We All Want A Compassionate World, Don’t We?
We all want a compassionate world, don’t we?
So why isn’t it?
Extremists.
Extremists want everyone to think the way they do.
What is the compassionate middle way?
Before we decide on a side, there is just pure seeing.
That’s it.
It is the ideas that we cling to and fixate about
that cause division and suffering in the world.
Compassion is understanding how division and suffering come about.
Agreeing Is Tricky
Agreeing is tricky as there comes a point where there’s a no-go area.
That’s okay; we are all on our individual path to full realisation.
Our path is our own confusion, not that of others.
😀
When We Cannot See Eye-To-Eye
What is important to one person may not be important to another. When we mix cultures, politics, religions and philosophies, we can have an explosive mixture.
I choose to practise the Buddha’s teaching – I didn’t particularly want to become a Buddhist. It was accidental. I don’t even want to consume all the Buddha’s teaching, but just verify the essence of it.
This is the same with all subjects, where we can become bogged down in elaborate details, and lose the complete picture.
It’s okay not to see eye-to-eye, or have a meeting of minds; our karma is our personal confusion or clarity, which is different to the clarity or confusion of others.
Goodness Is Being Positive
The opposite of positivity is being negative, from Latin, negare: ‘deny’.
Negate: make ineffective.
Positive (from Latin posit): placed, certain.
When we are certain and unshakeable, this doesn’t mean we are bloody-minded and fixated 🙂
It means that we know the absolute truth, through evidence rather than hearsay.
Trust In Life = Trust In Karma = It’s Our Teacher
Our life is created by our previous actions and attitudes, which give rise to good and bad results.
‘Bad’ describes a self-serving attitude (another word would be evil). Evil doesn’t lie in some horror comic manifestation; it is everyday, self-opinionated, negative behaviour.
To be positive is to be certain through clarity; it is ultimately unshakeable as it is the clear seeing of pure awareness.
Negative: from late Latin negativus, from negare ‘deny’.
Positive: to be certain.
It is because of an attitude that we acquire our bundle of karma – the things that happen to us, and our habitual reactions to those events.
Spiritual practice is being aware of this state of affairs – this state of existence – seeing it as our precious teacher which is with us all the time, until karma is completely exhausted, and enlightenment occurs.
Everything is exaggerated by our emotions, which create our attitude/mood. The more we meditate properly, the more the emotions come under our control, naturally revealing the presence of wisdom (good karma). This is why we do not have to try too hard as it all comes our way.
In the very first instant that a negative emotion such as pride, anger, fear, jealousy, indifference arises, the mind illumines brightly – something is alerted, and that something is pure awareness, which is common to all.
We can trust this as it is the basis of life before we entertain evil thoughts towards others.
Normal And Abnormal …?
If we don’t meditate, we become unstable = the collective normal.
If we hold on to the meditation, we become stiff = the collective normal.
If we meditate, and drop the meditation – short moments many times –
we become balanced = abnormal from the collective point of view.
Once we arrive at our true reality of pure awareness, which is our actual normal, and beyond the method of meditation, everything else is abnormal.
Meditation is the method to silence the mind, for the essence of pure consciousness to shine.
Once the mind is silent and arrives at clear luminosity, we just relax.
If we still meditate, hoping it will get even brighter, we become unstable again.
Taking Our Religion, Philosophy And Ideas Apart
If we are not prepared to look, we are merely followers, repeaters, ideologues.
If we do have the courage to look, using ‘Occam’s Razor’, we dissect our fixations to see what we’re all about.
Occam’s razor; the simplest explanation is preferable to one that is more complex.
Simple theories are easier to verify. Simple solutions are easier to execute.
“Hmm, I don’t need that, or this … I do need meditation from time to time, because I forget … ”
Just following others and going along with their routines, we remain in a four-year-old’s mentality of do’s and don’t’s which may not be appropriate to our understanding.
For social reasons, I call myself ‘Buddhist’, but in non-duality of non-meditation, there is no ‘Buddhist’ or ‘Buddhism’ or ‘Buddha’. Meditation is a method to become aware of pure awareness; once aware, we do not need to ‘meditate’, otherwise we spoil it.
When we take everything apart, all that is left is pure awareness, and nothing ‘interesting’ – ‘interesting’ is for academics and the religious.
What we are actually doing is taking our self apart,
and finding nothing permanent,
but just a mind clinging to the pride of knowing names, words, ideas.
If we meditate, there are no emotions, no crusade.
Crusades keep the war going.
