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.

Meditation In Action

When we hear or read information but don’t have actual experience, we become talkative to compensate for our lack of understanding. We guess, believe, assume, have opinions – all of which are acceptance without experience that leads to pointless talk.

Meditation is silent awareness of thoughts and their effects. Letting go leads to the realisation that we are and have always been that silent awareness. We have arrived, and can therefore drop the method of meditation.

We are not an opinion, an assumption, a belief, a guess.

Transcendent wisdom, beyond normal or physical human experience, has to be practised to be realised. Then we have the ability to deal with situations and people in an enlightened manner.

Listening, seeing, tasting
… without judgement from preconceived ideas …
is meditation in action.

We may then be able to say something worth saying.
🙂

Wearing Our Self Out

There comes a time when we’re fed up with the way we all react. It’s like everyone is addicted to a tradition of some sort to all think the same way. They may seem happy enough – unless they meet someone outside their comfort zone, their familiar world.

Wearing our self out is like wearing out an old coat that no longer fits.

We find life frustrating, going round in circles. Spiritual understanding is also like that. What was satisfying isn’t any longer. We see people stuck in a tradition without questioning it, just seeking validation.

Letting go of this self – this bunch of ideas – is done through simple meditation, stepping outside the familiar playground. Through meditation, panoramic vision develops; it’s like entering a room and taking the whole scene in, before we start deciding what we like and don’t like.

We have to be aware that there will always be a residue from the past interfering with the present, but this is precisely our path to enlightenment.

Don’t Make It Academic Or Religious

Don’t make it academic or religious –
‘it’ being our natural state of pure consciousness.

If we make this into something, we turn off the light of clarity,
and become heavy and serious.

Sanitising Informatiion

Sanitising information is removing data from the mind, and replacing it with another version to make something acceptable/believable. Euphemisms are used to play down information likely to disturb people.

No! Wake them up to the reality!

A lie has to have an element of truth to be believable. We’re told that one thing is reality when, in truth, reality is something else. This has been going on for thousands of years.

What Gives Me Sorrow?

What gives me sorrow?
What gives me joy?

What gives me sorry is the tap leaking and I don’t know why, and I can’t afford a plumber.
What gives me joy is understanding, on investigation, why the tap leaks (limescale in the cartridge) and dissolving it with vinegar.

The problems in the world do not give me sorrow
as there’s nothing I can do about them.

A simple life is a joyous life.

The Unprofitable Workings Of This World

How weary and unprofitable are the workings of this world.
In an unweeded garden, gross things grow.

 (sort of borrowed from Shakespeare’s Hamlet.)

This sentiment turns our mind to deeper things.

Different People Say Different Things

We hear a lot different things, so we have to choose what makes sense to us. The important thing is not to criticise others because that comes from a reaction in our mind, and we all have our personal paths to realise our enlightened essence. Being competitive and arguing is detrimental to everyone’s progress.

This doesn’t mean that we don’t notice other views, we just don’t need to follow them. Sitting in a town square, we see the manifestation of all sorts of decisions walking around. 🙂

Not Believing Can Get You Arrested

The power of belief is to make people stupid.

There are those who believe the world is flat.
To say otherwise is said to cause them harassment, alarm and distress
– which in itself is alarming.

Belief is foisted upon us to make us react.

Fool Me Twice

Fool me once, shame on them.
Fool me twice, shame on me.

After being tricked once, we should learn from our mistakes and avoid being tricked in the same way again. But we’re fooled into reacting, time and time again. It is our reactions that maintain the foolery.

People say words; they are just words.

The importance is in the hearing,
the same as seeing, smelling, touching, tasting.
This is pure perception that cannot be fooled.

The senses do not lie,
interpretations do.

Our Intelligence Reveals Our Stupidity

We may know about this and that,
and even be experts about this and that,
but how much wisdom is there?

How much E.Q. = emotional quotient = control of our mind?

We learn to be followers of I.Q. which is others’ control of our mind.
But that only leads us up the garden path,
rather than the path to enlightenment.
🙂

‘Up the garden path’ refers to being deceived, tricked, or seduced, unwittingly following a ‘false scent’.

What Is the Point Of Miracles?

What’s the point of a rainbow body (where the physical body transmutes into light), walking on water, leaving footprints in rocks … ? When miracles are hearsay, they are pointless. They may be real, but how do we know? We already know because we are knowingness itself, but stories of these miracles make us feel that we’re never good enough (and that is suspicious).

The idea of miracles is fascinating, but not practical. Our path is not in mental and physical gymnastics. The realisation of our true reality of pure consciousness, common to everyone, is all that is needed to traverse our path.

