atmosphere of routine behaviour.
These ideas control how we see life.
Nothing new can be experienced as we see through
a karmic, sweet-smelling, pot-pourri of concepts.
Everything depends on how we see, and not what we see.
We Are Already Happy
If we are not unhappy or indifferent, then we are happy.
Happiness is the release from conflict, which is the bias in the mind. Happiness isn’t about being excited or hopeful or learned or righteous; it is accepting things the way they actually are.
The universe is controlled by the laws of attraction, repulsion and indifference. This is just the base nature of the universe – conflict. Absolute nature is pure consciousness that has realised that base state of affairs, and so has compassion for this plight.
Most people are confused about what they are, and the way they are – “They know not what they do”. If they knew what they were doing, they wouldn’t do it, but they do, and so they remain unhappy in their selectiveness.
Nothing can be done for them until they start their inner journey of enlightened activity, and take responsibility at every encounter, rather than acquiring more information that just weighs them down.
If someone’s facts are incomplete and we don’t know it, we have a problem.
If someone’s facts are incomplete and we know it, we don’t have a problem.
Accepting people as they are doesn’t affect us (consciousness),
and so we (consciousness) remain happy.
People only affect a prejudiced mind.
It’s that simple.
Realisation = Happiness
When we realise and understand our true reality,
we should be happy at every moment.
How can we not be happy?
Being unconditionally happy means
without reliance on external events.
Get it?
It does not rely on external events.
Authentic happiness is the purpose of life:
we authenticate the purpose of life
by being happy.
The Saddest Thing
The saddest thing is speaking to people about reality
and they haven’t a clue what you’re talking about.
Halfway through a sentence, there’s just a blank stare;
they’ve switched off 🙂
This is an indication of the state of the world.
Even sadder … they think they know.
To know is to have knowledge.
What Is The Purpose Of Life?
The purpose of life is to understand our true reality, which is why we are here: to eliminate our confusion, releasing us from emotional attachments to a self-identity. Consciousness is imprisoned in a mind. We see this in our fixations and aversions.
Realisation unveils our natural state of happiness as we now know what it’s all about, cutting through the confusion learnt from others.
If life feels meaningless, it’s because we do not understand our reality.
Realising the purpose of life is an individual understanding and responsibility.
Why Am I Not Totally Convinced?
Q. Why am I not totally convinced that pure consciousness is the ultimate truth?
A. Old brain.
The old brain was developed in our early years, when the mind was infiltrated and fixed about all that we see, do and think. The obvious answer is “Let go”, but that isn’t as easy as it sounds. The old brain echoes around in our mind, waiting to leap in, thus revealing what it doesn’t know 🙂
Realising our true essence is a piece of cake. It’s just purely aware and constantly present.
We don’t have to do anything for this to occur. This pure awareness, which can cut through old brain responses, is obscured by our preconceived concepts, preventing us from approaching everything and everyone in a spontaneous and empathetic way.
Doubt, and we doubt forever.
Know, and we know forever.
Pure consciousness is the reason
everything is known.
There Is No Hell
Nobody burns in hell. It’s a man-made idea to keep humanity believing that it must fall in line, and making us fearful if we don’t. Hell is the pride of belief.
We are here because we made the mistake of believing rather than knowing, and that keeps us bound to go round in circles, repeating the same experiences.
When we stop accepting the bombardment of fantastical ideas, we come to our senses. This is the threshold of heaven.
Hell dwells on the past.
Heaven is right here, right now,
if we could only appreciate it.
Still Wondering What It’s All About?
The most accurate response to this question would be,
“What is doing the wondering?”
If this seems too simplistic, that is because the proof of pure awareness is obscured by stories and inaccurate beliefs that we use to dismiss such an unadorned answer. Pure consciousness dismantles everything and, at the same moment, unifies everything. Heaven and hell are inseparable, as a mirror and its reflections are inseparable.
The moment of anxiety is inseparable with that which is aware of the anxiety.
We are so lost in our feelings, concepts and beliefs that we cannot just see without referring and judging because we’re screwed-up – emotionally disturbed and neurotic. 🙂
We need to straighten up, and put our minds in good order. Our personal investigation is practising just being aware, and noticing how quickly we wander off into some fantasy – or worse still, some truth to speculate about. 🙂
Thinking about truth, or merely accepting a teaching as true is still an obscuration, as we haven’t experienced it yet; we only know about it.
