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 Underestimate Evil

Evil uses half-facts and omissions.

Evil causes suffering and disharmony through argument (duality), as opposed to the principle of enlightenment which brings about balance (non-duality).

A balance of the material and the ethereal makes for a happy life, while unbalance brings upset and disturbs the equilibrium of person’s state of mind.

Evil utilises three selfish emotions – desire, hatred and ignorance.  Evil obstructs the cause for  happiness, which is realisation of our complete nature.

The construct of illusions is evil’s weapon of choice. When we underestimate evil, we are definitely unenlightened. The Buddha and Christ had to come face to face with evil intent, and so do we, as desire, hatred and ignorance are constantly ready to ambush us in every situation.

Disinformation Created By Disinformation

Disinformation is false or selective information which is intended to mislead and deceive people. It happens.

Disinformation is orchestrated; actors employ strategic deceptions and media manipulation to advance political, military or commercial goals, including the use of half-truths, to exploit and amplify culture wars and other identity-driven controversies.

Institutions attack ordinary people for not believing; questioning this information constitutes disinformation in their eyes. Such is the vicious cycle of disinformation.

Fake news is not news; it’s just gossip and suggestion, created to illicit a reaction. Injustice is pushed in our faces so that we see it and are fearful. This is the constant agenda of persecuting non-believers, which goes back to what was called ‘heresy’.

Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs accepted as fundamental to those who need control of the masses.

If alternative views are interpreted as beliefs or theories, this intentional misunderstanding creates an enemy of other views.

There can be no heresy in Buddhism, as it isn’t a belief or theory. The quicker people recognise this, the quicker the world will change for the betterment of all.

Why Are We Advised To Let Go?

This is a bit of a conundrum, because of all the palaver attached to spiritual understanding.

Our problems are caused because we are holding on to ideas, especially ‘spiritual’ ideas. This is why being aware of any elaborations concerning our ordinary reality of pure consciousness is really important.

In the still silence of meditation, there is nothing going on, and nothing to follow. No Dharma, no Buddha, no teaching, no ideas. The whole point is acknowledging thoughts, but not following them.

Now comes the great disappointment …
we may have been expecting wondrous, glorious, divine splendour!
But all this is, is the emptiness of clarity.

“That’s boring!”

The significance is that once we realise this natural clarity – and it’s just seeing without comment or expectation – we realise the false world we have been living in. The illusion of reality, with all its distractions of busyness, excitement and entertainment, enmeshes us in attachments and clouds the subtleties and insights of actual reality.

We start to lead a contemplative life instead of a ‘interesting’ life. We value inner peace and sanity.

We still have the daily things to do, but we become more mindful and less distracted, and know when to bring an activity to completion by dropping it.

This non-attachment to events gradually eliminates our old habits and our karma, clearing the path to enlightenment.

Feeling Guilty For No Reason

We – pure consciousness – can feel no guilt, as pure consciousness has no interpretations or opinions. It merely witnesses. Ideas are only in the mind; they are not mind-essence-pure-consciousness itself, whereas mind-memories are the source of all inner conflict.

Pure consciousness has no negative emotions. In the first instant of recognising some thing, wisdom is present, where the mind clears and brightens up, before it goes into its usual mode of ‘I think’, ‘I feel’, ‘I know’. All the while, pure consciousness merely witnesses; this is clearly acknowledged in meditation.

It is provocation that activates recognition.

Wherever we are and whatever we feel is the perfect place for realisation and eventual enlightenment. We are the conundrum to solve, and comparing ourself to others only creates conflict and delays realisation.

“Well, they don’t seem to have any problems.”
Then they have nothing to work with 🙂

Guilt is fear of not fitting in.
Fitting in to what?!
Others’ ways of thinking?
Piffle! Nonsense!

Whatever we feel our problem is could be the last straw – the latest in a series of unpleasant or undesirable events which makes us feel that we cannot tolerate a situation any longer. So we seek change – or we put up with the usual script, and replay the whole show again.

