How Are You?
“How are you?” is a common, yet profound enquiry.
As well as asking politely after someone’s health, we are looking at their demeanour, their attitude. It’s not what someone thinks or knows or says that matters; it’s how they are that is significant.
Can I trust this person?
Can they trust me?
Can I trust me?
🙂
Alone In Solitude
Alone isn’t lonely if we have meaningful relationships with everything and everyone, when they occur. Not needing to be among people, the benefit of solitude is freedom from the constraints and opinions of others.
Inner inspiration takes place in solitude by direct realisation of our true reality without any outside distractions. Solitude provides time to contemplate, review how things come about, how consciousness becomes spiritual, and where self is in all this.
Alone is a meaningful, instructive experience with everything and everyone.
If it’s there, all well and good.
If it’s not, all well and good.
To Be Taken With A Pinch Of Salt
Practically everything that people say should be taken with a pinch of salt.
Why? Because generally, whatever people say is just hearsay, rather than direct experience.
According to Pliny the Elder (AD24 – 79), a pinch of salt was taken as an antidote to poison, to lessen its effect. Thus, “to be taken with a pinch of salt” now means not to take things too seriously.
Is what people say ‘poison’? If it is based on desire (like), aversion (dislike), or ignorance (indifference), that is poison to the mind. The antidote is understanding how these poisons come about, and their true reality, which is wisdom. Wisdom is in the moment when we are alerted to the negative emotions.
Everyone Has An Assignment
Everyone has an assignment
… if we choose to accept it.
Everyone has a divine (not religious) mission in life, an assignment to realise what we ultimately are, which is pure consciousness, rather than the mundane achievements of which we are so proud.
The assignment is written in our karma, the story of how we got to where we are now. Who wrote it? We did, by accepting the status quo as reality.
If we are not living by absolute truth that never changes, we are living by conventional standards of vulnerable impermanence that always lead to misery of some sort.
To change our story and behaviour, we have to change our karma from pointless to mediocre, from mediocre to good, from good to to superior, from superior to none at all. That is the assignment, like it or not.
Where is the evidence of this karmic story?
How happy and understanding are we?
If we do not change our concepts about life
and see the urgency for change,
our assignment will merely last forever.
We can trace our story back
if we see all the connections.
When we break all connections and attachments,
the story ends for a enlightening beginning.
Consider:
What did you talk about today?
🙂
The Less We Know, The More We Are Offended
When we don’t know the truth of our natural reality,
we lack confidence and become hostile.
When we do know the truth of our natural reality,
we cannot be offended;
we have compassionate understanding
which gives rise to unshakeable confidence.
Science Doesn’t Understand Pure Consciousness
Science sees consciousness as a perception-memory device, and that’s why some scientists think that consciousness can be put into a clone. The abusers of science consider humans as devices to be manipulated.
Our gross idea is that consciousness is a principle to survive in a human form.
Our original reality is pure consciousness, the enlightened being that we are.
Self-Indoctrination
Indoctrinate: to teach a person or group to accept a set of beliefs uncritically.
Once people accept a belief – which is anything that is unproven – they maintain this mindset themselves.
Indoctrination starts when we’re very young, and infiltrates everything that we later encounter in life. We adopt a self image, known as a social I, created by feedback from those around us, and this develops into a big ego. Ego is consciousness clinging to ideas it has gathered, and can be seen walking around everywhere 🙂
At school, we are presented with hymns, Christmas carols and angels: in later life, there are beautiful stained glass windows, churches, paintings, statues, cathedrals, temples, synagogues, monasteries, rituals, robes, bible translations, stories and miracles, histories of wars, special places, otherworldliness, induced visions, voices of God and interpretations … as humans, we are very clever and skilful at beautiful elaborations.
Philosophers, intellectuals and theorists then take up the cudgel (cudgel: a thick stick to defend or attack strongly-held views) entertaining us with yet more stories, and more indoctrination. Whether we believe in all this or not, it has an effect on our lives. It divides people, whether they are believers or not.
If we do not know our true essence,
we will borrow the self-indoctrination of others;
ego is consciousness identifying with a dressed-up image.
Know thyself,
and cut through all the crap of indoctrination.
