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.

Are We Undermined?

Undermine: to lessen effectiveness, power, or ability gradually and insidiously.

We have tremendous power of full realisation into the nature of our true reality,
but we are given toys (ideas) and fears (ideas) to play with instead;
these occupy us and we ignore the inner feeling
that there is more to us.

Why do you think that is?

I spent my early life being stupid and dazed,
unable to think clearly.

Why?

Quite simply, my mind was fogged by believing what I was told,
even though, intuitively, it never felt right.

That feeling is The Buddha In The Mud.

Understand your self better than others do,
or they’ll just give you more toys to play with.
😀

Once un-fogged, th
ere’s no going back.Evil’s weapon of choice; a fogged, muddy mind.

The Beginning Of The End

The first sign of ego-failure
is seeing seeing,
and this is the beginning of the end.
🙂

Surpassing Ourselves

We are better than we ever expected.

All our life, we have been kept in the dark about our true nature,
and led to believe in limitations.

Realisation is accompanied by joy and sadness.
Be grateful for surpassing yourself,
and hold no grudges.

The universe is the unity of opposites.
Conflict is the concept of dark and light,
but these are in truth a unity:
darkness is due to the presence of light.

Simplicity Keeps Us Focused

It’s the simple things in life that keep us focused:
chop wood, fetch water, peel vegetables, cook and serve.

The machinations in life keep us defocused and worried.
The more complicated our thinking is,
the further we move away from the simple truth.

Our true essence is simplicity itself,
but we seek something more interesting.

Unfortunately, we have made our life complex,
but we can deal with it as simply as we can.

Others may complain, but still we remain simply focused.

Assault On Our Minds, And On Consciousness

If we don’t see it, it’s already happened.

Misdirection is pumped-out daily to instruct us,
dulling minds and confusing consciousness.

Redefining ‘beliefs’ is the insidious art of deception.
Why is this happening?
Divided people disagree and fight, and will never join as one.

When we know what we are,
every misdirection is our true instructor.

To know what we are, we meditate,
allowing the mind – and so, consciousness – to see clearly.

So, Why Didn’t I See This Before?

We may wonder,
“Why didn’t I see this before?
It’s so clear now, so why didn’t I get it?”

We have to be in the right place, at the right time, through the right sequence of events, with the right brain clear of misinformation – the right attitude! 🙂

We don’t learn by being told something; we learn through experience, following a logical order sequentially. Being toldsomething doesn’t mean that we know – we just become strutters!

Writing a book on consciousness and obscurations is difficult as, by the time something is written, a refinement or a finer conclusion has occurred. One thing leads to another. Realisations work like that. Teachings – words – merely give us a generalised idea, and that’s all. Don’t take my word for it!

If we are stuck on one concept about consciousness merely to tick a mental box, we become another library of misinformation because we’re not talking to the right person, at the right time … it is we who are misinformants. 😀

Things happen in life that seem disconnected, but then suddenly, we realise that they are connected – even the dead ends we’ve gone down are connected. Letting go means always starting afresh. “Beginner mind, Zen mind.”

If we think our life is hunky-dori (satisfactory and pleasant) and we’re here just to entertain ourselves, then no realisation will ever occur.

Question everything, until there are no more questions; “Oh, they do this, because of that! I understand now, and don’t need to worry about it any more.”

The world has been built on misinformation.
That’s not going to change,
but it does create the ideal conditions for enlightenment.

It’s the Earth Puzzle.
Why are we here?

Pedantic information gives rise to foolishness.
Through meditation, we understand this foolishness,
turning it into wisdom, and so, enlightenment.

Aware That We Cannot Meditate

That is meditation 🙂

Meditation is simply being aware – open, clear, empty consciousness.
That’s what we are
– but it’s possible to meditate, fall into vacancy and just drift off.

Within this pure awareness/consciousness,
there is no time to identify with an imitation self.

This self is a mind-construct that consciousness has become stuck on;
it’s like looking into a mirror and believing the reflection is what we are.

The self may meditate to get something out of it.
That is mind controlling us.

Real mind control is training the mind to calm down into silence.
Pure consciousness can just rest in panoramic vision, taking in the scene all at once.

We can allow this to happen anywhere, at any time; that is meditation.
Realising that this is occurring without an external cause is non-meditation.
Mindfulness meditation is living in an atmosphere that allows non-meditation / non-duality to happen.

I meditated for a moment and nothing happened.
I meditated for an hour and nothing happened.
I meditated for a year and nothing happened.
I meditated for twenty-five years and nothing happened …
… and realised that nothing happens.

Wanting to find was the illusion.
Pure awareness happens all the time;
it is timeless.

We don’t do anything to realise what we already are.

