Still Wanting Something Better?
Pure consciousness is all we need to know
to solve our problems.
Unable to give this its true value,
we are found wanting.
That which is watching this feeling of inadequacy
is pure consciousness itself.
That which we have been looking for
has always been present.
😀
Consciousness Brings Suffering
Consciousness brings suffering.
Realising the nature of consciousness brings happiness.
We will never find happiness until we realise we are suffering.
Pure consciousness is at peace with everything, as everything is in a state of impermanence. Pure consciousness knows causes and conditions, and therefore nothing is real but only seems real. We have become excitable through everything in life being exaggerated and over-elaborated. Holding these exaggerations to be real, we become confused, we suffer, we argue, we find fault … and we think this is normal.
“But, I’m not suffering.”
Never disturb a sleeping person.
People are like elastic bands;
it doesn’t matter how far you stretch them,
they’ll go back to their normal, until they feel that the band is too tight
– or until it wears out!
😀
The realisation:
We are on our way to nowhere.
We are already here.
Our ascension is due to subtle layers of inner conflict.
We’re not going up; we are going higher in realisation.
Swimming In A Sea Of Information, And Drowning In Ignorance
Thus is the fog of humanity’s consciousness, drowning in side issues – and our relationship with spiritual teachings can also be like this.
The essence of teaching is very simple,
and if we truly ‘get it’,
we can then go away and live a fulfilling life.
If we constantly believe that we don’t know enough or aren’t good enough, we become confused and settle for feeling inferior; we’re amazed that others appear to ‘get it’ – but what do they get? The information – but what of the behaviour to go with it?
It’s actually oh-so-simple.
We are pure consciousness and, for that, we do nothing. Anything else is a hindrance to seeing this one truth.
Pure consciousness does not need to have numerous commentaries. It’s what we are. Get used to it, and become familiar with it. Then, see what is subtly destroying this inner peace.
The more times we see that we are distracted,
the less we are distracted.
It’s that simple.
When we can swim, we will never drown in ignorance again,
as ignorance becomes our teacher.
Can Others Out-Think Us?
They’re the ones who make up the games for us to play.
They’re the ones who make up the news for us to believe.
They’re the ones who make up the laws for us to depend on.
They’re the ones who make up the enemy for us to hate.
We can out-think them by dropping
playing, believing, depending and hating.
What makes sense?
Within pure consciousness, conscience is loud and clear.
Conscience is knowing right from wrong, and is a guide for our behaviour.
Only then are we in our right mind
🙂
How To Feel Good About Our Self
This self is a creation of the mind. When we look at our self, we are looking at our mind – but we are not this mind; we are mind essence of pure consciousness.
‘Self’ is another name for ‘karma’, and ‘karma’ is another name for ‘teacher’.
Love your self with all its faults, as those faults are showing us all we need to know to attain complete enlightenment. When we disguise our faults, we are not loving our self.
It’s like drawing: if we stand back, we see where we are mistaken, and make wonderful progress. So we’re not perfect – how wonderful to realise that. That is the perfection! Appearance and recognition are simultaneous.
However silly we may feel, we are nearer to enlightenment than those who think they are seriously intelligent. To knowwe are silly is preferable to not knowing we are silly.
We can live happily with our ignorance, because we are free in the moment of seeing our ignorance. Only then can we live happily with the ignorance of others, because we know how that feels.
Everyone will attain enlightenment in their own time.
Everyone will realise their true nature, eventually.
World Domination? Why Do They Bother?
Being ignorant of true human potential
– enlightenment –
the essence of consciousness moves on,
never knowing its true nature.
Those who think that their family power lives on
ignore the fact that it is just a name.
We have all played many parts in the theatres of action;
when we pass on to the next scene,
our ignorance passes on with us.
We Cannot Say That We Don’t Know
We cannot say that we don’t know.
We all know.
How To Rule: Keep A Crisis Going
As long as we are in crisis, we will remain divided.
Divided, we build walls that maintain the crisis.
Crisis: the turning point of a disease when an important change takes place,
indicating either recovery or death.
Nothing Makes Sense … Or Does It?
Is it always a cock-up?
If we apply conventional thinking,
we come up with conventional answers
which are never insightful.
When we apply Dharma,
we know that everything comes about
through causes and conditions.
Affecting conditions affects the result.
That is insight.
As long as we have a cocked-up mind,
all we will see are cock-ups.
Someone who knows the human condition
of hope, fear and indifference,
has control over humanity.
When we know the wisdoms of these three conditions,
we have control over our self.
Right Time, Right Connection
Connection: the relationship between something, and something else.
First, we have to be in the right place, mentally.
It is through the practice of sitting in stillness that we realise we do not have consciousness; we are consciousness that is immovable, stable and pure.
There is a relationship between this pure consciousness and whatever pure consciousness is conscious of. We discover that we cannot be what we see, and so what we see now serves as a reminder of what it is that is seeing. That is the powerful position we are in; we no longer believe that what we are seeing is the ultimate reality as it is impermanent, whereas that which sees never changes. This means that we are actually free of identifying with phenomena. That is real freedom, rather than being ‘free’ to do as we please.
Now comes the shock … the world in which we live not only ignores this irrefutable truth, but actively discourages it by inventing elaborate distractions. ‘Useful’ ideas are being created constantly – supposedly for our ‘welfare’ – in order to keep us connected to those elaborations.
When absurd things happen, we now know why – it’s to keep us distracted. Consciousness is being frozen into a dormant state of confusion. The basic distractions are fear and hope fuelled by our ignorance of our true nature of pure, compassionate consciousness. This ignorance reduces our ability to love.
