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.

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? 🙂

Giving Up The Ghost

A ‘ghost’ is a slight trace of something, a faint secondary image caused by a fault in an optical system – in our case, the mind behind the eyes. 😀

The ghost in the mind is our self-image that consciousness holds on to for a feeling of existence.

To the ghost, it is everything.
To the realised, this ghost/self is a faint secondary image.

How do we get from being a ghost to being realised?
A suspicion that all is not what it seems.
😀

Conspiracy Of Indifference

 Conspire: from Latin – conspirare; agree, plot 
We agree to enable the plot by pretending we do not see it.

There are plotters in the world who never have enough, and if we agree to be silent or indifferent to this evil, we conspire subconsciously.

The blind leading the blind leads to chaos and confusion, while the plotters plot away.

There are those who scream and shout, but they only conspire to argue, while the plotters plot away.

Getting outside the plot is simple, but not easy. We clear the mind of plots by meditating and recognising our ignorance and indifference.

Conspiracies are not theories;
they are facts that are economical with the truth.

Where We Went Wrong

When we were young, we followed others in a long chain of confusion.

George Orwell’s book, “1984”, is a reality that’s happening now – a false reality, and one in which everyone is living but doesn’t know it.

Even spiritual groups can be misguiding because they act out a culture of absolute harmony without practising actual compassion. They merely enhance relative truth – that’s religion for you 🙂

Relative reality is relating to whatever is seen,
maintaining a duality that judges and lacks compassion.

Absolute reality is direct seeing of pure consciousness = non-duality/non-judgement;
it has insights into the predicaments of relative truth.

When essence becomes institutionalised,
this overshadows empathy and compassion.

Where We Go Right

Isolation from groups means that
there are no frills and no unnecessary embellishments.
We are free to ask questions, and realise answers for ourselves
without being preoccupied by whatever others think.

Dependency makes us lazy.

Realisation is confident ordinariness; it’s nothing special.
😀

Is Consciousness Material Or Immaterial?

Is consciousness created at birth?
Did God created consciousness?
Or does consciousness occupy a karmic position in space?

The way we view consciousness is fundamental
to how we conduct our life,
and how we treat others.

If we realise that, due to habitual karmic behaviour, consciousness merely occupies a position in space, then maybe bringing an end to karma also ends our fixated position in space … and we are everywhere at once 🙂

The choice is ours to contemplate.

It’s All In The Details!

We may know the details of our social life,
but do we know the details of our mind?
Why we do and say what we do?

Our mind is the psychology that drives us.
Consciousness is the mind’s observer; the me.

When we realise that we are consciousness and nothing else,
the idea of ‘me’ is released into pure consciousness.

The detail of pure consciousness is that it is empty of detail.
It is the very essence of all beings which goes unnoticed.

Detail cuts us up into minor parts that create a feeling of ‘me’.

Know me = no me.

Impostor Syndrome

I doubt myself.

My dad had a woodworking test at school: the test was to read the instructions and make the item. My dad made it, and then looked around and saw others making something different, so he broke up his project and threw it in the bin, and started again. The result, you can anticipate 🙂 He had no time to finish, so he failed … and so did everyone else! The right solution was either in the bin … or the instructions were wrong! 🙂

Impostor syndrome is when an individual doubts their skills and has a persistent fear of being exposed as a fraud. We are all subject to this false conclusion. Feeling anxiety or panic, we fall into fight or flight mode, or we may freeze, caused by emotional numbness.

Fight, flight and freeze are the three emotions of desire, aversion and ignorance, or attraction, repulsion and inertia. In common life, these emotions may help us to survive, but ultimately, they are negative when they become a habitual response in all situations.

Constantly comparing ourself to other people, we become instantaneously irritable and angry, and sensitive to constructive advice. When we are stuck in this state, we can feel anxious and panicky. This can cause us to over-function and have trouble switching off, clinging to perfectionism and avoiding difficult conversations.

Why do we doubt our self?
Our self is not our reality.

Our reality is consciousness that watches this self, this bunch of ideas that runs amuck. As long as we cling to ideas of ourstatus, we will think that we are an impostor; we feel vulnerable and never good enough, and so we become defensive and/or offensive. Re-acting is really a performance: we posture, behaving in a way that is intended to convey a false impression of sincerity. Often, so-called ‘spiritual teachers’ know how to do this, and most students fall for it by bowing even lower than is necessary.

Give up the impostor self.

Accept it for what it is
– our teacher.

As long as we remain a student,
we are willing to listen and learn, in an open manner.

Is Life Precious Or Cheap?

If life is precious, we are rich due to inner qualities.
If life is cheap, we are poor due to mundane worldliness.

If we are only concerned with worldliness, we lack insight.
If we have insight, worldliness is hell.

If we know we are in hell, we have insight.
If we do not know we are in hell, we are in hell.
😀

Why Do I Write So Much?

Every day, we hear and read total nonsense which has a subconscious influence on people: this happens at an alarming rate.

There is so much ‘information’ that we just give up being critical. Machiavellian and unscrupulous politicians take advantage of our fears and hopes, and that affects our mental and physical wellbeing.