Realisation is in the first instant of emotions = compassionate wisdom.
Delay: Evil’s Weapon Of Choice
Delay encourages an action to be put off, which has consequences.
We all know this.
Delay is created by confusion.
We all know this.
Delay maintains chaos.
We all know this.
If we all know this, we all know heaven and hell.
The World Isn’t Mad; It’s Perfectly Orchestrated
By whom?
By what, you mean.
By karma.
There is good and evil in the world – good karma and bad karma. Karma is the result of personal desire and aversion. Good karma is beneficial, while bad karma creates disharmony and suffering. This balance of karma is generated in the world by collective human behaviour – ‘mine is better than yours’.
Everything has a cause, and that cause brings about an effect. If we are self-centred-self opinionated-self righteous en masse, it is we who create bad karma/bad habits, and enable these to be maintained. This is because we do not know the truth about our reality which is, first and foremost, pure consciousness, for without this, nothing would be known. It’s not what we believe that is the source of wisdom; it is the pure knowingness itself.
There are those who have no inner knowledge. There are those who have a little knowledge, and there are those who possess perfect wisdom that results in perfect compassion. The majority fall into the first two categories, and disharmony arises. It is only wisdom of our original reality that is always in harmony with everything. Appearances and recognition are simultaneous, like a mirror and its reflections.
The way in which humans react decides the balance of karmic power in the world. At the moment, we are weighed down by extremists, enabled by the majority who swing one way or another. We therefore have an unstable world.
This mad pendulum is swinging in a mighty arc, and this is becoming more obvious every day, fuelled by the mainstream, alternative and ‘social’ media. The enablers are those who are easily swayed to hold an opinion in righteous indignation. Evil manipulates opinions.
At the end of each swing of the pendulum, there is a moment of perfect stillness. This is the zone of sanity. When we stop swinging around in a vicious cycle of existence, we will realise that we are pure consciousness – and that’s all.
Following selected stories creates division.
Pure seeing without attachment to stories is the unity of non-duality.
Don’t Belong
Don’t belong to anything or anyone. Religions, figureheads, deities, words, spiritual centres … these are all symbols / reminders. Becoming attached to anything or anyone makes us partisan zealots.
There is truth everywhere in the seeing. Just seeing is what we are – pure consciousness that does not belong to anyone. Belonging creates a huge trap of duality.
It is not how we interpret what we see that is the truth.
It is pure seeing that is the essence of truth.
Pure seeing is non-duality.
Will A.I. Become Super Human?
Humans think so.
Our human side is our lower programmed gross side, controlled by likes and dislikes …1s and 0s. A.I. can never realise the human potential of empty cognisance.
Unfortunately, the unconscious mind is susceptible to being governed by A.I. as it becomes another form of religion that we don’t question.
Once we realise that we are pure consciousness and not just clever humans, A.I. domination is futile 🙂 .
Jesus Christ!!! Buddha!!!
What is the point of shouting out names, as if that will change anything?
We could all cry, “Mipham Jampal Dorje!” Did it do anything?
Shouting words or names is pointless; names only mean something to the individual.
It’s as if we think the word or name gives us authority. It doesn’t. Enthusiasts should explain what they mean a little bit more, and make an effort to communicate.
Just shouting a name such as “Jesus!” or “Buddha” doesn’t give Jesus’s or Buddha’s teachings any precious insights; it just sounds scary.
Oh Buddha!
We Are Not All One Consciousness
If we were all one, then when one person became enlightened, we all would, and that definitely doesn’t happen. If one person yawns or sneezes, maybe others will follow suit, but not everyone. And anyway, what others think, I certainly wouldn’t want to think – been there, tried that, it didn’t work. 🙂
We are individual consciousness, where the light of pure consciousness from one realised being is passed on to those who are ready to receive the transmission..
The teachings are like the light of one candle lighting another. Not all wicks are decent enough to sit up straight. 😀
It would be nice to think that we are one, but that is sentimentality. We can be one in a moment – a meeting of minds perhaps – but that’s all. We may believe that we are united but, as history has taught us, we soon break up into factions.
We Live In A Prison Of Ideas
Ideas do not actually exist. The prison doesn’t actually exist either, but we live our life based on ideas, and so we sit in our cells and either complain or say how wonderful it all is.
We can be liberated at any moment, by just letting go of the ideas we’ve acquired from the other inmates whom we are trying to impress. We may get a glimpse of the state we live in but, through habit, we are back to our old tricks and routines in the next moment.
