Demoralised
Demoralise: to cause someone to lose confidence.
To corrupt the morals of someone to become unsure of right and wrong.
The view of a neuroscientist adept:
“Consciousness arises out of the brain.”
The view of a spiritual adept:
“Consciousness permeates the entire body.”
It amounts to which view generates well-being and compassion.
Who Or What Created Self?
Who or what created self?
God? Chemicals? Karma?
The creationists and the evolutionists present obvious arguments. There is another possibility, but it won’t suit everyone. What created this moment of us being here? The previous moment. This is karma at work.
What is karma? Karma is the consequences of all previous actions, ie causes and effects.
It’s undeniable that there is a cause for anything that is created. We are born with certain tendencies – inclined towards a particular characteristic or type of behaviour. Why is that?
Some might say these tendencies are inherited, but we notice that siblings can be very different. We may have certain mannerisms (traumas 🙂 ), but our inner view is totally different that to our parents or surroundings.
This could be due to reincarnation. “The Tibetan Book Of The Dead” (a guide to life) suggests that it is karma that drives us into a certain body at conception, due to our tendencies. It is we who create our self – we being consciousness – facilitated by the laws of nature. Consciousness identifies with a set of ideas and seeks a form to express these ideas or concepts.
Misguided consciousness maintains these tendencies right now. This self is a product of concepts, created by our ignorance of our true nature of pure consciousness.
Until we realise this true essence,
we will transmigrate.
Until then, we remain record players,
repeating the same old songs.
Where is the evidence?
We are predictable.
Image Over Substance
Image is concerned with how we appear.
In that, there is no substance.
Substance is being meaningful.
Substance: from Latin substantia ‘being, essence’.
When we realise substance,
it doesn’t matter how we appear.
Frustration Can Turn To Anger
There are two types of frustration that can turn to anger:
Type 1 – Not knowing enough – and not knowing the right words – causes confusion and conflict.
Type 2 – Knowing the truth – and having the right words – but it cannot be heard by people of Type 1.
Skilful empathy means that anger is mirror-like wisdom. An example; something or someone seems wonky (off-centre), and the mind brightens up before identification takes place. That moment is pure consciousness. It is then that we may see the cause, before we engage. Or maybe silence is golden. 🙂
The choice is being frustrated and angry,
or using frustration as wisdom.
When we know, there is no competition.
As we are unenlightened, there will still be a residue of frustration,
but that is the energy to keep going and not give up.
Living With Realisation
Living with realisation of ultimate truth is precarious in a relative world. Those who relate to everything and pride themselves on having opinions are unstable and dangerous people who constantly feel threatened.
This is why realisation has to come with empathy and right conduct.
Realisation is a piece of cake compared to compassion.
🙂
Is The Foundation At The Beginning Or The End?
Is the foundation the ground or the golden roof?
There is a choice.
Most spiritual traditions start at the beginning of the ‘book of wisdom’, creating the atmosphere for the realisation of truth. At the conclusion, we may understand what truth is, or we may merely maintain a belief.
By starting at the end of the ‘book of wisdom’ – the conclusion – we know what the truth is all about.
The conclusion is that we know what we are, and what we’re doing and why, by testing the contents of the rest of the book.
I spent decades confused about the contents of the ‘book of wisdom’, not becoming any wiser, but just maintaining idiot meditation (so I was told).
One moment of instruction about the end of the book (probably at the right moment, as I had received it before but it had left confusion in my mind) and everything changed. It wasn’t so much the instruction, as the realisation that this ultimate truth was there all the time; it was timeless, in fact, and I had known it all my life.
That golden roof was the foundation of my journey.
They Don’t Want Us To Think For Ourselves
They don’t want us to think for ourselves.
The evidence for this is that most cannot.
“Toe the line, and follow the queue.”
When did you last think of something original?
It’s not possible 🙂
Thoughts are both limited, and limiting. Thoughts come in words, and word are not infinite – we only use a certain number of words.
First, we have to stop this chattering mind to think clearly: there needs to be clarity in seeing before there is clarity of thinking, without interruption by memories.
Pure consciousness sees clearly as it is uncontaminated. We are that consciousness. Seeing clearly, no new thoughts are necessary – but what we can do is put words together in a different way, and that comes about by not thinking in a usual way.
Are we freely inspired or predictable?
Does The Devil Warn Us?