Thoughts & Pure Consciousness
When thoughts are present in the mind, so is pure consciousness, because consciousness is the very essence of mind. The moment when pure consciousness is recognised, thoughts are obliterated. What usually happens, however, is that the thoughts take over, and consciousness follows them. Hint: acknowledge thoughts but don’t become mesmerised by them.
Thoughts are not the same as thinking. Thoughts are from memories, while thinking is observing in the moment now, and seeing possibilities.
It’s Not What People Say That’s Matters
It’s not what people say that matters … it’s why they say it.
What we say is an expression of our level of understanding, and whatever we want to project. We have to be aware of ulterior motives, which are are intentionally hidden, and beyond what is obvious or admitted.
There are sweet talkers and stir-uppers, both of whom elicit a response and affect our behaviour. A steady diet of global distraction and word associations weaves a confused web in our minds. Context is all important.
Context: from Latin contextus, from con-‘together’ + texere‘to weave’.
When we actually know our original essence of uncontaminated consciousness, anything that then disturbs this should be questioned. How often are we drawn into staring at an internet site and scrolling down hypnotically? As long as we are gazing mindlessly, we forget our original essence; we lose consciousness in favour of the next excitement, and remain gormless.
Gormless: From gaum (heed, attention) + -less (without)
Why do people say what they say?
They want us to enter and be enchanted by their world.
Our Mind Is Our Prison
Our mind is our prison; the guards are our thoughts, which become beliefs. Thoughts placed in the mind limit our perception, experiences and understanding, and it is because of these beliefs that we do not see accurately.
Believing does not mean that we know. Something may have happened in the past, and we formed preconceived ideas or opinions before having direct evidence of truth now, gained through experience. From the ultimate view, truth is only now.
We can cut through the bars of these preordained thoughts by catching them as they arise, and before they fully activate the prison walls.
When we know our original essence of pure clarity, which is pure consciousness, we no longer re-enact our imprisoned regime.
In meditation, we see the bars = duality.
In non-meditation, the bars do not exist = non-duality.
Non-duality is dropping the method, once clarity is realised.
Don’t be wound-up by the media wind-up:
that is the prison’s re-creation yard!
😀
Knowingness Is Always Present
Knowingness is always present – always has been.
Whatever we do, knowingness is “at hand”.
Knowingness is nothing other than consciousness.
Sitting in silence, doing nothing without an inner voice chattering, just being aware, we realise that this observation is nothing other than consciousness, that silent knowingness, spontaneously present and never changing.
Remaining in this silent stillness without looking for anything other, consciousness simply returns to its natural, pure state of oneness with whatever appears; this is non-duality. Not two. Appearances and awareness are simultaneous.
These are just words.
We have to figure it out –
a significant part of the process.
🙂
The Lamp That Dispels Darkness
The moment of recognition of being vacant or preoccupied is the pure light of consciousness, the pure light of knowing. Acknowledging and resting in this clarity of pure light, darkness of not knowing is dispelled, and self-obsession, fears and hopes are vanquished.
It is here when we can either, through habit, return into the darkness of fantasy, or realise that this pure light of consciousness is what we are.
There is no true happiness in self-obsession.
There is no self-obsession in the clarity of pure light.
Even a moment of light
is a relief from suffering.
Realisation Makes The Most Out Of Life
Realisation is resolving the truth about our reality,
and whatever illusion obscures this.
Even though we may never attain enlightenment,
we can still lead a happy and fulfilling life
by knowing both unshakeable truth and what is presented as truth.
Through understanding ultimate reality, life becomes our teacher,
reminding us of the transparency of whatever appears to our mind.
By recognising mental distractions,
we become free of deceptions and misinterpreted perceptions.
Understanding wisdom and compassion makes life worthwhile;
if enlightenment does occur, it’s a bonus 🙂
It’s A Subliminal Life
A subliminal life is
whatever is going on in our mind-scape.
Subliminal: a stimulus or mental process below the threshold of sensation or consciousness; perceived by or affecting someone’s mind without their being aware of it.
It’s part of neurolinguistic programming. NLP modifies unconscious biases, and operates through the conscious use of language to bring about changes in someone’s thoughts and behaviour.
Why do we do and say what we do and say? Said anything original recently? Our compliance and reactions control us. Always ask, “Why am I feeling or thinking this?”