(There is a famous sweary and generous chef 😀 who goes to failing restaurants to help them succeed. He’s very tough, but shows them how to run their business properly. Unfortunately, most then fail because they return to their old habitual ways. It’s quite a lesson!)
Change takes honest effort of letting go; we start seeing clearly, rather than believing we are perfect. Once we realise that all the inmates ever talk about is their history and their future (which don’t exist) we are free not do the same. Change is then effortless.
I Didn’t Believe The Lama
“You didn’t believe the lama??!”
Well, we were supposed to see him as the Buddha. Not knowing what the Buddha was, I found this confusing. Also, we spent most of the time chanting long pujas, and doing the Ngondro (111,111 x 4 foundation practices).
The lama wanted to be modern, but never got to the point. I remained devoted for 11 years, and then he kicked me out. It was time to move on.
Been moving on ever since, thank goodness. 🙂
Why Is Simple Made So Complicated?
Why so much ado about emptiness? Emptiness is the essence of consciousness; it is the clarity of pure view. There is nothing to it, except the understanding of compassion for all who do not see this. If people merely adopt an idea, they can exaggerate it.
Tibetans adopted Buddhism via the Vedic tradition realised by the Buddha and other great masters. Tibetan Buddhism is very colourful, and based on the old Bon tradition which had a belief in certain things, like ghosts. There is nothing wrong with this – it’s their way.
One practice was to meditate in graveyards at night to conquer one’s fears. This may have worked for those who believe in ghosts, but if you don’t, the better alternative is to go to a centre full of religious people – where the scariness of complication is off the scale! 🙂 Why? People who adopt another’s culture exaggerate it.
Ghosts are disembodied beings;
beings are embodied ghosts.
We don’t have to become monks or nuns – we just need the right attitude and motivation to realise simple inner tranquility, especially when all around are confused. People can do such complex practices, and still not act naturally.
When we realise the simplicity of non-meditation,
all practices then become toys
– to be put away when not needed.
The Universe Is Created By Karma
The universe is created by karma
– the laws of cause and effect.
All beings (mental and physical) are created by karma due to the laws of cause and effect, attraction and repulsion. To bring an end to this cycle of gross existence, all we have to do is drop the habitual tendencies that maintain this state of affairs, by realising thatwe are not this body or mind; we are pure consciousness.
“So what?”
To realise true happiness, which is a sense of ultimate confidence, we have to understand how everything works and, by that, avoid the spanner-in-the-works – ego clinging.
Due to our ignorance of what we are, we constantly transform into ‘accommodating’ situations where we just go through a routine.
We ascend the levels of realisation by noticing and dropping our subtle habits of clinging to ideas and words. Words change their meaning as we become more liberated and alive. This is why, when speaking to others, we may not make sense according to their understanding. It’s part of the process.
Everything is karma – the result of previous actions.
If we don’t change, we don’t change.
When we realise this vicious cycle of existence,
change has already occurred. 🙂
Words Are Just Memories
Words are just memories, and words cause confusion. The words we select are due to our partial experience, while the realisation of silent observation is impartial and complete (actually, we cannot speak about realisation as it is pure experience; these words are only a generalisation).
This is why spiritual retreats are held in silence, because meditation is silent observance to see with impartiality.
Silent observation detects subtle abnormalities in our view. Our lives are consumed with interesting limitations, and if we don’t bring these interesting limitations to an end, the right moments – the silent gaps between words – will not happen.
Letting go of words doesn’t mean we do not talk, but we use words as accurately as we can. In the moment, the right words present themselves – and so do the wrong ones. 🙂
(It’s funny that, in one moment, we may say something, and the next moment the same thing is expressed differently; even though there is just pure observation, the abnormalities instigate a subtly different approach.)
Truth never changes, but in different periods, the expression changes. Each individual expresses truth in their own way. We may be one in essence, but individual in expression. Only with the essence of ancient text can we truly be at one. 🙂
The Constant Shock Of Realisation
Realisation is experiencing our true reality, which is pure consciousness, free of opinions. The constant shock is realising all the daft views I picked up from my ‘betters’ – people who are more important or who have a higher social position. 🙂
The shock is recognising the constant maintenance of ignorance
in thinking we are something other than what we are.
What is also shocking is trying to explain this, with so few people getting it; it’s just a bit of intellectual amusement to them. The ones who may be interested in the subject may join a group, a religion, or a tradition, becoming part of the indoctrination, rather than understanding the doctrine.