Evil is the act of preparing and owning.
Evil pre-empts, disarming us by posing a threat, and pointing a finger at a plausible outcome so that we do not notice that the intention is our involvement. The threat is a stalking horse.
Stalking horse:
a person or thing that is used to conceal someone’s real intentions.
Why do you think this phrase exists?
It happens.
Evil is the philosophy of dividing our attention, and so conquering it. Diversity creates division. The devil’s disciples are those who point their fingers at one side or another. Evil has always used the principle of dividing our attention so that we do not notice we’re being tricked.
There are natural divisions in people:
know what is real, and what isn’t.
Evil utilises this natural division to ignite dislike, fear and hatred, and gain from it. This is done by covert whisperings.
The only reality is pure consciousness.
Everything else is impermanent,
and subject to manipulation.
Pure consciousness cannot be manipulated,
but it can be and is distracted.
It starts with a seemingly innocuous suggestion:
Every time we are told something is good for the safety and welfare of children, the old and the sick, this will encompass everyone. We all have to take the same medicine. Creating cycle lanes to save the planet causes congestion, and congestion paves the way for congestion charges. 😀
Going digital isn’t for our benefit. Will your carbon credit do you favours, or condemn you?
Always follow the money, follow the power, meet the devil!
Painting Our Own Future
Every time we think a thought or speak,
we are painting our own future.
The Age Of My Opinion
Opinions are beliefs – something we accept without proof that creates conflict.
As our opinions are important to us, others’ opinions are important them = conflict.
As long as we cling to our opinions, we will never know the truth beyond thoughts or words.
We’ll just become opinionated and judgemental.
Opinionated: characterised by conceited assertiveness and dogmatism.
There are many spiritual traditions having different characteristics,
and one characteristic will not suit everyone.
When opinions become dogma, we are ruled by beliefs.
An individual may have a problem requiring a solution:
a dogmatic person would say, “Everyone needs the same solution”.
Ultimately, darkness/opinions have to give way
to the light/wisdom that has no characteristics.
Truth comes to each open mind.
Corrupt Minds, Corrupt World
Corrupt: from Latin corruptus,‘mar, bribe, destroy’.
We enjoy being corrupted: music, art, films, complicated coffees, technology, computers, politics, religion, media, marketing, status, celebrities, clever words … toys, toys, toys to entertain us.
Govern: from Latin gubernare, ‘to steer, rule: to steer policies’.
Policies steer minds.
When we think, we think with a corrupted mind.
Steer: ‘castrated young – before they develop the bull’s physical characteristics.’
😀 😀 😀
Our potential for enlightenment is being castrated by toys.
Humanity’s Disorientation
Disorientated: having lost one’s sense of direction; confused, and unable to think clearly.
Two and a half thousand years ago, humans probably knew more about absolute reality than we do now. We have become reliant on what our ‘betters’ tell us: we went their way, and so lost our way.
When we wake up, the dream-disorientation-machine cannot work – no audience 🙂
For every negative, there is a positive.
Understanding this, we re-orientate,
and negative emotions become wisdom.
Facing the right way
is realising the essence of consciousness.
We are the essence of consciousness.
Relying on someone else’s essence of consciousness
merely maintains doubt.
Our path out of endarkenment
is realising that our confusion never, ever existed.
The reason for our confusion answers all questions.
Traumas Are Memories
Traumas are memories:
this is how we live our lives.
We all have memories, whether pleasant or unpleasant. Even a look or a word can stay with us for life. It’s a sticky residue. 🙂
Traumas can be personal, or in a family or a society. We can ‘catch’ traumas from others, and have to walk on egg shells around them … and some of them – the narcissists – know this and exploit it.
All media, advertising, art, music, films, stories, politics, religion can create trauma – those little do’s and don’ts that others obey. Even in spiritual groups, someone can exaggerate their manner, because of their trauma of wanting to appear ‘good’, and so pressure is created in others. Been on the end of that sentimental fantasy! 😀
Trauma is catching, like a virus. It’s how the masses can be put into a panic. The fear of fear. The idea of enlightenment put me into a turmoil! 😀
We can heal all these thought patterns of behaviour by seeing that everyone is affected. These memories or thoughts are not what we are, but they do have an effect on us. We/consciousness observe this coming and going – it all comes to pass, and has no reality.