Our mind-scape is overseen by consciousness, the arbiter of decisions in our subliminal life, where we are infiltrated by spurious information which is apparently – but not actually – valid. That is how we are controlled.
The ultimate arbiter is pure consciousness that just sees without taking sides,
or before taking sides.
Truth Isn’t Exotic … Never Was
Too often, we are so dissatisfied with our life that we turn to something ‘other’. That something ‘other’ can look very exotic, but the problem is falling for the form – the entertainment – rather than realising the essence. The truth can be found or realised within our own culture, within our own mind.
The word ‘guru’ comes from Sanskrit, and means “weighty and serious; demanding careful consideration or application”. It’s not entertaining at all.
We have to face the life that we are in now. That is where the truth lies, being fully conscious of whatever is taking place in our own mind.
The absolute truth is that we are pure consciousness. It is so plain, it is called ’emptiness’ and is completely ordinary 🙂
Ordinary: with no special or distinctive features; normal, not interesting or exceptional; commonplace.
Why commonplace?
Pure consciousness is walking around everywhere.
Goodness Is Clarity
If we aren’t clear, we aren’t so good.
We are speaking of the psychology of spiritual pure consciousness which is the spontaneous presence of pure being. It’s not what we think about consciousness intellectually that matters; it’s what is actually experienced. When recognised, this clarity clears the mind of bias, that prejudging of everything that causes stress and upset. When the mind is full of intellectual judgments, it does not see clearly – it only thinks it does.
Clarity of mind comes from the clarity of consciousness.
That is the happiness we need to seek,
rather than the ‘happiness’ we want.
Desire breeds confusion, and confusion breeds discontent.
Demonic minds know that.
Clarity breeds contentment.
Pure consciousness knows that.
What is the purpose of life?
Goodness knows.
😀
Clued-up Or Clueless
There are clues in life that show us the way to the true meaning of existence and non-existence – material and non-material. The word ‘clue’ comes from ‘clew’, meaning a ball of thread that guides a person through a labyrinth.
Labyrinth: a complicated irregular network of paths in which it is difficult to find one’s way; a maze; an intricate and confusing arrangement.
There are clues to the purpose of life, about which we are generally ignorant. We have the ability to know, but may lack the interest to actually see and use these indicators.
Some paths/lives are adorned with entertaining enchantments of family, work, intellect which slow our progress as we want to enjoy it all. Other paths/lives are so prickly, boring and unsatisfactory that we do not want to linger too long, and actively look for knowledge that ultimately leads to wisdom and enlightenment.
This is why our paths are so different. They’re individual. It’s the same goal of enlightenment – the complete realisation of our essence; while understanding that the journey is different, the ultimate recognition is that there is nowhere to go. 😀
When we acknowledge that our path/life is unsatisfactory, we will look for clues to help release us from the conundrum of existence and non-existence.
The clues are there for when we are ready to let go of assumptions, and look.
When we look, the evidence is presented to us.
If we ignore the clues, that is our path.
If we acknowledge the clues, that is our path.
The Dharma Is Pure Psychology
Ordinary psychology is the study of the mind on a conventional level. It can be used to understand how the thinking mind works or to sell ideas or, through conformity, it can return us to the factory floor. It is about understanding our unconscious behaviour in a materialistic world.
Dharma psychology is personally knowing the above, but also understanding more about why and how the mind thinks, realising the very essence of mind – consciousness – which leads to the realisation of pure consciousness and enlightenment.
Ordinary psychology does not lead to enlightenment;
it leads to conformity.
Dharma psychology leads to the realisation that we are what we seek;
enlightenment.
Until we deduce this, we will stay in confusion, trying to make that which is already perfect fit into an imperfect, impermanent, immaterial (1. unimportant under the circumstances; irrelevant) world.
Once we know our true essence, the materialistic mentality of self-importance becomes our toy, our path to immaterial (2. spiritual, rather than physical) enlightenment.
If we mix up approaches to life, this will not enhance the perfect view of pure consciousness. By virtue of investigating the essence of one, however, the other can be known.
Are We One Huge Cock-up?
Do we just live in one huge cock-up,
or is the way we live the result of deliberate deception?
If everything seems a cock-up rather than deliberate,
does that mean that we are all actually stupid?
Is the cock-up a deception?
Is there more to the cock-up?