When we absolutely realise that we are the emptiness of consciousness,
our world view changes forever.
We happily no longer believe anything.
Absolute truth is not a religion;
it is free of programmed thoughts.
Can Anger Be Positive?
Being angry out of frustration is negative.
Being angry out of concern is positive.
Being able to do something about both frustration and concern
is down to our level of understanding.
Once we start the ball rolling due to frustration,
there’s no end to it.
Once we start the ball rolling due to concern,
there’s no end to it.
Frustration is feeling upset or annoyed
at being unable to change or achieve something – we fester.
Concern is just seeing that something isn’t right – we wonder.
Do Not Follow The Buddha Out Of Devotion
“All my followers should not accept my teaching out of faith, or out of devotion, but rather thorough investigation and experimentation, and then you are your own master. So therefore, ultimately, responsibility is entirely on your own shoulders.” – Buddha.
Quoted by the Dalai Lama.
All responsibility for our life is on us.
Glitch In The Matrix
‘Glitch in the matrix’ is a phrase first coined in the 1999 film, The Matrix, which posited the idea that humanity is living in a giant computer simulation.
‘Matrix Theory’ is based on the idea that the world is like a computer programme, with a set of rules and algorithms that determine how things work. Understanding these rules and algorithms is the key to success in life, and anyone can learn to hack the matrix by mastering these.
This is the illusion based on an illusion.
We are meant to see the world as an illusion,
so that we can speculate about it ad infinitum,
continuing forever, without limit.
Why?
Another deceptive belief.
The ‘matrix’ is the simulation in the mind, not the physical world (although the universe as we comprehend it has no permanent reality – it’s all in the mind). We can actually hack mental illusions through Dharma practice which cuts through all confusion.
Realising that the rules and algorithms for life are
desire, aversion and ignorance,
the hack is seeing the emotions as empty, cognisant compassion.
Samsara: the vicious cycle of existence promotes success in life.
Evil is close to the truth, but not complete.
What Are We Actually Training?
Whatever we think about and hold on to ‘grooves’ pathways in the brain. Repeating the same thoughts creates a pattern in our brain so that it instigates habitual responses and mannerisms. It’s another brick in the wall!
Training in meditation and being aware of our conduct disciplines the mind, stopping it from running away with ideas that affect and build the brain’s system. The brain is our hard drive and the mind, the software, while consciousness is … the witness.
This witness is the ‘analyst’ who looks down the microscope but, because of memories and preconceived ideas, maintains tunnel vision. It can’t help itself, and sees darkly.
It is through disciplined, inner training in silent awareness that we see without attitude; this pure awareness is the presence of pure consciousness.
Whatever we’re interested in is our training, and most of the time this is conforming to others’ standards which are becoming more and more restrictive; unfortunately, that brick wall manifests a barrier 🙂
The Basis Of Negative Emotions
The basis of negative emotions
is an illusory self relating to illusory appearances.
‘Self’ is an accumulation of ideas in the mind that consciousness mistakenly believes itself to be.
This phantom is empty of reality. What this self relates to is also an empty reality, as all phenomena is impermanent, being without a constant basis. The basis of negative emotions is therefore an illusion that fritters away our life.
The very instant before an emotion arises, there is the presence of bright consciousness – divine, blazing splendour. Something stirs in mind, and that is luminous awareness, pure consciousness.
But we miss this glorious moment, because the brain has gone into ‘brand awareness’, where it recognises a symbol before we become aware of it, and the mind is infected. This happens all the time, when reptilian brain cuts in with fight, flight or freeze.
Brand awareness: neuroscientists know that effective logos can trigger memory, perceptually processing and influencing people’s decision-making not only to choose a brand once, but become loyal to it without any conscious awareness. Brands aren’t just boring bundles of concepts; brands are deeply emotional.
Politics, religion, sport, celebrities, music, art, names, personal interactions … these all make up our brand awareness.
Drop it and wisdom arises, but we have to let go.
Try counting the breath!
Noting How Easily We Become Distracted
Counting the breath 10, 21, or 108 times in meditation helps us to stabilise and train our mind, or at least become aware how much we are not in control. It’s quite a shock to see how this inner chatter drives our daily lives.