Every cloud has a silver lining
– every sad or unpleasant situation has a positive side to it.
That silver lining is due to the presence of a sun.
Sun = pure consciousness.

Why on earth do we try to fit into others’ false reality,
and allow guilt to overshadow our true reality?

Heavy Heart, Light Heart

Heaviness comes from the thinking mind.
Light is pure awareness.
We can’t ignore either.

A heavy heart is concerned about the world (people), while the light heart sees there is nothing that can be done about the world (people). It is for each individual to recognise that they have gone dark.

When the light sees the dark, the situation naturally modifies, softening and bringing about a balance of not too tight and not too loose.

Change can happen in an instant,
when we see what we are doing.

Light produces the energy to melt the ice.

Knowing We Are Wrong Is The Truth

What we think we know is never the truth; it is something consciousness is relating to. Remember that truth is that which can never change and is the observer, the knowing, without there being a knower and a thing known. This can sound mysterious, but it’s quite simple to realise in the clear space of meditation.

There are two aspects to our being; mind-essence and mind-memories. Mind-essence is the brilliant, empty, cognisant space of pure consciousness. It’s like the blank page on which these words are written, and is full of potential. Pure consciousness merely observes, without the need for an observer.

Mind-memories are the collections of ideas that are speckles of concepts floating and sticking in this cognisant space. Consciousness attaches to these mind-memories because it has ignored its purity, and become dull and fixated.

Purity isn’t someone holy. It is merely uncontaminated perception, as in that first moment of seeing when we open a door, before we decide whether it’s warm or cold.

It doesn’t matter what we think we know, it will always be a relative truth, something to which consciousness relates, defends, turns away from, or is indifferent.

Knowing we are wrong is the truth of the matter.
Knowing we are right is the truth of the matter.

What we do with this knowing
is down to our ability to bring harmony and balance
back to the thinking mind of memories.

Are Consciousness and Intelligence The Same Thing?

If we are talking about the ordinary consciousness of a sentient being,consciousness relates to thoughts in the mind, and so it is the same thing.

But when consciousness is realised as emptiness – uncontaminated pure consciousness – then this is not the same as intelligence. Through this realisation, insight is more forthcoming, and can express itself in a wholesome, unbiased way; without prejudice for or against, it remains impartial.

“Well, that’s a bit boring!”
Yes. A deep appreciation of beautiful boringness.

Ordinary consciousness is full of facts and opinions.
Pure consciousness has no opinions,
just a direct, deep appreciation = devotion to absolute truth.

Dzogchen: The Pointing Out Instruction Into the Nature of Mind

We cannot hear this enough.

When our mind isn’t thinking of anything, we fall into silent vacancy. This is the state of not knowing, which is also called undecided or common indifference; it’s an ordinary, mundane state.

When our mind is busy clinging to ideas, we fall into chattering occupancy. This is the state of not knowing, which is also called stubborn or common opinions; it’s an ordinary, mundane state.

Become aware of that which notices this, and which is at one with everything that appears, like a mirror and its reflections. This is non-duality; pure consciousness. Pure consciousness is the essence of mind, empty cognisance; it’s what we are – pure knowingness itself.

It is our absolute nature which is absolutely not complicated and needs no elaborations, no bells and whistles. It is the state of luminosity, the light of clarity, the divine splendour that dispels darkness.

Absolute Truth Is Absolutely Logical

Religious people say no, it’s all a mystery!
Academics say it’s in the interpretation of the words.
Experiential people simply realise that the logic that consciousness has to be present to know; it’s what we are. It’s not only simple, it’s pure.

When our mind isn’t thinking of anything, we fall into silent vacancy. This is the state of not knowing, which is also called undecided or common indifference; it’s an ordinary, mundane state.

When our mind is busy clinging to ideas, we fall into noisy occupancy. This is the state of not knowing, which is also called stubborn or common opinions; it’s an ordinary, mundane state.