Do top chess players just make random moves?
Do corporations make things that no one will buy?
Is market research pointless?
Does technocracy follow all our action for fun?
When we prepare a meal, do we just throw things into a pot?
If we think that things just happen, we are stupid.
If we do not know why we do and say things, we are stupid.
The only way not to be stupid is to know
how our own mind works.
Meditation is the start of taking the cock-up out of life.
Once we see clearly, we realise that everything comes about
through a cause, and never a cock-up.
Things only seem to be a cock-up because of our lack of vision
that makes us fall for the cock-up every time.
Have you heard the old boxing term, the “one-two”?
We pretend to go one way – the feint – but deliberately go another.
Just because we don’t do a one-two doesn’t mean others don’t.
We all have ulterior motives, even when we’re being nice.
“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”
The quicker we learn others’ tricks of the trade, the less we are fooled.
Enlightenment is about how fast we learn, pick-up and run with with realisation.
Life is very short.
Ego Is The Path To Enlightenment
Really!
‘Ego’ is Greek for ‘I’ or ‘self’. The ‘I’ is created through consciousness forgetting its natural essence of uncontaminated purity, and instead clinging to ideas, fixating and obsessing about whatever it sees. This self is confused about its reality, and so creates confusion, chaos and discontent. As this self is fuelled by the emotions, it is reactionary, protecting itself from the discovery that it is an illusion of reality.
Now for the good part!
These very reactions show consciousness the clouds of negativity that obscure the pure essence of consciousness – and are therefore our teacher. As long as we are kept either busy or vacant, we will never see this truth. Demonic egos see to it that we remain occupied with ‘entertainment’ and ‘news’ – in other words, mind-washing and mind-filling.
Our path to enlightenment is recognising our own confusion in our reactions. Once we realise that our true nature is constant, ego clinging shrivels away gradually until completely gone, and full enlightenment dawns.
Ego is karma, showing us the way.
We can either constantly forget or constantly remember.
Although we may have a spiritual teacher whom we see now and again,
our emotional self is with us always, until perfect enlightenment.
Our ego is therefore our root guru.
If We Don’t Conform, We Feel Guilty
If we have done nothing wrong,
there is nothing to feel guilty about,
but we can still feel guilty.
Why?
Conventionally, we have to fit into society to make it work, but when conventions are exaggerated or elaborated, we may feel that this is unnatural, and so can’t follow those ideas. Unfortunately, most go along with this appearance of the new normality; the new fashion in society that infects the weak-minded.
If enlightenment is our reality but is unfamiliar, then anyone who endeavours to realise this profound understanding is seen as an outsider. Never feel guilty about your true essence, even though conformists see us as an oddity or an eccentric = unconventional.
We Are A Patchwork Of Ideas
We are a patchwork of ideas that never quite fit together.
Because of events when we were young, we hold ideas about life, and then try to fit everything that comes along into those ideas, and it never works. This is how and why we remain confused.
It’s like trying to fit together two jigsaw puzzles into one picture. It won’t work!
It’s like sewing with a two-headed needle. It won’t work!
This is how people turn spiritual consciousness into a religion, as they have been primed in religious beliefs and songs about unknowable holiness when young. We are introduced to traumas of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ that become a fixation infecting our later encounters; even if we don’t like the idea of a deity above, no one can get away from this priming that has sown an idea.
Our minds are patchworks of confusion;
that’s why people do not make sense.
Once we realise the complete picture,
we know how everything fits together,
and how to take it apart.
Expanding The Definition Of Love
Love is usually associated with desire or affection for particular people we know. This is the conventional love of attachment. It makes the world go round, and so creates opportunities for more beings to realise their true nature.
True love includes everyone, and is challenging. Love is expanded through empathy and understanding, letting go of being judgemental. We are all, in truth, enlightened nature, which we have the ability to realise.
We look, and see that others haven’t yet acknowledged this, but they know it at the back of their minds. It just has to be activated. We recognise the self-absorbed state, and this empathy equals love – not a battle weapon which we use to our advantage.
The same message has been heard throughout history; love is caring, without thought of self. If self is present, there is no love, but just attachment to ideas.
Love doesn’t think about love.
Love is understanding (standing under) the spiritual laws of the universe.
Are Hobbies A Waste Of Time?
