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.

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.

The Dharma is Understanding Mara Activity (Evil)

“Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.”

Conventional suggests that “Better the devil you know” is something we can put up with it. That is not the meaning here. “Better the devil you know” means that we are prepared.)

If we cannot recognise Mara activity – “Trust me” – we are just a rudderless ship of fools. Mara lies in ambush at every moment when we are absent-minded or distracted. It is active when we cling to ideas and the senses for satisfaction.

When people profess to be ‘good’ and say that we should trust them, this is Mara activity. Good people have theoretical compassion for those afar, but never have time or the ability to connect with whatever’s in front of them. On the other hand, Mara does, by making us competitive.

Mara exaggerates everything. We encounter this every day, and we join in, becoming captivated. Evil can be trusted as it cannot stop itself, and it’s therefore predictable. It’s more difficult to trust ‘good’ people as they put on an act until they are enlightened.

“Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.”
😀

We can have empathy for those who suffer,
and compassion for those who are ‘happy’.
🙂

Fashioned to Fail

Each generation is encouraged to complain and rebel against the previous generation that was also fashioned to rebel, so there is a lack of continuity. This maintains chaos, confusion and suffering, which most people ignore; we unconsciously adapt without noticing that we’ve been ‘got at’ and influenced to self-censor by being made to feel wrong.

Thus, the minority prevails over the majority, not realising that each generation is fashioned or shaped by unseen hands. 🙂

Creating an imbalance in society reduces people into being ‘alarmed and distressed”. If we point out these disparities, we can be arrested which, in itself, is alarming and distressing. This is how the world is controlled – believe what we say, or be punished.

We must take control of our minds and not react,
as reactions will be used against us.

Weak people create confusion,
but recognising confusion creates the path to enlightenment.

A Great Mind Or A Wise Mind?

The essence of mind is ethereal pure consciousness without thoughts. When pure consciousness forgets its essence, it clings to thoughts, which creates the characteristic of a self. Consciousness then becomes materialistic.

People admire someone with a ‘great’ mind who invents things or who has skills. When a ‘great’ person dies, people talk about their achievements, rather than whether they realised the truth of being.

Blindly, we try to emulate these ‘great’ minds, and even want to be recognised for admiring them. This a psychological trap of intellectualisation – the world is ruled by clever inventions, after all.

The formulations in the mind can invent beneficial or harmful things, but what is beneficial to one may be harmful to another, as in splitting the atom, adding sugar to food, believing words to be truth ….

Realising the essence of mind of empty cognisance is wisdom,
where nothing is created but by which everything is known.

Wisdom knows.
Great minds know about.

The Same Old Dharma

Dharma is our original reality of pure consciousness. As long as there are sentient beings, there is Dharma. It is timeless, before any books are written. It’s like maths; it wasn’t invented, it was discovered, and then applied for good or evil.

There are many traditions that create forms and vehicles. The traveller has to discover and decide which path to take to the destination of enlightenment.

The journey starts with recognising the confusion that causes us suffering.
Our path is undoing our confusion.

The Undeniable Truth

Truth about a situation is a personal preference,
but the truth about the first instant of awareness
is the same for everyone.

There Is No Stopping Truth

Evil spends its time misdirecting our minds. Once we’re aware of this activity, evil has to move on. Unfortunately, as long as there is a self in the mind, that mind can be manipulated.

Fortunately: “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.” – Abraham Lincoln

Unfortunately: “A fool contributes nothing worth hearing, and takes offence at everything.” – Aristotle

Evil observes all sentient beings, collecting data to see our weaknesses in order to misdirect us or give us more of the same.

When this is realised, we are more alert, and thus evil becomes our teacher. That’s why evil can never completely succeed.

The Teacher-Of-All-Phenomena

A human teacher can only help us to recognise and then realise the teacher-of-all-phenomena: that every encounter, and every thought, and every interaction with others is a teaching, by showing us the habitual reactions that cause us suffering. The realisation that we are clinging to any experience is the Dharma in action, which eliminates the suffering of mental anguish.

Before this, teachings are just theories.

Whatever we encounter is due to our past, so every situation is karmic; it’s the result of previous reactions, and is our personal path to enlightenment. Ignoring this recognition is our path to maintaining endarkenment.

It’s not necessary to present the teachings in a religious fashion.
The teachers and the temples won’t always be there.

Always remember that people cannot tell the truth – not even the Buddha.
The truth is the verification through pure experience.

Why Do We Like To Believe?

Remember: belief is acceptance without evidence, which is mistaken for knowing. When we actually know, we no longer have to believe. Proof isn’t written down in a book; proof is personal experience. That is the authority.

We believe because as that doesn’t require us to use much intelligence; we rely on others, because others rely on others. We cannot even trust the Buddha as he said, “Do not take my words for the truth; test them”. 

We doubt, and so we rely on the past. We’re told stories which have a greater impact on our lives than the present moment of experiencing pure awareness. This is living in an ancestral illusion that binds us. Belief is simply entrapment in a system.

In pure awareness, we are open to all views, so when a situation arises, we don’t jump to our habitual conclusions. Being aware of what karma brings up is our path, whether we ascend or not (karma is the situation and our response to that situation). In belief, we go nowhere, remaining in purgatory.

It is knowing that is satisfying and fulfilling. 

We Are Born Infidels – Non-Believers

We are born without belief; we are just aware, playing with our toes. We’re then indoctrinated into beliefs about life in one form or another, and those beliefs become more important than original awareness or pure consciousness – and playing with our toes. 🙂 

Belief is a man-made game with man-made rules of acceptance without evidence. If we don’t believe, we’re called infidels. Doesn’t that sound crazy?

Infidels are non-believers, so are Buddhists infidels?

Buddhism isn’t about belief. It is supposed to be the psychological evaluation of a mind which has adopted ideas that make us crazy. Buddhism should cultivate an ethical and realistic frame of mind in order to refrain from false ideas that create harmful speech.

Pure consciousness is the infidel of our mind
– the observation of all things. 

We are all original infidels,
when we are in our right mind.