Become aware of that which notices this, and which is at one with everything that appears, like a mirror and its reflections. This is non-duality; pure consciousness.

It is our absolute nature which is absolutely not complicated. It is the state of luminosity, the light of clarity that dispels darkness.

Better Understanding, Better Conviction

Analysing merits and faults creates a deeper understanding.

When we understand our self, which is a collection of mental limitations picked up from our early environments, we realise that this mental state is observable and has no reality. The fault is clinging to this mental self, while the merit is seeing the clinging. The reality is observing the illusion.

This observation should make us happy to know we are not this self image that we promote to the world. Once we are convinced that we are not this karmic comedy, we become more focused, more clear, more happy.

Until enlightenment, there will be echoes of a past self, but this now serves as a reminder not to cling.

If The Elite Are Building Bunkers

If the elite are building bunkers,
they must fear something
Probably us, when we wake, up en masse.
😀

This is why the elite fear free speech.

The Search Box

There are over 4,600 articles on this blog. Far too many!
It’s all the same theme, but with different emphases.

Just enter a word in the search box at the bottom of this page,
and suggestions will appear.

Sometimes, a word or a phrase might suddenly hit the spot …

Jumping To Conclusions, Or Coming To A Conclusion

Jumping to a conclusion may be right – and then again, it may not.
Coming to a conclusion means we have looked at every possibility, analysing it and testing it – and it has tested us.

Let’s say the lights go out. Jumping to the conclusion, “It’s a fuse!”, doesn’t address why it blew, and how to trace the problem. Of course, we can call someone in to fix it, but we aren’t any the wiser, and we have to rely on what we are told by the electrician guru. ‘Gurus’ work in different ways, so how do we know who we can trust? Our lack of knowledge can be very pricey … been there, done that.

The same goes for realising our spiritual essence of pure consciousness. We can easily accept that we are pure consciousness, but acceptance is still a belief. Even if the Vedas and the Buddha say that we are pure consciousness, we have to check it out for ourselves and, in doing so, it checks us out – that is to say, we understand what, through experience, we have realised.

Analysing makes life so much more interesting when we put the conclusion to the test. What is the test? The test is in our attitude and behaviour; are we more receptive? Do we have more empathy and compassion for others, because they know not what they do?

Empathy is been there, done that, regretted it and suffered. If we haven’t been there, done that, regretted it and suffered, we are just theorists who have jumped to conclusions.

We learn by our mistakes
which clouded our experience, understanding and realisation,
and caused us to jump to conclusions.

Coming to a conclusion is clarity,
and clarity is divine splendour

Bringing Truth To Light

We can all bring the truth to light.

Truth isn’t the prerogative of a holy being from the past. It is the very nature of all sentient beings. We are personally here to bring the truth to light by realising we are the essence of consciousness.

First, we have to know what truth is, and what light is. It is the same word – clarity.
Clarity is the splendour of direct seeing without any nonsense of claiming. It is divine.

Truth has no inventor; it just is. The universe just is.

It’s infinite, full of subtle matter and consciousnesses, and driven by the gross laws of nature: attraction, repulsion and inertia.

Truth is the clarity of pure seeing. In that moment, the gross laws of attraction, repulsion and inertia become the laws of wisdom: the purity, consciousness and compassion. That is what we are, while embodied in the form and a mind of confusion. Confusion is a candle without light, knowledge is the light that gets passed on.

We don’t have to become a monk or a nun to realise this; we just have to perceive the undisguised rawness of every experience.

Ascending To Nowhere

Social class creates social climbers on a ladder to nowhere. We just join the queue by conforming. All systems have a hierocracy, ruled by priests of science, religion, politics, armed guardians, media … which control society and the workers. Sounds like a pyramid scheme!

How to drop out:
Watch the queue and see who’s in it.
That should put you off!
😀

Ascension is knowing what is within now here, rather than without. The more that we realise, the more we ascend the levels. Realisation is seeing the true meaning of life clearly – and whatever tries to obscure it.