No, if one is focusing one’s attention, and being mindful.
Yes, if it’s an escape from life …
but it can easily be turned into mindfulness.
Make meditation a hobby!
😀
Mindfulness is the precursor to meditation,
and meditation is the precursor to the emptiness of non-duality.
Writing is my hobby.
The consequences of hobgoblin activity is my hobby-horse.
😀
Hobby-horse: a favourite topic
Complacency
Complacency: a feeling of smug or uncritical satisfaction with oneself or one’s achievements – self-approval – pride – I’m-alright-jack.
Complacency is self-complacent, which is a very sad state to be in.
Complacency describes our fitting into our own little world that has no room for improvement. We have our way of life, and that’s all there is. It’s comfortable.
Feeling uncomfortable has possibilities. We don’t feel right, and that the very cause of suffering – and the path to enlightenment. Whoopee!
In pure awareness, there is no time for complacency, as complacency is an idea from the past we have overlaid on to the present.
We should have compassion for all those who are complacent,
and empathy for all those who suffer.
Believe In Your Self?
Self-image is the prison we are all in.
We make our self beautiful, muscular, clever, witty …
It’s a shame it’s all a sham.
What we are comes before the idea of self that cause the sham.
We are consciousness, pure consciousness.
Never believe in consciousness;
realise it.
🙂
Managing Expectations
Expectation: a strong belief that something will happen or be achieved.
In everyday life, we believe we can achieve a goal, but this has limitations. We narrow experience down to our limited view of life, and are always trying to anticipate and make everything familiar for safety.
Expectation is an assumption, a fixation that makes life mechanical. There are mechanics to life, but there are variables that are unknown until they actually happen – and life becomes alive. Constantly adapting and never fixed; this is how we improve understanding.
Peace begins when expectations end.
When we find peace or equanimity, we find space to see everything afresh. We can manage expectations through meditation, realising that the author of our life is only a copyist.
Meditation keeps us balanced and less excitable.
Pure consciousness begins when expectations end.
🙂
Appreciating The Truth
To realise the Buddha’s words in this world of chaos and confusion is both a relief and a comfort. To finally find a true meaning to life after spending decades in anger and frustration is the cause of deep appreciation.
Once we realise the truth, we should never take it for granted. Realisation isn’t an achievement to be proud of. Pride is excessive self-esteem, whereas truth is the birthright of every sentient being.
Realisation is understanding the full implications of why this world is in such chaos and confusion, which can be used to gain advantage. My anger and frustration was due to programmed people enabling this evil to continue manipulating us.
Once we see it, we are free not to react.
Re-acting is self-programming.
It’s that subtle.
Because of deep appreciation for seeing clearly,
empathy and compassion arise for those who haven’t yet realised the truth.
Judging And Being Judgmental
We all have to discern whether something is beneficial or harmful. It’s how we get through life; we recognise possibilities. When that judgement becomes a fixation, however, we become narrow-minded, and demons of our own making.
To be sentient is to have a mind that can make decisions, and therefore there is consciousness present that sees this mindclinging to likes and dislikes. The amazing thing is that this consciousness can realise its true reality of pure consciousness, which is the goodness within that doesn’t need eloquent words.
The next time you see your own judgements and fixations,
tell ’em to fuck off and leave you alone!
They are just figments of imagination anyway.
😀
Just Because Someone Says Something …
Just because someone says something
doesn’t make it true.
Even if they say it’s true, it doesn’t mean it’s true.
It is for us to decide, through experience,
whether something is true or not.
We are history’s manipulation.
As long as we are told to believe
we are in great danger.
Know your own mind.
Others do!
The Knock-On Effect
Whenever something happens in the world, there is always a knock-on effect, which is the consequence of action. Could it be that the consequence was the aim? Hatred and division have been stirred up in the world for thousands of years. All that is needed is a nudge and we react. Result? The knock-on effect .
Advertisers and governments all know this,
and so do we.
Ever made flirty suggestion?
😀
Real Or Synthetic?
Natural is being in harmony with nature.
Synthetic imitates nature.
We have to realise what is natural to us,
and what is artificial and man-made.
What is natural?
It is our original, essential nature of pure consciousness
that is always present and never fades,
and neither is it made by causes and conditions.