Increase Blur To Sharpen The Picture

Increase blur to sharpen the picture:
this is a Photoshop trick.
😀

It also pertains to our view. We all think we’re normal, unaware of the blurred, extreme views we hold; our likes and dislikes. We proudly call these ‘our opinions’ and ‘value judgements’ to justify them.

Try increasing the blur, and exaggerating these views until they feel uncomfortable. Dislike leads to turning away; indifference leads to aversion, and aversion to hatred. Well, we didn’t mean to go that far – it now sounds ridiculous, but it’s easily done. Religious and political people are very good at this; it’s how humanity is divided and conquered.

Seeing those feelings come into focus sharpens the picture,
and is enlightening.

A Teenth Of Dharma Goes A Long Way

Merely acknowledging that we are dissatisfied with the world of theories is enough to set us on the path to enlightenment.

Merely acknowledging that consciousness could be our fundamental reality in a world of theories is enough to set us on the path to enlightenment.

‘News’ Is The Drug For The ‘News’-Addicted

Left alone in a room with a newspaper,
do we read it?
😀 😀 😀

Greed: Never Enough = Hungry Ghosts

Greed: intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food.

Pretas, or ‘hungry ghosts’, are beings who are tormented by desire that can never be sated. They are often portrayed with tiny mouths and throats and the swollen bellies of the starving, meaning that they can never consume enough to ease the suffering of their hunger.

Buddhist cosmology identifies six realms of existence: gods, demi-gods, humans, animals, hungry ghosts and hells (note that hungry ghosts are one up from hell!).

The mega-wealthy never have enough.
They want to absorb consciousness as well,
but do not realise its vastness.

For more information on the six realms, type “Six realms” in the search box below.

Consciousness Matters

Where would we be without consciousness?
We wouldn’t be anywhere.

We are consciousness.
In looking for consciousness, we won’t find anything.
Why?

Because it is consciousness that is looking.
In silent stillness, this is obvious.

We’re usually unaware of our reality of consciousness
because we are too busy, engaged in other things.

Meditation isn’t posturing; it is just being aware.
Why does consciousness matter?

Consciousness either relates to whatever it sees,
turning life a sitcom of relative truth
or
realising that it has the inspiring ability to be enlightened,
full of originality of absolute truth.

Meditation is just being aware of awareness.
Nothing ritualised, recognising all distractions.

Without distractions, life is less cluttered,
creating space for contemplation and insight to dawn.

Enlightenment isn’t about achievements.
It’s about emptying a fussy mind –
a hard-to-please mind, fastidious about its requirements.

Consciousness matters.
It’s how we know.

Let’s Start At The Beginning

Why are we here?
Why are we here, in this body, on this Earth, reading this page?

This blog is coming to the end of its tenth year, so why not start again? But before we can start again, we need a warm-up. And that’s exactly how we got here – previous warm ups!
Warm up: to loosen up.

To prove that we’ve previously warmed up and loosened our minds, we need to see that we have 75% experience, 20% reasoning and 5% conjecture – more or less, as our experience changes. To even be reading this sort of thing means that you are a long way along the line of experience 🙂

We are confused about our true reality. Most will say, “We’re here because we’re here, because we’re here – and when we go, we’re gone.”

Ancient teachings state that we’re here for a reason, to go beyond – gone, gone, gone. 🙂

If you’re viewing this page, it proves and stands to reason that you’ve already warmed up, and have an enquiring mind. We’re here to prove and realise our true reality, rather than just believing what we are told about it.

So we have a choice:
Is there a reason we’re here, or isn’t there? And how urgent is the need for an answer?
If we recognise our inner warmth – kindness – we have a very good start! 😀

And we don’t have to become anything.

Confusion, And Then Doubt, And Then Anger

It’s not all our fault. 😀

We live in a culture of compromise, within an organisation. Organisations become institutions, and participants become institutionalised and dependent. Most are the silent majority who fit into this way of thinking. This how the minority rules the majority, instigated by the exclusive inner circle.

Each of us has a natural flow which has to be curtailed to fit into a culture, but that isn’t our natural way. We have to accept this, but they do not have to accept us, and so, we can become confused, doubtful and perhaps angry.

The strange thing is that, nowadays, we are having more and more differences thrown at us, and so we have to fit in with minorities.

There comes a time when we outgrow organised factions and wonder what to do then. We all become confused at others’ antics, and doubt ourselves at some time; this is normal.

What do we do when we become angry?
Hint: consider being an organisation of one.
When we are true to our reality, we cannot be false to anyone.

“This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.”

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Polonius is telling Laertes that being honest with oneself is more important than anything else and, if we’re honest with ourself, we will necessarily be honest to others.

We don’t worry about living by someone else’s standards or rules.
We do not doubt our conclusion or what others think of us.
We live as a natural being, without compromise.
No one can tell us how to be true to ourself except us.