Those in authority do not care about our spiritual welfare and the clarification of consciousness. They haven’t a clue what that is because they get nothing out of it. No fame, no gain. They want us to believe in a personality instead. It doesn’t matter which side we take, as long as we are divided. The media is all about getting us to adopt a point of view and take sides, thus creating disharmony, dissatisfaction and reactions.

Unfortunately, spiritual groups offer sentimental harmony, sentimental satisfaction and sentimental reactions.

Protection from all this chaos and confusion lies in knowing that we are, first and foremost, consciousness – pure and simple. Ignorance of this knowledge is the blueprint for our reactions and behaviour.

It is our mental health that is at stake.
Been there, done that.

Information makes us pedantic
–  over-scrupulous and excessively concerned with minor details or rules 
and that separates us.

Seeing is not believing; seeing is knowing.
And we need to be reminded, moment by moment.

Realisation Needs No Organisation

Realisation is the experience of our natural state = free spirit.

If we do not realise our true reality of consciousness, free of doctrine,
we will be bound to others organising our thoughts.

Not knowing our true essence, we turn to various kinds of ‘organisations’ to run our lives for us. We may think that we’re free, but that’s just our mind going along with beliefs. It’s we who have to actually make the journey into consciousness by dropping the fixations which govern us.

We may assume that we think outside the box; we argue … and end up in a boxing match. 😀

We are free when we realise it, rather than just hear about it. Not bound to any ‘organisation’, we’re free to be unconditionally compassionate.

When we arrive at the shore of realisation, we drop the boat of mindfulness, leaving only footprints.
Others can build sand-castles …

Christ wasn’t Christian.
Buddha wasn’t Buddhist.

Making Something Out Of Nothing

The essence of consciousness is emptiness
– that’s all we need to know.

By making consciousness into something,
we fall into forgetting and become divided from this reality.

Relating to some thing is duality – separatism/mixed feelings.
Before relating is pure consciousness, which is non-duality – divine splendour.

Divine: emanating from purity.
Splendour: a quality that outshines the usual.

We Do Not Have A Life

We do not have a life:
we are life!

We do not have consciousness:
we are consciousness.

As long as we believe that we have life and consciousness,
we will be confused about our reality,
and everything will remain a mystery.

Divided

Divided: separated into parts
 from Latin ‘dividere’; to force apart.

As long as we are divided, we will argue. This is precisely what evil does. It separates us from one another, and separates us from abiding in pure consciousness.

Evil divides.
Goodness unites.

Now, read the ‘news’ again.
It divides, and so conquers.

Still Looking For Something That Doesn’t Exist?

Still looking for something that doesn’t exist?
We are what we seek!
It’s that simple.

What are we?
Conscious awareness, pure and simple.

If you come up with a better answer, I’m listening 🙂

God!
Which came first; God or consciousness?

In the first moment of being aware, there is only consciousness.
This is provable.

Anything else is an act of superseding;
a replacement with something held to be superior,
therefore making consciousness (us) inferior.

Why would anyone do that?
Who determines this ‘superior’ view?

What looks?
Ego.

What sees?
Consciousness.

What drops whatever is seen?
Pure consciousness.

We are the problem – and the solution.

We Can Meditate And Still Not ‘Get It’

The purpose of this blog is to ‘get it’. Getting it, we know what it’s about, but we may need support to sustain realisation.

Unfortunately, many meditation centres look through a telescope from afar, while personal experience uses a microscope, close up, right here, right now. We can either play with a colouring book where all the lines are drawn for us and upon which we become reliant, or we can actually learn to draw.

When we become reliant on others,
we lose the ability to be independent,
and look for ourselves.
😀

Waking Up To Consciousness

Most of the time, our attention is on something out there, and we’re never aware of consciousness. Within consciousness is open space, clear and unbiased wisdom, but unfortunately, we walk around in a cluttered space, full of likes, dislikes and indifferences.

There are two views – conscious and unconscious. The unconscious affects our behaviour and emotions as we are on auto-pilot; this is just basic functioning. When we’re asked, “Are you conscious?” we will say, “Certainly!” and then we lapse back into unconsciousness.

When we are conscious, we realise that we are consciousness: that is the definition of consciousness, and we start to view things in a very different way. We become connected, but not attached. Life is meaningful and fruitful. We have confidence in abundance, and therefore, empathy. There are no more enemies – just teachers.

No more sleep walking.
No more moving around, performing actions
without interest, enthusiasm, or awareness of the possible consequences.

Know the difference between
consciousness
– staying awake –
and unconsciousness
– staying in the mind’s projections.

Choosing Our Battles

We ‘choose our battles’ and ‘keep our powder’ dry (ready for musket reloading) so as not to waste our precious time and energy. Thoughts can be a tool to solve a situation, or they can be used to aggrandise our self.

There are always distractions, so we needn’t make a meal of everything 🙂 If we carry around our loaded weapon of memories, we will be battling – finding fault both verbally and non-verbally – all the time, in every situation. After all, ’empty vessels make the most noise’.

As you can see, speech can be cliche-ridden, and full of unoriginal or overused ideas or phrases! 😀
But even in cliches, there are, in every culture, truisms that are dharma.