At the heart of consciousness is pure emptiness. It’s that open heart that understands. Pure consciousness expresses itself as unconditional love, compassion and empathy. Unconditional love doesn’t rely on conditions, while conditional love does – it’s picky and sticky!
Our thoughts are traumas that cause suffering, and therefore these traumas – our confusion – are our path to enlightenment. Just realise that it’s all an illusion, although it feels real.
Evil want us to believe it’s all real.
Realise that it isn’t.
Getting Used To Boredom
Bored:
feeling weary and impatient
because one is unoccupied
or lacks interest in one’s current activity.
‘Boredom’ is a misnomer.
Merely being unoccupied or lacking interest
does not equate with boredom.
It is just coming to rest within inner peace.
Bored? Then go deeper. Mindfulness is not interesting. If there is something that needs to be done, we just do it. There is a fleeting moment of satisfied completion, and then there is the next moment to deal with. Meditation is like that; all the while, we come to rest.
Sitting down with a cup of tea
and doing nothing is satisfying,
isn’t it?
Activities are never fulfilling. They might be exciting and distracting, but that’s all. Because of this excitement, we want more, and this is called addiction.
Boredom sets us free. The saying, “The devil makes work for idle hands”, was written by the devil 🙂 ie those who want to make money out of us.
When we actually realise our true reality,
we just rest there
– mindfully and precisely –
doing only what has to be done.
One View, Many Expressions
The one view is pure consciousness. We are all pure consciousness, but individual. If we were all ‘one’ then, when one person became enlightened, we would all become enlightened 🙂 This does not happen.
We each express the experience of realisation differently. One master emphasises this, while another emphasises that – they have different approaches. The only definitive answer is in personal experience beyond words. And remember that there are levels of experience; the same words will be used but the meaning changes. In expression, nothing is fixed, while pure consciousness is continuous light.
The levels are coverings that are exposed at the right time. We are already enlightened beings because we are pure consciousness, but we just don’t notice it. 🙂
The point is:
don’t be upset if one master says this,
and another says that.
The Dharma is like a book. Some traditions start at the beginning, and you work your way to the end … sounds reasonable enough. However, there are traditions such as Dzogchen that start at the end of the book, and the rest of the book merely supports the conclusion … this is also reasonable.
Crazy but true.
To the exoteric, we all have to be the same.
To the esoteric, we are all the same.
Crazy but true.
Where Does Conflict Come From?
Where does conflict come from?
Fear.
Where does fear come from?
Not knowing; only believing.
When we know the nature of reality, rather than merely acquiring an emotional intellectualisation, we find genuine confidence in experience, and that’s when empathy and compassion arise. Negative emotions give way to understanding and wisdom.
Fear is not present until self arrives on the scene. Fear comes when we do not have the complete picture and rely on others’ information. Information only becomes knowledge when we experience that information. Genuine experience creates genuine empathy – the ability to know how others feel, and why. Pure consciousness is the light; fear is the darkness.
The very moment when something is seen, and before any emotion arises, that moment is pure, uncontaminated consciousness, free of assumptions, fear, hope, pride, jealousy …
Spirituality Is Being Grounded
Truly.
Spirituality is consciousness being aware – purely aware – when we give our ‘self’ up to whatever occurs. If we are not grounded, this ‘self’ flies off the handle. 🙂 The feeling of ‘self’ is merely a library of ideas in the mind – our memories, which consciousness mistakenly clings to.
When grounded, pure consciousness can focus
and be mindful of whatever is taking place.
We suspend judgement to allow the situation to unfold naturally,
and teach us something.
Rejecting The Evidence
Rejecting the evidence of our own inner eye makes us
… misguided? … stupid? … ignorant?
We ignore that which sees. The eyes are only a sense organ, where messages or images enter and connect to the brain. These experiences create our brain network, and that set-up is our mind. These messages are viewed by consciousness, and then interpreted by the mind or memories. Relying on memories, consciousness judges, and that is our habitual cycle of existence. We do not just see. We interpret, interpret, interpret … in the same old manner, never noticing any changes taking place. Experience is not fixed, but we become fixated by rejecting change.
What is looking out of our eyes?
It is consciousness.
This inner eye is not what is seen.
It can witness thoughts and emotions – pride, jealousy, fear, desire …
and the accumulation of these creates an imitation-consciousness
which we call ‘self’.