When we allow others to speak and choose for us,
it is we who become synthetic – an imitation, not the real thing.
Those who speak and choose for us
want humanity to become packages of beliefs,
creating conformity of unoriginality.
The cult of the manufactured individual!
Realising that we have a voice and that we have something to say,
we can choose a life that is natural and meaningful to us.
Are you synthetic, or are you the real thing?
Be very careful of the answer!
If I say that I am the real thing,
that self-identity is what the synthetic imitation that never questions would say.
If I realise that I am synthetic,
that realisation can only be experienced by pure consciousness.
Pure consciousness isn’t a big deal.
It’s what we are, and it’s nothing special or extraordinary.
We follow others who claim to be the ‘real deal’ while, in reality,
we are all Buddha nature – enlightened nature.
Mind Is Not Your Own Business
It’s quite simple; our mind is what we’ve picked up.
😀
Drop it!
You don’t know where it’s been.
😀
Be aware not to be a litterbug:
a person who carelessly drops litter in public places.
😦
Know Your Own Mind
Know your own mind. Know your frame of mind. Know your mindset – the mood in which we find ourselves, that causes us to have a particular attitude to something. Know why your mind behaves the way it does.
Is this behaviour you, or just an attachment to addictive memories acquired through experiences, which are created through interaction and reaction to others?
Where is you in this mind?
Can it be found?
The answer is for us to realise rather than to read or hear, which is just words. As a clue, the answer has to be that which pure and uncontaminated to see clearly. That is what we are. We are not our ideas, but somehow, our ideas govern our behaviour.
These acquired ideas are the prison that makes us go round in habitual circles. To escape this imprisonment, all we have to do is be aware that we have placed ourselves in this imagined prison through trying to please others … who are also in the very same predicament. 🙂
Who are we trying to impress?
Just drop out.
Drop out: to not do something that we were going to do, or to stop doing something before we have completely finished.
Reacting is pure hell. 😀 Anger and frustration arise, but do not act these out, thereby breaking the cycle of imprisonment. In that very first moment of seeing that something isn’t right and before allocating blame lies pure wisdom.
The Dalai Lama suggests, “Go and punch a pillow!” 😀
Wisdom is knowing that our true reality is that of others.
This is the power in compassion
when stupidity presents itself.
No blame, just understanding.
This is how true kindness starts.
Fight Or Flight … Really?
Here is a perfect example of omitted information. A meme appears in society and, if not questioned, becomes a ‘fact’. Even at Buddhist retreats, I’ve heard the phrase “fight or flight” used many times, and I just sit there, amazed.
My chickens know that there is a third aspect to reaction, and that is freeze. We all suffer from fight, flight or freeze; when we walk into a room full of people, there are some we’re attracted to (do battle with), others we avoid (they look scary), and those we ignore (blank out).
When we add ‘freeze’ to the equation, we get the complete picture of the three poisons of desire, aversion and ignorance which, in Buddhism, represent the three wisdoms of emptiness, cognisance and compassion. How do they miss this?
The word ‘freeze’ has been introduced officially, but is used in a conventional way.
Wikipedia:
The fight-or-flight response the state of hyper-arousal results in several responses beyond fighting or fleeing. This has led people to calling it the fight, flight, freeze response (or fight-flight-faint-or-freeze, amongst other variants). The wider array of responses, such as freezing, fainting, fleeing, or experiencing fright, has led researchers to use more neutral or accommodating terminology such as hyper-arousal or the acute stress response.
Experts want to sound like experts, don’t they?
And we, not wanting to look stupid, just accept their version.
Once we realise the essence of our reality,
everything falls into its right place.
Spreading Misinformation
Information spreads within an echo chamber, and we see this every day.
Those who advertise their ideas put a spin on them, showing them in a ‘good’ light.
Spin: Old English spinnan – ‘to draw out and twist (fibre’).
Anything that isn’t deliberately complete information is misinformation.
A spin is never a lie, so there is room to manoeuvrer.
Our Enemy Shows Us Our Strength …
Our enemy shows us our strength …
… and where we are weak.
Therefore through our karmic reactions,
our enemy is our teacher.
Who are the enemy?
Our own likes, dislikes, and indifference.
As pure consciousness matures,
the subtler the enemy becomes,
until we realise that the enemy has never existed.