What is ‘ourself?’

Being Modified

We are constantly modified by mind-games.
It is only in silent stillness that we are released.

The more we refine,
the more we return to our natural reality.

Sleepwalking In The Mind

Sleepwalking: engaging in an activity without interest, enthusiasm, or awareness of the possible consequences.

We often do and say things mechanically, just going through the motions, and merely achieving more of the same. This could be synonymous with vertical thinking:

“Vertical thinking is selection by exclusion. 
One works within a frame of reference.

With lateral thinking, one realises
that something cannot be restructured from within itself
 but only as the result of some outside influence.”
– Edward De Bono

The outside influence is the realisation that consciousness beyond thought is present, and sees everything afresh,engaging in activities with interest, enthusiasm and awareness of the possible consequences.

Just stop, and only proceed when inspired.

Karmic Residue

Residue: something that remains which we thought we’d left behind.

We engage with others, which will have an effect and a consequence – a residue. This residue can become a demon, waiting in ambush to be re-activated. If we hold on to any feeling, we become the demon. If, however, we recognise this and face it by not reacting, the demon melts away all by itself. Karma is like that.

For a moment, we are in no man’s land,
a very good place to be.
🙂

Stopped in our tracks, we can watch all residue melt away
… until the next time … 😀

This is the path to enlightenment!

The Art And Craft Of Dharma

Craft is discipline, study and meditation.
Art is skilful empathy in all situations.

We Are The Way We Are

We’ve come out the way we have because of our ingredients.
Those ingredients are karma – the result of previous experiences and reactions.

What do we do then?
We change the ingredients by dropping old karma – habitual reactions.

How do we do that?
By being aware of the effect our previous experiences are having on us now.

Does it work?
This depends on the individual, but the Buddha did say that the first precept is to acknowledge suffering.

But I’m not suffering!
As long as an I is involved, we will take things personally, and therefore, we’re in conflict and suffer.

So, what do we do now?
See if our ingredients are fresh. Fresh experiences is always present, when we don’t just react with the same old ingredients.

We are what we are when we just is 😀

We All Know, But We Ignore That We Know

We all know but, for convenience,
we ignore that we know by believing conventionality.

We are so intent on knowing about things ‘out there’ that we are indifferent to what is going on in our own minds, creating our behaviour. We react – or rather, re-enact – without coming to a personal conclusion. In this way, we never gain true confidence, and are unaware that we are playing and re-playing the same game.

Evil has long term plans, and always has. Our thoughts are definitely not our own. Within ‘politics’, there are deliberate, hidden agendas. We are being bounced around, reacting to ‘stupidity’. There are hidden agendas within every walk of life – we buy into what we don’t need, but are half-convinced that we do. Religion is no different.

The essence of spirituality is the unity of everything; a uni-verse of non-duality.
Universe; Latin universum, ‘combined into one’.

Hidden elaborations make the universe into a multiverse;
dividing it up and breaking down non-duality into duality.

To even be alive, there must be knowingness present, ie consciousness. That is our unity, the good heart. But we ignore this in favour of taking sides, and consciousness translates this into knowing something about some thing.

We all have a conscience – a sense of right and wrong, of what wellbeing is, and of what harms wellbeing. But when we ignore this universal wellbeing, then the story is all about me.

Evil knows what it wants.
Goodness knows what we all want.

Do You Get Upset?

It is only ego/I that gets upset. Ego, or I, is created by consciousness that fixates on ideas and becomes a brittle self-image. It is precisely because of this self-identity that we judge others – me right, they wrong 😀

Original consciousness is never upset; it just sees.
The ‘I’ doesn’t just see; it seethes.
It keeps boiling, filled with intense but unexpressed anger.

The recognition of being upset is the Buddha’s first precept on the path to enlightenment. Only then can we look for the origin of this upset-ness or suffering = ego! Bingo!

Are ‘Spiritual’ Centres Cults?

Is there a culture of charismatic personality?
Charismatic:exercising a compelling charm which inspires devotion in others.

When we become dependent, we are controlled by others’ determinations.

The Buddha did not advise,
“Do not take my word for it; test it for yourself,”
for no reason.

🙂

Being Of Good Humour

Kind-hearted with sadness.
Spontaneous moments of recognition.
Concepts melt, and the mind becomes moist.

Inspired by ignorance.
Not taking our self seriously.
Realisation of wisdom.

Gratitude for letting go of past fears.
Realisation that we have empathy.
Confidence.

Letting go of grudges.
Good mental disposition.

Understanding indifference.
Understanding rigidity.
Understanding self.

Appreciating the laws of the universe:
attraction, repulsion and indifference = emptiness, cognisance and compassion.

Good humour, good story.
The big shock … everyone is enlightening!

Or is this just a good guess? 🙂