The Wrong Shopping List

Realising our enlightened essence isn’t out of reach; it’s already present. But this essence is piled high with concepts in the mind.

Our problem is eliminating the heap of ideas we’ve borrowed from others’ ‘shopping lists’.

This is why the Buddha said, “Don’t take my words for the truth; test them.”

What Adam And Eve Were Told

When Adam and Eve were told not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, this meant that our pure state of consciousness is beyond good and evil. Good and evil relate to the materialistic world, and the mind of judging and obsessing.

Of course, we need a little ego to decide what is beneficial and what is harmful, but that is merely in order to survive. The very essence of all sentient beings is pure consciousness, beyond the material world and the world of concepts.

‘The fall’ was ignoring our original true reality.
The serpent’s army sees to it that we stay ignorant.

Realisation:
you can turn everything on its head.
😀

We All Suffer From Exaggeration

Exaggeration creates more exaggeration and sentimentality to bolster self-esteem, the building blocks of a demonic mind.

Exaggeration: from Latin exaggerat- ‘heaped up’. Originally meant ‘pile up, accumulate’ – later, ‘intensify praise or blame’.

Exaggeration is the representation of something as more extreme or dramatic than it actually is, and it’s used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression.

Self is exaggerated consciousness.
The opposite is pure consciousness.

Diversity

Diversity: from Latin divertere ‘turn aside’. To divert.
Diversity: different beliefs create a culture of a country.

It is obvious that trade between cultures is the story of enriching world history, but promoting diversity over the host population creates tension and doubt, causing people to carry a guilt that was never theirs to carry.

The essence of all sentient beings
is individual pure consciousness.
As such, there are no differences.

Created Or Just Is?

In an infinite universe, there can be no creator, as there can be no beginning to start from.

This is difficult for a materialistic mind to comprehend as creation / creating is the only thing in a such a mind. The outcome of this is that we will only live a material or theoretical existence, driven by three laws of attraction, repulsion and indifference which move animate and inanimate objects, be they humans, planets, atoms, or the mind.

If we are unaware of these laws, we will never know what drives our every moment.

What if we can transcend these laws and, by not reacting, realise how everything is observed? The ultimate observation is pure consciousness, the essence of all sentient beings, but we remain unaware by being caught up in these laws that create diversity.

Diversity: from Latin diversitas, from diversus ‘diverse’, ‘turn aside’, ‘diverted’.

Realisation Is A Private Matter

Private: from Latin privatus‘withdrawn from public life’.

This private matter then extends to public life:
we remember the silent withdrawal,
and engage with others from there.

Realisation Is A Private Matter

Private: from Latin privatus‘withdrawn from public life’.

This private matter then extends to public life:
we remember the silent withdrawal,
and engage with others from there.

How To Meditate

We can become caught up in ideas about meditation: sitting in a special posture on a special cushion in a special room, burning special incense …

Meditation is remembering to be aware.
We can do this anywhere, while walking, talking, tasting, smelling, listening …

Once we remember to be aware we drop the remembering.
We have arrived. There is just awareness.

Meditation isn’t a posture.
It’s openness.

To be clear, we meditate to be clear.
🙂

We Can Learn Everything From Everyone

We can learn from everyone, including our self,
because, within every sentient being, there is both goodness and pride.

Pride is our downfall.
Humility is our safety net.

The term ‘humility’ comes from the Latin word humilitas, translated as humble, but also as grounded, from the earth, as it derives from humus (earth).

Compassion, empathy and equanimity cultivate humility, which is expanded by wisdom acquired through the experience of emptiness. When we are just here, there is nothing to defend.

Enlightenment isn’t pie in the sky
– something that’s pleasant to contemplate but unlikely to be realised.

Enlightenment is our natural clarity, without the usual opinions.

Opposites Are A Unity

Mara activity wants us to think there are two sides which divide us. You can fool most of the people most of the time, but not all the people all the time.

Left/right, up/down, light/dark, heaven/hell, beneficial/harmful … each supports the other.

Mara is the demonic aspect of our mind, which is self-obsession without regard for others. This type of activity is more evident in some people. When we are aware of Mara, it becomes our teacher, and we can sense when a person likes to wind us up, talk over us, try to control us …

A smile of recognition is all that is needed.

🙂

Our Eyes Do Not Lie

!

Our eyes do not lie.
Neither do our ears, tongue, nose, skin.
It’s our interpretation and bias that changes what we see.

Our reality is pure perception,
but our perception can become skew-whiff (not straight).
🙂

Interested But Not Attached

With the realisation of our true reality of pure awareness, we see directly, but respond differently from the way we responded before. We now see the cause behind the cause, and don’t become excited, hyped-up or worried.