Subtle: Middle English – ‘not easily understood’
Our strength is compassion.
Our weakness is lack of compassion.
What Or Whom To Trust?
If the Buddha said, “Don’t take my word for it … ”, then we shouldn’t trust anyone’s word, because their life is based on trusting others.
Trust: firm belief in the reliability, truth, or ability of someone or something.
Belief: an acceptance that something exists or is true, especially without proof.
Quite a ‘merry-go-round’, isn’t it?
It is we who are the final authority on whether something is true or not, but much depends on the quality of our judgement. We cannot really trust our mind as that has been contaminated with others’ ideas., and this is why we get upset, doubt and lack confidence.
There comes a time when we feel sick of being whirled around by assumptions, which causes stress that affects our mind and body. How do we get off the merry-go-round?
Through wisdom, we realise that we have been living in others’ illusions, and we no longer want to continue in this way.
Wisdom is first-hand, direct experience that doesn’t get carried way with emotions of self-importance. Wisdom isn’t reactionary. Through clear seeing, we do what is beneficial, and then drop it, thereby never remaining upset or causing harm. There is still a feeling of sadness, however, at the endemic indifference to our actual reality of pure consciousness.
What can we trust?
That which sees the not-so-merry-go-round-mind being upset.
Acknowledging Conditioned Self
The conditioned self is a mental construct that consciousness has built by relating to conditions and fixating upon those conditions, judging everything. This is how we act as human animals – by our likes, dislikes and indifferences.
Is there an un-conditioned self?
We cannot be what we see, but there is a seeing present that does not rely on conditions or names. Recognising this conditioned self – which is the very cause of suffering as it is highly reactive – is the Buddha’s second noble truth. This illusory self and that which sees this self is, in fact, the Buddha’s entire teaching.
Just look at the word ‘myself’.
We use ‘myself’ to emphasise an identity,
which creates and maintains a duality.
Myself : Old English me + self.
The cause of suffering is the constant preservation of this duality
which separates us.
What am I?
I am an illusory self and pure consciousness.
It all depends on what is most valued.
Acknowledging Conditioning
Conditioning: the process of accustoming a person or animal to behave in a certain way or to accept certain circumstances.
We are conditioned by others who are conditioned.
Being conditioned, we do not have free-will, and so we suffer.
Acknowledging this suffering is the Buddha’s first noble truth
on the path to enlightenment.
It is only through acknowledging suffering
that we realise it is pure cognisance which sets us free.
The Opposite Of Absolute Is Limited
The opposite of the word ‘absolute’ is the word ‘limited’.
This is why we speak of absolute truth and relative/limited truth.
One is our true reality, and the other is our conventional reality.
An absolute reality is complete freedom. A relative reality is partial.
Absolute: Not being dependent on anything else = non-duality.
Relative: Relating to something else = duality.
Non-duality is just seeing, pure seeing, pure consciousness, no seer, no time delay.
Duality is constantly relating to things – me and the object – requiring time to judge whether good or bad.
We need a little I or ego to function, but when the ego – which consciousness clinging to concepts – becomes overwhelming, we (consciousness) lose all sense of absolute reality. The middle way is not too tight and not too loose.
The test is noticing this, and re-addressing the balance.
Ordinarily, we swing in large strokes like a weapon.
Gradually, the swinging reduces until it is imperceptible.
Evolution is from coarse to fine.
So Where’s The Proof?
Where’s the proof?!
Someone once asked,
“Where’s the proof about consciousness?
How do you know it is good?”
Wanting proof without looking for oneself is mere laziness. Thinking that words are the proof is intellectualisation. Without the practice of looking and tasting, any words are like casting pearls before swine*.
‘Casting pearls before swine’ means wasting time offering something that is helpful to someone who doesn’t appreciate or understand it. They do not value what should be valued.
Those who want your proof will not understand it, and will become hostile. The proof is only in personal tasting. If I say, “Here’s the proof!”, that demands that you believe me. And that is idiotic.
*Matthew 7.6:-
“Do not give what is holy to the dogs;
nor cast your pearls before swine,
lest they trample them under their feet,
and turn and tear you in pieces”.
Are ‘Soap Operas’ A Brain Washing Technique?
As people mistrust the media more and more,
notice the messages in TV and radio soap operas.