This self is not what we are.
We do not reject this self, as it is our karmic teacher.
It should be assimilated / understood.
“Resistance is futile”!
😀
Profound Tibetan Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism is full of colour, symbolism, deities and elaborations, and can steer us to the ultimate truth of our reality, and that of all phenomena. If one is fortunate, one can receive direct instruction into the nature of mind.
Tibetans lost their country, while the influential world stood by, so Tibetans must maintain their culture and traditions as best they can, and are doing so very well. The Dharma is the most suitable vehicle to achieve this as it is inseparable from Tibetan Buddhism. They need our support.
However.
We can become so enthralled with an elaborate display that we miss the essence – realisation and spontaneous empathy. Modern people are very quick to take up the rituals, but miss the point of practical, personal, empathetic compassion. Tibetan Buddhism is not a new lifestyle and language to adopt; that is for the religious and the academics. Truth is experiential, and comes before language. A tradition is merely a vehicle.
We can support another’s culture, but not wear it like a badge. What we can wear is enthusiastic effulgence/shine. Remember, Tibetan Buddhism is a branch of the earlier Vedic tradition from India, which the Buddha Sakyamuni realised.
We can do the same.
The Buddha wasn’t Buddhist, or Tibetan.
Teachings are wherever we are.
There are Buddhas wherever we are.
You Are The Secret
All esoteric teachings are about your true reality. They are not about someone else’s reality, not even a Buddha’s. Stories are exoteric, and meant for the many. We are told to look on lamas as Buddhas, but if we think that worshipping someone is going to give us enlightenment, we’re very much mistaken.
A nine-day fire prayer puja is not going to bring peace to the world; this is merely a good wish. Prayer has never, ever brought about world peace. Prayer is a personal wish.
There is no mysterious great secret. There is, however, a mysterious great cover-up 🙂 Students panic, racing all over the place doing long retreats, going mad for ‘holy’ Sanskrit and Tibetan words, building temples, attaching themselves to teachers who will “make them enlightened” = the Maha-Moodies.
‘Secret’ merely means hidden from us.
That secret is that we are pure consciousness
Our true reality is beyond words and epic poems. This mysterious great secret is reading these words right now, without the one-sided bigotry of being involved in how life should be, rather than how it actually is.
Get this straight.
There are doorways = religions.
We pass through the doorway … to go out! 😀
You were already outside.
All esoteric teachings show us what we already know:
you just popped in to check there was nothing more.
If someone suggests there is more,
ask them for proof.
Finding Your Difference
Finding our difference helps us to realise the unity of everyone.
Crazy, but true.
If we just follow the crowd on a level of relative truth – ‘relative’ meaning that we are busy relating to everything – this maintains an illusion as we become involved in the material world … and pay for the privilege through constant conflict, bickering and ignoring.
We all get like that, so we’re no different from others in this respect.
Finding our difference is finding our art,
as opposed to our craft.
Craft is the mechanics of vertical thinking,
while art is the inspiration,
applying the craft through lateral thinking.
What Is Good & What Is Evil?
Do we know?
Do we not know?
This isn’t fantasy.
Good is what is beneficial to all.
Evil is what is beneficial to me and mine.
“But I’m not evil!”
Our idea of evil is the fantasy, to make evil something very bad – and over there, not here! That ‘badness-over-there’ is to do with other people, rather than something in nature. Nature cannot be bad.
So it is people who can be evil when they are bound by their likes and dislikes. Most of us are just little devils, but there are those who have big likes and dislikes, and use these to control the many. It is when we take their side of adopting likes and dislikes that we become … one of them!
Pure consciousness does not take sides; it just sees without bias. That is our purity – but we quickly become contaminated by others’ ideas.
We are pure knowingness. For the uninitiated, this pure knowingness becomes obscured because of an identification with whatever is known, causing trouble for ourselves and others.
For the initiated, anything that is identified is impermanent and has no inherent reality; then, situations become a reminder that our reality is empty of contaminations.
This is our inherent goodness that we share with others.
Courage Is The First Step To Realising Consciousness
The moment when we admit that we are not satisfied and are therefore suffering, we take our first step to the ultimate realisation of reality. If not, we remain in ignorance, believing only information that we receive from unenlightened beings.
This information that we cling to is the elephant-in-the-room, or the MacGuffin.