Let’s say there’s a conflict in part of the world. There are two sides and, on each side, there are extremists. Outside this conflict, there are more extremists with their opinions.

The situation does not need our opinion – just observation. Others may want us to become involved so that they can argue for one side or the other. In truth, there aren’t two (or more) sides; there is just the usual conflict of perception, with each person trying to prove themselves right, while behind the scenes are the instigators with one mind – the ‘slow hand of control’.

It’s interesting to recognise the cause of suffering, but not suffer. This doesn’t mean we don’t care; we see one continuous cause of suffering – group-aggrandisement, which is an act undertaken to increase power and influence.

No One Can Tell Us How To Think

No one can tell us how to think.
But they do.

When we are in a group – be it family, friends, work, religion – we are all expected to think the same way to maintain groupthink. If we don’t, we’re cancelled – they don’t like us.

Once we realise the essence and nature of mind, no one can tell us how to think or what to think.

The essence of mind is pure consciousness, the direct clarity of perception.
The nature of mind is the thoughts developed through experience, whether they’re pleasant or unpleasant:

The unenlightened think inside the mind.
The enlightened think outside the mind.

How do we think outside the mind?

When a red car goes by, we don’t have to think,
“There’s a red car!”
We already know it.

In the same way, when we meet people,
we don’t have to think about them.
We already know instinctively what not to say.
🙂

Sensing Things Are Not Right

We all have this intuitive feeling – why?

It’s because we aren’t acting normally, naturally, contentedly. We’ve learnt to act to protect ourselves, but we don’t know what this self is. The ideas we’ve acquired don’t add up, so we become fearful.

Between Thoughts

We are the silent reality between thoughts,
ever-present pure consciousness.

To train in perceiving in this way is Dharma practice.

Thoughts aren’t the problem; it’s attachment to those thoughts that keeps us captured in a vicious cycle of existence, causing suffering.

The more we train and investigate, the wider the gap between thoughts becomes; the longer the duration, the happier we are, the freer we are, the wiser we are, the more natural we are, the more compassionate we are.

There’s a lot going on between thoughts.
🙂

Is Consciousness In The Brain Or Ever-Present Everywhere?

Scientists treat consciousness as an evolutionary by-product of neural wiring; that is to say, matter produces mind. Through observation, the brain and body – with all their instincts and drives – are illumined by consciousness, the very ground of reality. If we believe we’re a product, we stay a product – and people buy and sell products.

We can either dance around to others’ explanations, or see that the brain is a tool and the mind a filter through which ever-present consciousness expresses itself.

We have a choice whether to be a by-product,
or the ultimate intuitive authority.

Tradition

A tradition is a transmission of customs or beliefs
passed on from generation to generation.

It is only when we get older
that we see the pattern of customs and beliefs change.

Who sets the trends, and why?
Those who make us feel that information is up-to-date,
when it’s actually the same old patterning.

Tradition: Programming

Our societies are made up of traditions that programme our behaviour in certain ways. But behind this facade is a deeper programming, where we are encouraged to argue, blame, complain and mentally engage in trying-to-put-things-right. That is part of the programming which keeps us attached to ‘our’ tradition, and entertained.

Entertain: Latin inter ‘among’ + tenere ‘to hold’. The word originally meant ‘maintain, continue’.

Traditions are created or manoeuvred to control a population’s behaviour. People come into power, make a law and withdraw, leaving the new law in place. This law gets us worked up and divided – job done. We cannot change this process as its been going on for a very long time.

We can only put our self right, through direct perception. This is the purpose of meditation; resting in silent awareness, and realising we are this clarity of awareness, pure and simple.

When we are consumed by our ancestry,
we limit and delay our path to enlightenment,
which is free of all attachments.

Oblivious To Reality

Oblivion: from Latin oblivio(n-), from oblivisci ‘forget’.
It’s totally shocking that few know their reason to be.

What’s that?
To know we are not just this body and mind but consciousness.
What we do with this body and mind is down to our particular karma.

Some people’s lives are all bells and whistles,
some people’s live is trauma,
some ordinary, nothing special.

Our true reality is the clarity of pure consciousness,
but are oblivious to this.

Mara: “The Show Must Go On … And On … ”

All the world is a stage,
and all the men and women are merely players.

We learn a script, and then play it out unto death,
and Mara sees to it that things stay that way.

Realisation is dropping the script,
and stepping out of the theatre into the fresh air.

Unfortunately, the enthralled and enslaved remain, to be entertained.

We Are Caught On A Roundabout

It’s the far left that creates the far right,
and the far right that creates the far left.

In the middle is their unwitting supply of sustenance.