Technic: early 17th century ‘to do with art or an art’): from Latin technicus, from Greek tekhnikos, from tekhnē ‘art’.
Brain wash: pressurise others into adopting radically different beliefs by using systematic and often forcible means.
Soap opera: a television or radio drama serial dealing typically with daily events in the lives of the same group of characters.
Still think our mind is our own?
The Cambridge Dictionary: “the lowest common denominator” is used to refer in a disapproving way to the sort of people in society who are least intelligent, and who will accept low-quality products and entertainment: ‘The problem with so much television is that it is aimed at the lowest common denominator’.
We own our mind by clearing it.
This is how meditation and clarity work.
Beware Of The Exotic
If we are looking for the truth about our reality, we cannot find anything simpler than pure consciousness. If we are mesmerised and obsessed by the exotic, we will make truth something that it’s not.
Exotic: originating in or characteristic of a distant foreign country. Late 16th century: via Latin from Greek exōtikos ‘foreign’, from exō ‘outside’.
Other people’s ways/paths are their ways. Each of us has to undo our own obsessions to realise the essence of our reality. We go alone, but we rub shoulders with others for short while.
Initially, things do rub off on us by association, but there comes a time when we have to leave those ideas behind. When starting on our path, others may seem above us, and may even flaunt the information from books they have read. But once we’ve read the same books and reflected, these people don’t seem so advanced … and they’re still reading the same book 🙂
Let go, let go.
Gone, gone, gone beyond.
Non-Stick Pans & Memory Foam Mattresses
When we get involved with someone or something, it leaves a mark, an experience, a ‘wound’, a little trauma, whether pleasant or unpleasant … a memory.
All too often, we hear Tibetan lamas laugh at westerners ‘wounds’, and their psychological drama. These wounds that they laugh at are merely memories – that we ALL have. Incidentally, when the students join in with the laughter, they are merely re-enacting their own memories.
Where is understanding and compassion? Their laughter at others’ wounds left a memory in my mind that’s still there thirty years later. Whenever we get involved with others, we acquire a little of their karma as well: our mind takes the shape of our experiences, and we become memory foam mattresses, creating a life of hysteria and wildly uncontrolled emotions.
In our mundanity, we believe that we don’t have wildly uncontrolled emotions … or so we think. I remember ‘not having emotions’ until it hit me like a bolt of lightening that the very reason I was judging people was because of emotions.
To a realised person, these emotions shout out loudly and clearly,
and that
is the path to enlightenment.
A realised person is a non-stick pan:
things still stick,
but they’re easily washed off.
😀
We Cannot Buy Truth
Absolute truth comes from direct experience and realisation, both of which we have tested. If it isn’t tested, then we do not know. Information tested becomes knowledge, and gradually leads to wisdom and enlightenment. Absolute truth is our innate essence of pure consciousness.
From an enlightened point of view,
all unreliable information shows us the way.
Light reveals the shadows.
You don’t have to pay for truth;
you already own it
Acknowledge Thoughts, Don’t Follow Them
When we acknowledge our thoughts and don’t follow them,
we remain in equilibrium.
Equilibrium is the relief/happiness
of not being controlled by thoughts.
Relief isn’t gain; it’s release.
This is meditation in action.
Finally, we drop the meditation
so that we don’t hold on to the happiness of equilibrium,
as that is the cause of suffering.
This is how we ascend the bittersweet levels
of happiness and sadness.
The Utopian Ideal Leads To Hell
It keeps us hoping.
The utopian ideal – satisfying one’s concept of what is perfect – leads to hell.
Why? Because people have different ideas of what a perfect world should be.
Physics or physical existence is naturally impermanent as it’s all about change, so nothing is truly existent. How does one make impermanence a utopia?
We hear people say, “We should do this”, or “We should do that”. Their ‘this’ and ‘that’ will be different to our ‘this’ and ‘that’.
When we analyse it, utopia or perfection is only within the essence of consciousness. Everything else is just a concept. A utopian society is one where everyone realises their enlightened state. That isn’t going to happen too soon, is it? As long as we live in hope and fear, we live in hell = great suffering.
If anyone says they want a utopian society,
you can bet they will want to run it!
😀
Suffering does not exist in the essence of pure consciousness.
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