Indoctrination: accepting a set of beliefs uncritically.
Doctrine: from Latin doctrina ‘teaching, learning’.
We have to be critical in order to test the teaching to see if it is true or not. If we merely accept something because others do, we are truly daft. Been there, done that! 😀
That daftness is the shocking reminder to look before you leap.
That first look is pure consciousness.
Before we do or say anything, seeing comes first.
Don’t just read.
Practise, to see if it’s true or not.
What Creates Misery In The World?
There are two aspects to truth:
One is pure consciousness, common to all.
The other is personal belief that prevents realisation that is common to all
that creates misery in the world.
Absolute truth is knowing these two to be inseparable.
Why Belief Is The Opposite To Truth
Belief is the constant trap of duality-separation.
If we find a stone and worship it, believing that it has powers, this belief will make us feel strong and comforted. In fact, the power of this belief can make us achieve whatever we want. On the face of it, this sounds good, doesn’t it?
We may find that other people worship the same stone and we club together in a group and build beautiful temples to worship in. Then we find that other people worship their stone-beliefs, all the while not noticing that belief has created a duality, a separation.
There are horrendous reactions going on in the world between believers;
thousands of people have been traumatised and killed for generations.
Even within a spiritual group, there is separation
due to levels of belief and misunderstanding.
It is only when we realise our true reality – which is not based on a belief – that sanity arises.
This reality that we all have in common is awareness; when investigated, this awareness is pure awareness or pure consciousness. It’s the first moment of seeing before and beyond comment or belief.
Pure consciousness is our common sense.
When we realise that this is common to all, everything changes. All the things we had been led to believe drop away. Our only concern now is the maintenance of truth. At the heart of the matter, we are all pure consciousness, but we don’t appreciate this precious realisation, and so ignore reality – and one another.
Realisation is compassion and empathy
for this misunderstanding.
Realisation isn’t about forming a religion that separates us.
When we realise this common sense,
we activate the oneness of genuine kindness.
The On Switch Is Recognition
Any emotion switches on the clear light in the mind.
We are aware, but feel uncomfortable.:-)
Inner peace is a mind free of anxiety, irritation confusion … The moment when an emotion is recognised, the clear light dawns for a moment. We then usually switch off again, the emotion takes over and we try to justify ourselves.
A judgement is momentary in order to make a decision. When we hold on to that judgement, it becomes a ‘permanent’ fixture/obsession, and we are judgemental, clinging to a view of another person or group. Instead of Tony being drunk, he becomes a drunkard. 🙂
Through the practice of meditation, the switch stays on longer and we recognise what is controlling us more clearly. Of course, this doesn’t mean problems go away, but we just don’t exaggerate the situation, and can probably find a creative solution, such as fix it ourself.
Recognition is re-knowing. Teachings about consciousness and mind do not tell us anything new; they make us aware of our true reality and its beautiful qualities which we hadn’t noticed or ignored as having little value. We think that everyday anxiety, irritation and confusion is normal. 🙂
The media pumps out problems day and night. It programmes us, and we become addicted to the daily injection of things to worry about. All war is unnecessary for ordinary people. It is extremists who indulge for ‘our’ good, but it’s really to promote their ideology – and our depression.
Meditation switches off the system, and switches on the pure light of consciousness. Once we become more familiar with the clarity of mind and the brilliance of pure consciousness, intuition and insight come to the fore. And all we want is to stay switched on!
It’s why I write every day – to keep switched on.
Incarnations Of Pure Consciousness
Incarnations of pure consciousness:
this is what we are.
All beings, throughout the infinite universe, are pure consciousness.
Are we part of universal pure consciousness, or are we the principle* of pure consciousness, led astray by words?
Being part of universal pure consciousness can only be a belief in the words we’ve been told.
Being pure consciousness is provable through the practice of meditation.
Pure consciousness cannot be altered, whereas words can.
A small change in wording, and we believe the opposite.
This makes a huge difference to the way we think and live.
We have consciousness, or we are consciousness?
Having consciousness means we cannot define what we are, and so we become confused, and make up stories about ourselves and where we came from.
When we know we are consciousness, we can then realise that we are an incarnation of pure consciousness.
If we believe we are part of the ‘great consciousness’, how does that affect our life? What standards are we living by? Is believing all we have to do? Does that create wisdom? There’s never any talk about enlightenment…
If we realise we are pure consciousness – which can be proven through the practice of meditation – then we realise wisdom and compassionate qualities for ourself, and take responsibility to become enlightened.
