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.

The World Is Not What It Seems

The universe is infinite and timeless, with infinite sentient beings crisscrossing back and forth repeatedly, seeking peace and rest but not finding it due to their karma – the results of mistaken views about reality.

Sentience: being capable of sensing or feeling; and thereby judging, thinking, collecting and reacting.

Sentience is consciousness.
That is what we are – seekers.

The peace and rest we seek is nowhere but consciousness itself, when we finally realise we are pure consciousness, rather than this body and tormented mind. In thinking that the life we lead is normal, we are deluded.

If there is evil in the universe, it is the denial that we are pure consciousness.What else can evil be? Evil wants us to believe anything but our true reality. That is how it has infiltrated our minds.

Evil wants to gain our trust, thus maintaining a grip on humanity through deception, making us do and think things that are against our wellbeing. We read about this every day and it goes unnoticed because we ignore and so remain indifferent as it make no difference to us. When we no longer just believe or accept whatever we are told, we are free.

Once we realise that we are pure consciousness, we are finders.
Finders keepers!

That relief of arriving is happiness.
Being compos mentis
is consciousness having complete control of our mind.

Difficulty With Devotion?

They say that devotion is the fastest path, but what does that mean? Devotion to what? In the way this display is handed down to us? Although we’d like to feel devoted, there comes a time when, for some of us, this becomes an obstacle.

When I was younger, I was in awe of teachers because they seemed to know so much, but when I came to realise what was said, I wasn’t so dependent. It’s the same with any subject.

Still, saying this, the path (the elimination of confusion) to enlightenment is precious.

Devotion means to consecrate – dedicated, devoted as sacred.
Are we devoted to the teacher or the teaching? To form or essence?

There comes a time when we have to let go of duality.

Know Meditation, Know Inner Peace

Know meditation, know inner peace.
No meditation, no inner peace.

There is always something to worry about or be irritated by. This is why sitting in silent inner awareness is so necessary. We can do it at any time, any where. It unwinds us and recharges our subtle energy – we feel brighter and ready!

In this obviously confused world, inner peace stops us becoming irritable and angry at what others say or do.

Meditation un-confuses us, as we become familiar with looking behind the scene that caused confusion in our own mind. What is behind our confusion is also behind everyone else’s and limits our view of life. This confusion is consciousness identifying with an imitation-self imprinted in the mind.

Inner peace is clarity,
and clarity is divine splendour.

We Have To Wake Up And Realise

We can only address a problem when we wake up to it and realise that it’s there, and what it’s doing to us. We cannot become a recovering alcoholic until we realise that we are an alcoholic, and then we can do something about it.

We have to wake up and understand that we are walking around in a hoax, an illusion of what life is about. Life is about waking up to our true reality, which is pure consciousness, and the ramifications of this are enormous – enlightening, in fact. ? It is only then that everything about the hoax makes sense, and we see that it is constantly being adapted to confuse people.

As long as we only believe,
we will remain confused. 

Belief is not knowing.
Knowing is waking up.

Words Are Only An Account Of The Truth

Words are only an account of the truth;
they are not the truth itself. 

If we become hung up on words, we sound empty of empathy.  
Words are a reflection in the mind-mirror of pure perception. 
The truth is an individual’s realisation of pure perception. 

The understanding of words differs, and that is why there are many traditions – and many conflicts.

If the Buddha said, “Do not take my word for the truth; test it for yourself”, he knew that, in clinging to words, we obscure direct experience, and repeating learnt words is just an imitation, a self-aggrandisement to enhance reputation. 

Words need verifying and putting into context eg taking into account another’s background, otherwise we merely become literalists without empathy. Words have levels of meaning due to actual experience, and this why it’s easy for us to talk at cross purposes, and unfortunately, become enemies. 

It is so sad that words divide us. In the end, we can only generalise, and purify our motivations.

Why Don’t We Get On With Certain People?

Get on with: have a harmonious or friendly relationship.

When we sit with others we don’t know, we neither like or dislike them. It’s when we start to speak that memories and emotions come to the surface, causing immediate judgements and reactions that we obsess upon, fixing our bias.

This bias comes from our personal background, our programming. If our experience is limited, we are quick to judge. If our experiences are more expansive, we hold back to look behind whatever is being said.

This is where empathy and wisdom have to come to the fore, calling on a place that is beyond the usual constructs of the human mind, and where there are no expectations. We sometimes call this the ‘heart’, but it is, of course, pure consciousness.

Talking beyond the usual chit chat
is talking heart to heart, being honest about our feelings.