A MacGuffin sets and keeps the plot in a story, despite usually lacking intrinsic importance. It is an object, device, or event that is necessary to the plot and the motivation of the characters, but is insignificant, unimportant, or irrelevant in itself. It is insignificant, so we don’t notice the elephant-in-the-room – an obvious major issue that people avoid discussing or acknowledging.
People avoid the question,
“What am I?”
We may ask, “What am I?”,
but at an intellectual level not at a practical level,
because this will change our lives forever.
Why we do not ask this question – truly?
It is fear of change.
The Science Of Spirituality
Oh yes, spirituality is science – pure science.
Science: the intellectual and practical study of the physical world through observation and experiment. From Latin scientia;‘know’.
What is the point of the intellectual and practical study
of the physical world through observation and experiment,
when we don’t know what we are?
This obsession with the impermanent physical world
maintains the illusion that it is all real.
When we don’t know our true reality,
we live in ignorance.
Spirituality: the quality of consciousness, ultimately pure consciousness. The study of what we are.
When Consciousness Is Deceived …
When consciousness is deceived,
we are deceived.
Deception is everywhere.
This is why the view of enlightenment is uncommon.
Who talks about realisation of the nature of reality?
We are so distracted that it never even occurs to us.
Information/gossip from others constantly deceives us,
so that we obliterate
the realisation of what we are.
Enlightenment is, ultimately, the pure realisation of reality.
The continuity of this depends on our seeing the ‘light’ in the ‘darkness’.
Genetically engineered code in living cells.
Gain-of-function means to experiment.
It is the manipulation of nature.
The danger lies in lacking a moral compass,
where the best business model controls nature before nature controls itself
– and we become the cash co
Controlling the revolving door of industry
involves the regulators and politicians.
This also applies to spiritual groups and religions:
answers are given before we have the questions,
and thus we don’t find out things for ourself
because we believe we already have the answer.
This is why the Buddha said,
“Don’t take my word for it; test it for yourself”.
Blogs Are Living Books
Just read one or two pages a day.
There is only one truth,
but many approaches and many refinements,
adapting to ever-changing situations.
There is only one answer:
look, see and drop whatever is seen.
That which remains is the one truth to transcend all levels
– pure consciousness.
Where Is The Middle Way?
We may imagine the middle way
to be the centre between two opposite extremes.
This is an incomplete picture.
The middle way is a perpendicular line,
up from the centre as if to the top of a mountain, or pyramid.
From that vantage point,
both sides can be seen at the same time.
That would be non-duality.
What Type Of Person Are We?
We all have a social I, one that others identify, and we can only get a glimpse of our persona by the reaction of others.
We could be the type who thinks others are wrong. What if they are right, and we are wrong? But how did they come to the conclusion that they are right? Confusing, isn’t it? 🙂 Are we all degrees of dysfunction until enlightenment?
We are all a “ship of fools”, an allegory about a ship with a dysfunctional crew, originating from Plato’s Republic.
“The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself;
to be conquered by yourself is, of all things, most shameful and vile.”
– Plato
Truth is ageless.
It is merely handed down to those who have open minds.
Plato and Socrates lived around the same time as the Buddha, and it’s possible that Jesus knew about the Buddha. All esoteric teachings come to the same point of view. In absolute truth, there is nothing new under any sun. Within us all is the very same wisdom as the Buddha, Socrates, Plato, Jesus, Lao Tzu, Krishna, Vishnu …
What If Our ‘Normal’ Is Madness?
Madness:
The state of having a serious mental illness … we don’t know what we are.
Extremely foolish behaviour … we think we know.
A state of wild or chaotic activity … we follow the crowd.
We are brain-washed to function at a very basic level. We may be able to do complex things, but it’s all based on mechanical activity. This shows how our brains are wired and rewired by subliminal influence, undermining each and every one of us, and presenting us with tools to think a certain way.
If we do not recognise our madness, our suffering, then no investigation into our true reality of absolute sanity is possible, and we will be unable to deal with situations from a different point of view. To put it simply, are we free? This is exactly why the Buddha taught that the first step to enlightenment is to acknowledge that we are suffering/mad! 😀
First, ideas are introduced into our mind. Once established, the brain constructs its pathways, and the result is permanent ‘fixtures and fittings’ – all the furniture we need to follow a certain lifestyle. We become predictable, and anything that goes against the current narrative is shunned. Each generation subtly traumatises the next = inbred madness.