The roots of the lotus are in the mud,
but the flower blossoms above the water.
*Principle: foundation for a chain of reasoning.
Space Is Basic To Everything
The emptiness of consciousness is basic to all sentient beings.
It is pure intelligence.
What more is there to understand?
Oh yes … ignoring this.
When we realise our natural purity is content, never forget it,
otherwise we will continually whirl around,
ignorant that we are this precious space.
Pure Consciousness, Religion and Culture
Mixing them up can cause confusion.
“For where two or three gather together in my name, there am I with them…”
– Matthew 18.12
Who actually wrote this?
‘When two or three are gathered in my name …’, we will have a committee, an inner circle, a religion and division. Religions capitalise on ritual to create a culture that captures the imagination in the mind.
Exoteric teaching: understood by the many – group therapy.
Esoteric teaching: understood by the few – personal realisation.
Religion: to bind.
Culture: cultivation of the mind, and mannerisms.
Pure consciousness: free of mind, and mannerisms that bind.
Meditation is breaking the habit
of identifying with ideas and images.
The Big Screen Meditation
This is the direct pointing out instruction into the essence of mind.
Sit with eyes open, but not staring consciously. Be relaxed, taking it all in. Allow everything to just enter the eyes without focusing on anything, but be aware of all that is taking place. Sit as if there is no ‘perceiver’, just perception. That’s it.
Practice is testing, and then realising.
This is quite ordinary – nothing religious about it.
The big screen is the great view.
Pure perception is pure awareness; it’s what we are.
Is God Just The Universal Principle Of Pure Consciousness?
Pure consciousness has no need to create, as it has no desire.
It is just perfect harmony, at one with all.
That which is unaware of pure consciousness desires to create,
which brings about disharmony and division.
Fortunately, this impermanent creation
is a excellent vehicle to realise what isn’t true!
The universal principle is pure consciousness;
is it that simple?
Is There A True Self?
Certainly.
It has many names, and it has no name.
I call it pure consciousness or pure awareness.
Sometimes, ‘pure consciousness’ sounds like a thing that we have, and sometimes it may sound too aloof. It’s simply what we are. It’s the happiness we seek. It is just that which sees, without attachments. Some call it ‘Atman’ or ‘soul’, so may ask, “Well, is there a God or Brahman then?”
All is revealed through personal realisation of non-fixation. God or Brahman is the universal principle of enlightened pure consciousness. The little self we call ‘me’, has to let go of selfishness to realise its greater pure self, pure consciousness or pure awareness.
In this non-state, words and meaning vanish into non-duality. Those who become stuck on names and -isms, have not reached the oneness (non-duality) of appearance and realisation as a unity.
If we still think that we are part of God or Brahman – or universal consciousness – then we are still deluded in exoteric thinking. The esoteric experience is pure, beyond division.
True self or pure consciousness is true happiness that never changes. If there was happiness in the outer world then, by now, you would have found it. Happiness will only come from that which is complete and absolute.
Pure awareness has no name or form; it is pure knowledge, pure wisdom that is neither created nor destroyed.
It is our expectations and presumptions that give rise to confusion and unhappiness. Pure consciousness is above worldly knowledge. Detachment from the world/phenomena/thoughts becomes our true teacher.
Meditation is awareness that is self-aware. Wherever we go and whatever we do, pure awareness is always present, even when we ignore it. We don’t have to go to a special place – going somewhere special is based on desire. Self-awareness doesn’t have to go anywhere to be happy.
If we don’t realise this, we will wander, and keep searching for what we already are. We need a teacher to help with this realisation but, once realised, we become the self-teacher.
How do teachers help?
A word or gesture – perhaps something unpleasant, as in crazy wisdom.
We learn by seeing what is wrong.
A teacher may irritate us, but that is a constant reminder!
When we see everything as genuinely positive, we are well on our way.
As long as we doubt, we will need a teacher.
Once all doubts are cleared, we are free.
How does a teacher become a teacher? Through study, and practice by testing. It is through the practice of testing that we understand and realise, not by talking and discussing.
When we know true awareness, we know true knowledge.
This is self-realisation.
A lotus flower opens above the water,
as realisation opens above world knowledge.
The lotus does not touch the water.
Those who realise their true essence remain detached from the world
while living within it.
What Is Merit?
Om Mani Peme Hung:
the mantra of compassion.
Generosity, patience, morality, discipline, meditation, transcendent wisdom; the mantra of compassion. The more we gain in understanding these six perfections, the more we gain in good qualities, right understanding, right conduct toward others.