Mind to mind is intellectual.
Body to body is extra friendly, but can take an ugly turn.
😀

Silence to silence is the best,
it’s perfectly harmonious.

Our Precious Teacher Is Our Reactions

Do they enlighten us (brighten us up)
or maintain fixations (lower the light)?

😀

“You Can Lead A Horse To Water …”

“You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink”.

Showing people the way to find something or to do something,
doesn’t mean they will act upon it.

This year could be a better year.
Transmissions need receivers.
😀

What If Reptilians Rule The Earth?

What if reptilians rule the earth?
Has it affected our ability to traverse the path to enlightenment? No.
Do vajras and bells affect our ability to traverse the path to enlightenment? No.

Ideas manipulate our minds, but we can still practise by not filling our minds with speculation and beliefs. We are free by neither accepting nor rejecting; that is for believers.

When we are governed by fight, flight or freeze, we are governed by reptilian brain = desire, aversion and ignorance.

Fortunately, these same imprisoning aspects of mind are also wisdoms = emptiness, consciousness and compassion.

So it is reptilian brain that rules us,
but these imprisoning aspects can be transformed into enlightenment.

This why ‘evil’ can control most of the people most of the time,
but not all of the people all of the time.

Have a powerful and spiritually enthusiastic
New Year.
🙂

Appreciating Clarity

Clarity is divine splendour = pure awareness.

In looking for divine splendour, we obscure it,
by misunderstanding clarity.

We don’t appreciate this because we exaggerate.

Imagine you have been denied sight for a very long time.
Suddenly, you can see.
That moment of relief of just seeing is glorious.

Inner light of pure consciousness has been obscured by thoughts.
Realising this inner light, every moment is splendid.

No exaggeration needed.

Spontaneity Is Ultimate Reality

Spontaneity is the timeless moment of ultimate reality before we start recognising, judging and reacting, and where there are no expectations, just the presence of consciousness. This is wisdom, before we make a fool of ourselves with opinions, however valid those may be.

Spontaneity is pure being.
We can’t get much more wholesome (holy) than that.

Being spontaneous means we adapt to changes without feeling stressed or anxious – a “go with the flow” attitude, where we become less fixed and more flexible in all areas of life.

Why Do We Find Communication So Difficult?

Communication … “Ay, there’s the rub!” – the friction.

It is because we lack confidence in our true reality that we hibernate in a mind of dreams/memories, waiting for the awakening. We are what is called ‘consciousness’. The truth is that consciousness is always awake, but clings to ideas that isolate us. It is because of this feeling of isolation that we feel vulnerable and so we protect ourselves by avoiding communicating in a meaningful way.

We start our path – the ‘awakening’ – when we admit that we feel uncomfortable, and are suffering. I feel uncomfortable because I was always being told off, so a lack of confidence has travelled with me throughout life … until I realised that everyone else was covering up their insecurities too. That’s how empathy and confidence start.

Instead of rubbing one another up the wrong way,
we should be rubbing shoulders
– talking with someone in a meaningful way.

True communication is a transmission of consciousness;
it’s the moment when we brighten up.

Self: A Work Of Fiction

In our mind, we build up a picture of our self. This picture is usually created by a social I, a reflection of others’ responses to us – “Good boy” “Bad boy” etc. 🙂 We are only ‘good’ if we do and say what others want us to do and say to fit in with their self picture. It’s possible to fall out with others pretty quickly if we don’t go along with their views.

We (consciousness) can, however, work quite happily with this fictitious self – this obstinate programming – because it teaches us where we go wrong immediately through a feeling of being uncomfortable.

We needn’t feel guilty about this as it’s happening to everyone, including the ‘good boys’. Some people seem to have a charmed life, but look closely – it’s high maintenance.

The essence of mind is pure consciousness.
The content of mind is pure fiction.

= Heaven and Hell.
🙂

What Created Consciousness?

Some say that God created consciousness.
Some say that it comes from millions of years of evolution.
Some say consciousness just is.

The important point is that we all know we are here now. We are agreed on that?

Do you realise what you have just agreed to?
We all know.
It just is. It never changes. It’s what we are.
We aren’t different in that knowingness.

Consciousness must not be confused with thoughts, as thoughts are impermanent and changeable. Some say that consciousness enters the body at conception, commensurate with its measure of motivation.

We are universal beings with short memories, but there is an ‘atmosphere’ about us; this is clear in everyone we meet – there’s a stuffed atmosphere. 🙂

Consciousness is beyond religion and science.
This becomes clear in meditation
the moment when we drop the meditation
and realise that pure consciousness is perfect contentment.

If we don’t truly appreciate this, we will continue to argue.