Conscious awareness cuts through this conveyor-belt of instructions, which are expressed in our black-and-white attitude, our do’s and don’ts. Direct experience is in the greys – touching, feeling, smelling, tasting, seeing, hearing, and so, adjusting. Digital people cannot adjust; they think in a vertical system of instructions – that’s why people behave in the way that they do.
Lateral thinking is, “What is it?”
That very moment is pure consciousness,
rather than a conscious-mess.
😀
Who’s doing this brain-washing?
We are.
We accept the madness of others.
Still think you’re normal?!
Don’t Guess. Know.
Don’t assume.
Don’t pretend.
Don’t believe.
Don’t have an opinion.
Know.
There are actually people who say we cannot know … crazy 🙂
The nature of our reality is pure consciousness. It’s what we are. The intelligentsia, philosophers and ordinary folk miss this as they find it utterly boring. They think pure consciousness is something mysterious and unknowable. Or it’s just what we use in order to perceive. Ask them what they are, and they come out with some vague pontifications. They merely want to show off the bits of facts they’ve read which actually make their life more complex and more confused.
Don’t guess.
Look.
See.
And drop whatever is experienced.
That which remains is the spontaneous presence of non-duality.
Once realised, never doubt again by testing at every moment.
Fear Engenderers, Fear Mongers and Fear Believers
In every nuance of life, evil is present, spreading fear among the ignorant, and offering false hope that they will make it better. But it never does get better, does it?
It is the believers or enablers
who allow the engenderers
to engender more of the same.
Stupidity is relying on partial truth,
– hook line and sinker –
without hesitation or reservation.
To put it plainly, people exaggerate.
We exaggerate fear, we exaggerate enlightenment.
And someone down the line receives much remuneration!
Evil knows the human frailty of desire/hope, aversion/fear and ignorance/denial. It’s what runs our lives. As you cannot fool all the people all of the time, evil will fail for those who actually wake up to their own psychology of mind and consciousness. Evil fails because it cannot recognise the wisdom in these extremely negative emotions.
Wisdom is being free of any negative reaction.
It is in the very first instant, just before an emotion arises in the mind and before we go into our habitual response, that pure consciousness is present, and the mind brightens up – “What this!!!?”
The end is nigh?
The end is nigh, all in nature’s own good time.
Phenomena is impermanent.
It is consciousness and the universe that is never born, and never dies.
The proof is in the seeing.
I Feel Good – Or It Feels Right
On completion of re-plumbing a toilet, do I feel good, or does it feel right?
Being in a beautiful cathedral/temple*, do I feel good, or does it feel right?
When meditating, do I feel good, or does it feel right?
When pruning a tree, do I feel good, or does it feel right?
It doesn’t matter where we are or what we are doing, we can always feel good, or right.
It’s not about my understanding; it is about understanding.
If we have to be in a certain place to feel good, we are dependent.
Wherever we are mindful, it feels right, and there is no dependence.
When life is all about me and my understanding, this always reveals limitations.
Pure consciousness is understanding: it feels right, and has no limitations.
The ‘I’ is always defensive.
Pure consciousness needs no defence.
.
.
.*Religious places are simply a space outside the regular turmoil. Designating places ‘holy’ breeds illusion. Adepts leave all elaborations, and go to live in an ordinary cave to practice; when the adepts leaves the cave, the cave is then designated ‘holy’ 🙂 Seen that, been there, done that, didn’t feel any different! 😀
Grasping At Straws
A drowning person will grab at any flimsy reed, or idea. If we don’t know what life is about, we will cling to beliefs. Ignorant of our true reality, we hold on to a flimsy idea of self.
The silence on this matter is deafening, and deliberate. A sheep/self-image will spend its entire life fearing the wolf/news, only to be eaten by the shepherd/plutocrats.
Why do we fear?
No clear instruction; only disinformation.
We are pure consciousness, free of all sheepish ideas
– it’s that feeling of embarrassment at a lack of self-confidence.
As long as we ignore this one truth,
we will clutch at straws/others’ facts.
The enlightened last straw*:
the moment before the Buddha became enlightened,
he was attacked by extreme desire and aversion.
Even though we may be having a bad time,
it may be the last!