Merit isn’t about how much money we give
– that is desire for reward.
Merit is how much we personally attend to others
– without expectation.
Loneliness Is Only A Problem
Loneliness is only a problem
when we do not appreciate our individual nature.
किं एतत् अधिकं प्रामाणिकं दृश्यते ? Does This Look More Authentic? त्वं यद् अन्विषसि तदेव शुद्धं चैतन्यम्। You are what you seek, and that is pure consciousness. When you know what you are, special words aren't needed.
Believing In God; Not Believing In God
Belief is acceptance without proof.
Believing in God; not believing in God.
Believing in the Buddha; not believing in the Buddha.
It doesn’t matter what we believe, as belief is in the mind.
There are texts for us to reflect upon and practise, to see what is true. If we remain only believing in texts, we do not actually know. Not knowing makes us volatile – to fly off the handle, from Old French volatil or Latin volatilis, from volare ‘to fly’.
When we realise for ourselves what is true, then it is no longer in the mind; we experience the reality and non-reality of everything. This realisation is expressed in our conduct of empathy for all. Empathy is experiencing what it was like just believing rather than knowing.
Our supreme reality of pure consciousness is the very essence of mind.
Some call it God or Buddha or Truth … but it’s never words out there.
Truth is beyond religion.
Truth is that which sees.
Religion makes believers.
Philosophy makes disbelievers.
Realisation makes understanding.
We Do Not Have To Translate Words
We do not have to translate words
when we can translate natural experiences.
How Do We Practise OM MANI PEME HUNG?
If someone tells you, when anger or irritation arises in the mind, to chant OM MANI PEME HUNG as an antidote, they are delusional. An antidote is just a temporary measure. This is the realm of belief.
Knowing what OM MANI PEME HUNG actually means is practical practice. The syllables OM MANI PEME HUNG represent the six perfections of generosity, patience, morality, discipline, concentration/meditation, and transcendent realisation.
Even knowing what OM MANI PEME HUNG means, there are two approaches. One is where we practise OM MANI PEME hoping to realise HUNG, while the other starts with realising HUNG and using OM MANI PEME to sustain HUNG as the finality of emptiness.
Actually, even if we said, OM MANI PEME NUM but knew what it represents, this is still a superior practice.
There are two types of people in the world: believers and knowers.
This is the difference between theistic (duality) and non-theistic (non-duality) approaches to life (and even Buddhism). In the theistic traditions, we believe in a figurehead, and in their words. In the non-theistic traditions, we do not believe either in a figurehead or the words; we test them to realise them.
Teaching must be tested. Teachers must be tested. OM MANI PEME HUNG must be tested.
Test: a procedure intended to establish the quality, performance, or reliability of something, revealing the strength or quality of someone or something by putting them under strain.
OM MANI PEME HUNG
is the challenging path of wisdom and compassion.
Buddha And Christ Had Different Approaches
They may have had the same realisation, but it was expressed differently
– or maybe translators understood differently. 🙂
We can only know what is true when we practise what was spoken.
Do we stay with belief, or do we want to know for ourselves?
We are the translators!
Through realisation, we can explain the meaning.
Of course, others will have their own approaches.
As Long As People Believe In Something
As long as people believe in something,
conflict is inevitable
Conflict happens when we take sides.
For ordinary people, taking sides is what they do, but as seekers of truth, we have to remain impartial, even though we see both sides. There is always a cause and an effect that creates another cause. Every event has a history.
The true essence of all sentient beings is neutral pure consciousness. It’s our happy place. When we ignore this happy place, we suffer, because we lose our balance. All beings embodied in a form experience suffering of some sort, change being one.
If we ignore why others suffer,
what kind of being are we?
Well, we’re definitely not a kind being.
I do not believe in the Buddha – any Buddha.
Nor do I believe in their words,
but test their words and live by that experience.
In the Garden of Eden, there were two sides;
both has a point of view about good and evil.
New Mind And Old Brain
When we learn something ‘new’, it may take a while for our old brain to catch up, if ever. 😀 That is why we have inner conflicts.
Through experience, the brain acquires pathway/memories/feelings, and the mind saves and creates a library of words and images. These become heavily ingrained as habits, and can limit further understanding. It’s just one of those problems in sentient life.
When seeking knowledge about our reality, we may find it difficult to understand a new approach, because we are stuck in our old established way of thinking, and that unfortunately causes us suffering.