We count the outward breath, noting when thoughts arise (and they will), but not following them. This is about observing how often we become distracted; it’s not a matter of meditation being ‘spoilt’ when a thought occurs, but of acknowledging and letting go, continuing in clarity so that we aren’t lost in concepts or thoughts (our brand awareness 🙂 ).
Thoughts will arise, but we don’t become involved. If we do, we go back to 1. There is no judgement or failure; it’s about becoming more aware and more stable.
Being in control of our mind,
we can think outside the box
= lateral thinking = esoteric = non-duality.
The box is conventional bias and sentimentality
= vertical thinking = exoteric = duality.
What Is The Quality Of Truth?
Our essence is pure, conscious awareness.
Pure, conscious awareness never changes.
Truth is constant and cannot be interpreted,
and we are therefore the truth we seek.
The hallmark of this realisation is benevolence
towards those who do not know their true reality.
Not knowing truth is a disturbed life.
Knowing truth is a well-adjusted life.
We Have To Learn To Think For Ourselves
We have to learn to think for ourselves,
and question what we believe, and why.
We assume we are already free thinkers,
but when we hang on to that thought, we are in hell.
Heaven is seeing from behind the curtain of our mind.
Our Obsession With History And Religion
When we become fascinated by books, stories and ‘mysteries’,
evil laughs
as we are blind to the moment now.
In the moment now, there are no mysteries.
Mysteries are in the mind,
but the clarity of consciousness is ever-present.
An Intolerant Mind
An intolerant mind is a small mind which jumps to conclusions and doesn’t see the wholesome picture. We all learn to have small minds as, for most of our lives, we are receivers and repeaters.
But there comes a time when we realise that we’re confused and feel out-of-the-loop, while everyone else is trying to be in-the-loop. It is this feeling of bewilderment and suffering that can lead to wisdom mind, when “confusion dawns as wisdom”.
For that, we need clarity and compassion which come in the form of patience, generosity, morality, discipline and concentration, leading to transcendent knowledge.
When life is our teacher, we become transmitters,
continually adapting rather than adopting.
Die With Tendencies, Born With Tendencies
We are conscious, universal entities embodied in a form, driven by a karmic mind of desire, aversion and ignorance of our enlightened potential. We’ve forgotten our previous life, but a residue of tendencies lingers, and this is why we follow and are attracted to a pattern of behaviour.
What we do now will be the tendencies for the next life and so on, until finally, the cycle of ignorance stops through the realisation that we are pure conscious entities. Enlightenment is knowing we are pure consciousness and all selfish tendencies have been exhausted.
The result is compassionate understanding for those caught and held because we’ve been there, done that, many times! 🙂 The only proof of reincarnation is tendencies …
Belief = Intolerance = Victim = Hatred
Belief = intolerance = victim = hatred
= the age of conflict, the age of the Kaliyuga.
Belief is an internal affair. When others don’t believe what we believe, it is we who become intolerant, and then claim to be a victim because others question our external expression. We can now view that questioning as hatred.
If we are absolutely confident in our belief, then nothing can disturb us. So why are we disturbed? The problems in the world exist precisely because we cannot verify our beliefs, which are merely ideas we’ve acquired.
The only thing that can be verified is awareness, which is consciousness.The ultimate internal affair is realising that we are consciousness, and that there is nothing else. This being so, consciousness is pure because it is not contaminated by adopting any views – even the Buddha’s.
There is a saying, “If you see the Buddha on the road, kill him.” This means the Buddha (or God) is not ‘out there’; it is internal. It’s what we are.
Belief is a product of thoughts, and divides.
The description of the Kaliyuga warned us this would be allowed to happen,
as it follows the pattern of predicted behaviour.
The obviousness of corruption on the world stage
means that people are waking up,
turning suffering into wisdom.
Wisdom unifies our commonality of pure consciousness,
beyond mind.
What’s Emptiness All About?
Emptiness is what it’s all about.
It’s all about the magic, the magi, the art of wisdom to influence events by realising the emptiness of illusions, and understanding the tricks the mind plays on consciousness.
We have to be very careful that we don’t fall into nihilism, where everything seems pointless. Likewise, we don’t want to create something to adhere to and make special. Both these sets of ideas fix us in a state. We need our mind to quieten down to understand pure reality, which is not a set of ideas: it is unchanging consciousness that recognises these ideas.
