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.

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’.

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.
😀

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

The Effect Of Laziness

Laziness produces inertia, indifference, ignorance, not knowing – but with much talking. Laziness is created from fear of the realisation that there may be more to us, and that we must make a
real effort.

This is why we veg-out in distractions – and there is so much to entertain us! Lazy people are easily distracted.

Now for the good news.
It is realising what laziness is doing to us that changes our attitude,
shocked that we will be stuck like that forever.

Good news?!
Certainly! We are evolving.

Spiritual Ineptness

Ineptness: having or showing no skill; clumsy.

Better than doing pujas,
try empathising with and listening to those with whom we disagree.
Show your compassion.

Falling into spiritual materialism is falling into cultural politics to maintain an image. If we do not understand what ‘spiritual’ means, we may fall into the realm of hocus-pocus, a term which was first used around 1630 and which is meaningless talk or activity that conceals the truth.

Most Of Our Suffering Comes From Thoughts

That says it all.

Thoughts are memories or programming that dictates how we behave. All our hopes/likes, fears/dislikes, and ignorance/indifference comes from the mind. These three principles – also known as desire, aversion and inertia – limit our understanding and realisation of what we are, which is pure consciousness.

Pure consciousness is our starting point;
the clear view that knows what happiness is.

Unfortunately, we spend our lives being dictated to by thoughts and facts planted in our mind by an unenlightened world. It’s quite creepy that most of the world does not know its true reality; this external ignorance thinks it knows it all.

We need discipline to train our mind, to stop relying on thoughts. Sitting quietly in silent meditation focuses consciousness to realise that it is being distracted; this is the way to freedom from the bondage of thoughts.

The ability to rest in inner peace to receive inspiration
– rather than being transmitters of facts –
says it all.

Before we can be perfect transmitters,
we have to be perfect receivers.

Getting To Know Our Mind

Our mind is our playhouse, full of information-toys.

When, in 1 Corinthians 13 it says, “see through a glass darkly”, this means to have an obscured or imperfect vision of reality. It explains that we do not see clearly now but, at the end of time, we will do so, and time is an illusion! Time only relates to material and mental phenomena.

Our mind is full of assumptions about life. We merely have to watch our reactions – the dos and don’ts, the likes and dislikes that hold us down to mundane, limited views.

Once we know our mind, we can play without believing the toys to be real.

The Myth Of Self

Myth: a misrepresentation of the truth.

When consciousness looks around and just sees, no self is present. There is only pure perception or pure consciousness, free of all ills. Self arises when consciousness reverts to memory to identify with an object, creating a story and so solidifying this arrangement. That solidification hardens an illusory self-image.

There is no self. The illusion of self is an attachment to ideas. Throughout life, we build upon this picture, acquiring a formidable idea of ourselves, and inspiring fear or respect through being impressive.

Merely let this self or ego take a back seat and be less dominant.
Gradually, we can dispense with karmic self altogether.

Beyond Belief, Beyond Dzogchen

Buddhism is not a belief system. In Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Dzogchen is a tradition of teachings to awaken pure consciousness. It is what we are – the ultimate beyond, beyond words, thoughts, or systems.

Dzogchen, the great perfection or great completion, is also known as ati yoga (utmost yoga), and is aimed at discovering the ultimate ground of ‘existence’ (it does not exist in any physical or mental sense).

This primordial basis has the qualities of purity (emptiness), spontaneity (luminous clarity) and compassion (empathy). The goal of Dzogchen is realisation of this awakened state, known as rigpa/pure consciousness. Dzogchen is a direct instruction to the nature of reality, and awakens rigpa/pure consciousness.

Dzogchen means utter completeness. From the Dzogchen point of view, we are already complete. Nothing needs to be obtained or rejected in order to realise non-duality. This is the path of immediate self-liberation – liberation from our habitual self-destructive-delusional-image.

Where would we be without pure consciousness?
In a state of confusion.

Rigpa is home.