Practice makes perfect, and practice needs tenacity, and tenacity needs a reason. A reason needs dissatisfaction with established ways. The result is direct realisation, and not merely something learnt in order to maintain our pathways, and our same old predictable responses.
The key is that we must want to change
because we see the need to change.
Being Adaptable
Adaptable: able to adjust to new conditions.
Being adaptable means not being fixed. Being fixed is being one-dimensional, unable or unwilling to see all sides.
The Dharma has to adapt to a particular period in time. Dharma itself is timeless; our true essence is timeless; the universe is timeless. Timeless means it is constant, and does not run out.
The essence of Dharma has no sides, and therefore our true essence has no sides. Pure consciousness has no bias. This is why we can constantly adapt to causes and conditions.
Religion is fixed.
Spiritual consciousness cannot be fixed
as it is not a thing,
and has no temple, no land.
Fixation causes inflexibility, creating enmity.
Being adaptable is staying fresh, balanced, impartial and kind.
Beyond Religion
When it comes to pure awareness, nothing is more real. It is real because, being real, it is empty cognisance that never changes. All phenomena change, including ideas, but pure awareness or consciousness does not.
Like infinite space, pure conscious awareness is never born and never dies. It is only through ignorance of this basic truth that consciousness takes on a new body, commensurate with its karmic tendencies.
As we progress in our training, we become more refined. Generally, we cannot remember previous lives, but we find that we have strong tendencies which feel natural to us, but maybe not to other members of the family.
The new mind and body we will enter won’t remember us now, but our tendencies will carry over, and we can re-establish our heart’s desire – whatever that is. 🙂
This is a psychological event, beyond ‘psychology’ and religion. Religion is a vehicle, but once we know where we are going, we have already arrived. This realisation merely needs to be stabilised.
Our next body won’t remember us,
but will be grateful for natural understanding.
It’s Obvious
The more we look, the more we see.
The more we drop what we see,
the more we are able to see
(holding on limits complete understanding).
When we drop all that we see,
all we are left with is pure awareness
(ready for the next fresh moment).
Not many people get this
(not many want to).
Pure awareness has nothing to do with religion.
Religion is a vehicle to go beyond religion
(it’s obvious; don’t get stuck).
What If This Blog Is Wrong?
How would you know?
To know is to be absolutely certain through observation.
If you are absolutely certain, free of doubts, then the observation is pure.
It is not a question of being certain about some thing;
it is being absolutely certain that pure observation is taking place.
“There are no absolutes!”
Are you absolutely sure?
Are We Made To Believe?
Are we made to believe in a deity or a self?
Either way, these are merely ideas.
When we believe anything, we are caught up in an illusion, a duality, a conundrum that creates confusion … “Is there or isn’t there?” Once we agree to believe, we can be encoded to believe anything.
Non-duality is pure awareness with no identity.
That is what we are.
Sitting in room, there is just the room,
without relating to a deity, self or ideas about phenomena.
Pure awareness is the ultimate truth we seek.
It is not make-believe as, by it, everything is known.
We will all wake up
– but not at the same time.
We are not all one consciousness, otherwise when one person realises their true reality, we all would. That doesn’t happen. Even Buddhas can’t do that, but they leave clues for us to piece together. 🙂
Defilements
Defilements: our personal demons in the mind.
To ascend the levels of realisation to enlightenment, we have to eliminate the spoils in our mind.
Through generations of misunderstanding, karma affects our attitude right now. Pure consciousness
(what we are) can never be defiled, but it sees through a veil of self-possession in the mind that produces negative consequences.
There are many descriptions of these defilements but, as we progress, each become more obvious, more dominant in the games we play to justify our attitude.
All we have to do is be aware of their hindering factor, and how uncomfortable we feel. These defilements will gradually dissolve, but will still leave a ghost residue for a while, for us to be aware of. Some will naturally drop away, where we realise that we don’t react that way any more.
We all feel uncomfortable about certain situations with people; this is evident in what we say, or don’t want to talk about. Eliminating defilements is an opening up, being less fearful, and more willing to meet others’ minds; love without expectations.
We let go of anything that is no longer needed, like our mental crutches of memories. Memories merely bring up those defiling demons. 😀
We are talking about the path of a Bodhisattva.
Bodhisattva Vow
This the vow to work for the benefit of others is not taken lightly. There are nine levels of bodhisattvas, up to enlightenment. Taking this vow means one’s life will never be the same again.