😀
*The last in a series of unpleasant things that happen to make someone very upset, angry, etc.
Some Days, I Feel Extremely Angry
If we are not outraged about the response to global dictatorship by unelected plutocrats, then we are merely part of a confused, insecure herd.
Historically, this dictatorship has always been a war on consciousness and, to do that, manipulators have to be subtle, experimenting here and there to see the effect. They think long-term, so that we don’t notice the restrictions happening around us.
Creating stupid humans is quite easy; keep people in gossip-mode by giving them religious / chemical / news / entertainment / digital comforters.
When we realise extremely subtle pure consciousness, we see that this war is based on illusions.
I get angry because news ‘broadcasters’ pump out distractions daily, so that the gossip continues.
Remember, anger is mirror-like wisdom.
In the first moment of seeing something is askew,
there is pure consciousness.
What we do then will depend on our wisdom … or lack thereof 🙂 .
We Can Laugh When Things Are Obvious
If things aren’t transparent and obvious to us, we don’t laugh because we take things – and ourselves – seriously. The world is being managed by fear, and this should be obvious to everyone. But it isn’t. Why is that?
Some are too tired to bother.
Some jump through hoops due to fear.
Some just want things back to ‘normal’.
Indifference, fear and hope
are the three universal poisons
of desire, aversion and ignorance,
and are constantly at work.
There is no normal but our true reality. When realised, these three universal poisons become the three universal wisdoms of emptiness, cognisance and compassion.
We laugh, but it’s a sad laugh.
😀
[FEEL FREE TO LEAVE A COMMENT]
The Collapse In Our Morals
Moral: knowing right from wrong.
Whatever is beneficial to our collective mental & physical well-being, and whatever is harmful to our collective mental & physical well-being.
The Buddha saw suffering, though he was not suffering. That inspired him to look for the cause of suffering, and do something about it. If we do not acknowledge the suffering of others, what type of person are we? We all say we care, but care about what? Me and mine?
Are there stupid people in the world?
Are there people who suffer?
Are there people who create stupidity?
Are there people who create suffering?
Are there people who relieve suffering and stupidity?
The world is full of different types and different morals.
[FEEL FREE TO LEAVE A COMMENT]
Gods And Fools
“Might is right”?
Those who want to be regarded as gods are fools; they assume might is right with no understanding of the reality that you cannot fool everyone.
“You can fool all of the people some of time;
you can fool some of the people all of the time,
but you can’t fool all the people all the time.”
– Abraham Lincoln.
In Plato’s Republic (375 BCE), justice is famously defined as “I say that justice or right is simply what is in the interest of the stronger party”. Socrates asks Thrasymachus in whose interest this is, and Thrasymachus replies that it is in the interests of the ‘ruling classes’.
It is they who make the laws of the city – whether it is a tyranny, aristocracy or democracy – and therefore it is they who say what is right or wrong. In other words, morality is just a screen for power.
Still think there are no conspiracies?
Evil uses the power of illusion to make us believe we are impotent.
[FELL FREE TO LEAVE A COMMENT]
Have You Started Your Journey Yet?
Our journey to realise our enlightened essence starts when we let go of where we are now, mentally speaking. It’s a metaphor for a path to where we actually are, right now. Where we are right now is either head-in-the-sand or head-in-the-clouds.
This path to enlightenment (actually, to happiness) is discovering our true reality as opposed to the one we have adopted, or had imposed on us. We go alone, maybe rubbing shoulders with others of a similar inclination once in a while.
Our path starts when we let go of self-interest, self-importance and self-obsession – and we let go of ‘The Path’, that lifestyle organisation that we are attached to, along with an adopted group-think … group-self.
Our transcendence begins when we kick all supports away, and free fall.
It’s very unnerving, so we watch every step … doubt … okay … doubt … okay … okay … !
When we free fall into what seems like a bottomless pit,
there is nowhere safer.
[ Feel free to leave a comment}
The Buddha Was An Expert But …
The Buddha was an expert, but
he said, “Don’t take my word for the truth; test it for yourself”.
If he said that, then don’t take any expert’s word for it.
If we are reliant, we are not free.
Each of us has individual experiences, and we have to come at a problem in our own way. That problem is, “What is life about?” Teachings are generalisations. Life isn’t. It’s right here, in our face and there’s no getting away from it. 😀
Gradually, we can learn a language to express these experiences, but we can only talk to those who are on-the-verge of some realisation; rare, open people. These people are precious, and should be supported.