The one thing that we forget or ignore is consciousness, because we’re so busy being filled with phenomena, deeming it pleasant or unpleasant. Consciousness just notes, is always present and is full of potential but, at the same time, it is empty of contaminating concepts. It is purely aware. That is what is termed ’empty cognisance’. The emptiness of consciousness does not create anything; it sees the nature of creation as being emptiness itself – subtle matter changing form, due to causes and conditions, within the emptiness of space.
We’re so busy and involved in looking at things and interpreting them that we become indifferent to the empty, cognisant essence that is seeing. That is our constant reality – and our constant confusion.
Whatever we see has no permanent reality;
everything comes to pass.
That which sees
– that which is purely aware –
is emptiness of consciousness.
The moment now is also empty;
it is the pure light/clarity of spontaneous presence.
The sheer joy of being.
The challenge is to not become bound by enjoying. 🙂
We are all work-in-progress.
We Choose Ideas Over Reality
There are three aspects to seeing – pure perception, accustomed perception and ideas about whatever is perceived.
It’s important to know the sequence of events. An idea is a thought about something or someone that comes after accustomed perception, but before that, there is the first moment of pure perception, of just seeing. Which is the reality? The thought, accustomed perception or pure perception?
We all have ideas – the problem is not letting go of them.
This creates the vicious cycle of existence that we see in the world.
Breaking out of this cycle is merely returning to the inner peace of pure perception.
Ideas have to be justified as they are a personalised view.
Pure perception isn’t personal;
it just sees.
One causes trouble.
The other doesn’t.
Censorship Is Mind Control
Censorship is punishment for thinking outside the box.
The only people who want censorship are those who adhere to a belief, and don’t want alternative views on reality to be expressed. Why is this? To maintain control with a narrative that confuses the mind. As long as people are bewildered, they are mesmerised-hypnotised – we hear self-censorship everywhere.
Of course, there are extremists, but they are excitable agents provocateurs. People will react to spurious dictates which wind up the masses, and that is the intention – to bring in censorship.
The showman, P.T. Barnum said, “Never give a sucker an even chance.” Scamming is everywhere.
If speech is censored long enough, thinking goes with it. The result is a humdrum, monotonous routine existence.
Once we accept someone else’s ideology, we have lost our freedom. When people start to disbelieve, censorship is increased, as those who would censor fear exposure.
Sun Tzu said: “Make your way by unexpected routes, and attack unguarded spots.”
The Art Of War
This is why enablers are encouraged to use emotive arguments, creating guilt and victims. In past times, this was called witch hunt.
Witch hunt: a campaign directed against a person or group holding views considered unorthodox, or a threat to society.
Pure consciousness, free from programmed thought, is our absolute reality!
Why would anyone suppress information relevant to reality?
Does this make Buddhism a threat to society?
🙂
Don’t even believe the Buddha!
😀
Why Are There Holy Places?
Why are there holy buildings,
holy robes, holy names, honorific language?
Pure consciousness is nothing special; we all have buddha nature – pure mind.
If it is made special, we weaken it.
Elaboration smothers the simple essence of pure awareness.
Special: designed or organised for a particular person, purpose, or occasion.
From Latin specialis, from species: ‘appearance’.
Meditation Brings You Out Of Yourself
Meditation brings you out of yourself.
😀
When sitting in silent awareness,
there is just pure cognisance.
We call this pure consciousness.
No duality is required:
observation is without identifying an observer.
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. 
WE CANNOT BE WHAT WE SEE
We Cannot Be What We See
We see things, and we see the mind commenting on these things, so we are therefore neither this mind nor our things. We are the empty essence of mind, the clear space of clarity, pure consciousness.
Our identification with thoughts and things creates the basis of suffering through hope and fear, gain and loss. It is this identification which we call ‘self’ – our personal prison that the collective believes in, and which is the cause of animosity towards others as we all identify differently.
No oneness, know division.
Know oneness, no division.
We can say that we are social beings, but not be taken in by others’ sense of ‘normal’; that is just the security of the herd. Not being deceived by impressions, we can, however, be both sociable and wise.
Deception isn’t our first nature.
We acquired it through hope and fear,
while ignoring our first nature of pure consciousness.