Bodhisattva Vow
Just as the earth and the other three elements, together with space,
eternally nourish and sustain all beings,
so may I become that source of nourishment and sustenance which
maintains all beings situated throughout space, as long as all have
not attained peace.
When the Sugatas of former times committed themselves to the Bodhicitta,
they gradually established themselves in the practice of a Bodhisattva.
So I too commit myself to the Bodhicitta for the welfare of beings,
and will gradually establish myself in the practice of a Bodhisattva.
Today my birth has become fruitful; my birth as a human is justified.
Today I am born in the Buddha family; I am now a child of the Buddha.
Now I am determined to perform those acts appropriate to my family;
I will not violate the purity of this faultless noble family.
Just as a blind man wandering about comes upon a jewel in a heap of refuse, so, apparently by chance, the Bodhicitta is born in me.
That supreme amrita destroying death.
The inexhaustible hidden treasure relieving the universal poverty.
The supreme cure for calming the universal ill.
The tree which shelters beings weary of wandering the paths of samsara.
The vehicle for all travellers passing over distress.
The moon of mind which cools the heat of desire.
The great sun dispelling the obscurity of ignorance.
The butter made from churning the milk of the Dharma.
The great happiness for those travellers wandering the path of samara,
searching for objects of enjoyment.
In the presence of all the Buddhas, I have invited all the Tathagatas
and all beings as my guests. Devas and Asuras rejoice.
.
.
“Taking the Bodhisattva vow is an expression of settling down and making
ourselves at home in this world. We are not concerned that somebody
is going to attack us or destroy us. We are constantly exposing ourselves
for the benefit of sentient beings. In fact, we are even giving up our ambition
to attain enlightenment in favour of relieving the suffering and difficulties of people.
“Nevertheless, helplessly, we attain enlightenment anyway.
Bodhisattvas and great tathagatas in the past have taken this step,
and we too can do so. It is simply up to us whether we are going to
accept this richness, or reject it and settle for a poverty-stricken mentality.”
-Chogyam Trungpa.
Is The Universe Conscious, Or Is There Consciousness In The Universe?
It’s for the individual to decide.
🙂
There is, however, a third option; the laws of nature.
The laws of nature are both gross and subtle.
The gross are understood by all sentient beings.
The subtle are understood by a few.
The gross laws are attraction, judgement, and indifference = unconscious of the subtle laws of our true reality. When we walk into a room full of people, we see these laws come into action clearly.
The subtle laws are emptiness, cognisance, and compassion = conscious of true reality and the gross laws. When we walk into a room full of people, we just walk into a room.
In gross laws, we take sides = ideas in the mind that start wars.
In subtle laws, we do not take sides = the essence of mind, pure consciousness, cannot start a war.
“But there are injustices in the world,
and I don’t like my neighbour,
I like nature …
I’m not bothered about consciousness!”
There will always be injustice caused by gross sentient beings clinging to their likes and dislikes, indifferent to their and others’ true reality. Once we realise that the essence of mind is pure consciousness, then whatever we do in the world will have that one taste.
If we think that there is a universal consciousness out there which we are part of, how is this manifesting in us? How do we know if consciousness is good? Goodness is clarity, that’s all.
Does the universe care about you?
How I Capture ‘Evil’ Mice
When we know evil’s ways, we are free of their terrorising.
We live in an old property, with wooden cladding over the brickwork. If anything is left leaning against the outside wall, the mice climb up into the cavity between the wood and the bricks and find their way into the house.
Having observed the ways of the mouse, which uses scent in the darkness, I cut a small section of the floorboards in the upstairs bedroom and placed a humane trap in it, laced with peanut butter. All the evil mice make their way to this trap – they can’t help themselves – and in the morning, I take them for walkies.
The evil mice are not getting the better of us, and are a constant reminder not to leave anything leaning against the wall.
In this way we can define the unity of heaven and hell;
we can’t blame the mice for they know not what they do,
but that can remind us of our lazy habits. 🙂
The ways of the evil keep us alert.
😀
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. 
LOOKING THE OTHER WAY ROUND
Looking The Other Way Round
Instead of looking out and just seeing, allow everything to look into you.
It is such an unusual thing to do that there is nothing to comment on.
This is a pointing out instruction that I received from Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche some time ago.
It might sound odd (it did to me at the time), but waiting in a hospital triage area for eleven hours recently, ‘everything looking in’ describes exactly how it was. The coming and going and coming and going is merely noted without comment or attitude.
There wasn’t even a feeling of waiting.
No, it wasn’t a vacant state; it was a relief.