Most people are either vacant or occupied, and are therefore not ready to receive teachings, or ready to give up their ideas about life and why we are here. They do not care. Why should they? They have made up their minds to travel along others’ paths, and haven’t stopped on-the-verge to wonder, “Where am I going?”.
An expert is someone who knows the complete system, is generous, disciplined and patient, knows what is right and is able to concentrate: in other words, they are compassionate, without any sense of competitiveness. An expert has empathy and kindness; it comes with experience!
If we do not know our true reality,
and live by that reality,
then what is the purpose of our life?
Within this mud of confusion is the Buddha.
It has always been there!
Hackable You
Hacking: the gaining of unauthorised access to data in a system or computer.
Through the media and technologies, humans have been trained to believe anything. Small suggestions first, ‘for your good’, followed by slight variations to develop the idea. And voila! We are in a ‘new normal’. We receive information, and believe it or react against it; either way, we are taught to jump through hoops, and it’s noted. Once this is achieved, digital technology can now predict and guide us to conform and perform.
Our judgements are not our own.
Had any original thoughts lately?
Beware of ‘low hanging fruit’, proclaiming easy answers.
Memories are merely programming. Each generation imposes ideas and trauma onto the next. We should be aware when we think we know something! When an idea is fed into a society, it spreads through gossip. Technologies can now follow everything we do, and read our minds = read and feed!
Reactions in the comments section of digital news items and videos says more about us than the news item or video.
An easy answer is not the same as a simple answer.
Dharma (the teaching on our reality) is simple, but not easy to understand,
as we have to cut through our mind’s programming.
In fact, we – consciousness – have to hack ourself.
This unauthorised access to our mind cuts through
the official approved or authorised version we’ve adopted.
Life Is Maintenance
Life is either maintenance of pure consciousness – what we are –
or maintenance of ignorance of pure consciousness – what we are not.
One of these paths manifests skilful compassion.
Generating Complexity To Become Indispensable
When we doubt ourselves, we feel vulnerable, and begin to look for a system to clear that doubt. Unfortunately, systems turn into organised religions with rituals and special terminology. That form can become complex and all-consuming; the system turns out to be indispensable, and we end up dependent. This is a form of addiction to hope and fear.
When we recognise our two feet of realising pure essence and whatever obscures that essence, we can walk freely along our path – unaided.
Complexity Breeds Confusion
Complexity creates mystery, confusion and addiction.
Once we realise our true essence, we are free from others’ complexities.
Our simple essence is pure consciousness.
Life is now our real teacher, enabling this realisation.
Karma – the result of past actions – brings us our experiences.
By taking responsibility, we simplify life, we simplify karma.
Our reactions tell us much about the state of our mind.
All the while, pure consciousness watches.
Pure consciousness has never changed throughout our life,
and is therefore simple proof that that is what we are.
Free Speech
The more we communicate, the more we support one another.
We may think slightly differently,
but our hearts, we are all the same pure consciousness.
Bend a twig and it snaps.
Bend bunch of twigs, and they stand firm.
Free speech is a natural asset; don’t waste it on competitiveness.
United – mind and consciousness – we can never be defeated.
Use it or lose it.
“Suffering & Sadness Unite Us”
A commentator on this blog just wrote this phrase.
It’s so true.
Becoming a Buddhist, or becoming anything as part of a middle-class lifestyle, doesn’t do any good for anyone. Paying lots of money to go on retreats doesn’t mean we have any realisation or empathy.
No empathy means no understanding.
We do suffer, but no longer notice it because we have become so used to living this way. The horrendous thing is that there are those who make a fortune out of world misery. And those who merely sit on their specially-named cushions without genuine compassion are part of this historical mess.
Our true teacher is life experiences,
and our reactions to these experiences.
Suffering, sadness, depression are not pill-deficiencies;
they are teachings!
If we are not angry at what is going on in the world,
we are merely bystanders.
Anger is mirror-like wisdom!
A negative emotion, such as anger is, in the very first instant, the presence of pure consciousness. Pure seeing comes first.To the realised, this anger maintains the spontaneous presence of pure consciousness, without acting out the anger and causing harm.
We can only change the world for the better when more people realise what they are, and what they have always been … enlightened.
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. 