We now realise that everyone else is also pure consciousness but does not know it. That is the reason love arises through wisdom. If we hurt someone, we hurt ourselves.
Connect to our ultimate reality,
rather than being connected to elaborations.
Q. How Do I Confirm My True Existence?
A. Who asks the question?
We Can Meditate Without Thinking
We do it all the time, without noticing.
All we have to do is notice.
Have You Been Assimilated?
How do you know you haven’t been assimilated?
Are your thoughts your own,
or are they part of the collective?
The test:
Can you switch off?
How To Meditate All Day Long, And Not ‘Meditate’
It’s quite simple.
Don’t wander.
Just be at one with any situation.
Trite, but true – unremarkable in a remarkable way.
We go about our day as usual, and experience everything we see, hear, taste, touch and smell – whatever comes our way. The senses are non-conceptual, ie there is no thinking involved. Don’t assume that if we are seeing etc, we are thinking. We’re not. That is a very important point to understand, before we become attached to sensuality, or mentally wander off.
In the first moment of experiencing, pure consciousness is already present, so it’s unremarkable. What is remarkable? Noticing this.
Within pure consciousness, we can still do what we have to do, but thinking isn’t required unless we are considering something. We are just being mindful, and only judge when it is necessary in order to accomplish anything. When our senses are open and clear, we’re guided by conditions.
If we over-judge or over-think something, we are projecting and adding to it, making life more complicated for ourselves. The opposite of being occupied in this way is vacancy or indifference, where we are unaware.
When we become aware of either being occupied by thoughts or being vacant, there is no need to feel guilty as we all do this. In the moment of recognition, we are actually free. That is being mindful, being aware of our likes and dislikes. If judgement is needed, we review, breaking the habitual chain reaction of commenting and judging everything all day long, as many of those judgements are trivial, but still imprison us.
Over-reaction becomes a way of life – and a waste of a life.
Give yourself a break.
Stop wandering.
If we fixate about meditation, that isn’t meditation. That’s expectation, and far too serious in its desire for the remarkable. When we stop obsessing, life becomes fun. It may not seem perfect, but it is – in its own way. We are undoing our own confusion, rather than the confusion of others.
When we meditate without meditating, life opens up in positive ways as we can read between the lines.
Happiness Is A Result
Realisation comes first, then happiness.
Solve a problem; happiness dawns.
There will always be social problems.
If there are always problems, there will always be realisation.
Problems are impermanent; realisation is always happiness.
“May my mind turn towards the Teachings.
May the Teachings become the path.
May the path clarify confusion.
May confusion dawn as wisdom.”
– Gampopa
(1079–1153 CE)
If we think that we have to be happy first, we will never realise the problem.
We have some work to do:
examine conscience to determine what is and isn’t beneficial.
Meditation Takes No Time
Time does not exist in meditation.
Time only exists when we are involved in mind and body.
Until we come to rest in timeless awareness beyond memories, we will always be relating to things. That is time-consuming. Our mind habitually asks, “What about this and that?” and off we go, back into time-relating mode. In this way, we lose our sanity. Sanity isn’t about how we think: it’s about how we see before we think.
The result of this precious meditation practice is that we keep our sanity, and don’t become lost in speculations. The uninitiated will react and claim that we have to ‘do things’, using up time. They see non-duality and meditation merely as vacancy because they haven’t tried it – or tried it properly. They cannot get it into their heads that meditation is no big deal; it is simplicity itself.
It is this simplicity that views everything,
and is never carried away.
Once we experience peace of mind,
that glimpse gradually becomes more familiar,
and is recognised as our home.
That is the ultimate sanity.
Enlightenment: A Rude Awakening
A rude awakening:
the surprise of discovering that we are mistaken.
A rude awakening:
Reality isn’t what we think, and never has been.
Thinking in words limits experience.
To get what we want,
we think of consciousness as a tool of perception.
The ancients knew that we are that consciousness
– pure and simple.
The surprise and shock is that we never noticed this.
It’s even more shocking to note
that there are some who want us to remain dormant
– just like them.
Being Aware Of Ego And Egoless-ness
To be absorbed by desires and fears,
or not to be absorbed by desires and fears.
Constant egoless-ness is ultimate enlightenment. This is our natural state. We gain a glimpse of this state in the oneness of non-dual meditation, being one with empty cognisant space where there are no fixations, but just primordial, pure awareness.
As we have bodies to maintain, we need a modicum of ego to survive – a social I – and this makes demands on us, but doesn’t have to require all our effort.
The test of the quality of ego:
How fixated we are about ourselves, and whatever we think about?
Don’t worry if there is a strong feeling of clinging and fixation. The very moment we notice what we’re doing … we are free! If we don’t notice our ego fixations, we merely become more and more upset about everything – and again, not to worry as there is always the possibility of being free in the moment of seeing that this ‘I’ is upset. If we’re not told about this reality, we will just go round in circles.
This brings us to religions.
The word ‘religion’ means to be bound. Being bound creates extreme views, fixations, reactions, dogma, separation and ‘wars’. The point is that even if what we are saying is true, it can become ego-orientated and overwhelming … and fanatical.
Resting in the pure spaciousness of awareness allows others’ emotions to wash over us and fall back to their space, leaving our space untouched. In that moment, our space can become their space, if it is recognised.
To Know That We Don’t Know Is Knowingness Itself
To know that we don’t know
is proof that we do know –
but we don’t realise that we know.
This is why we feel uncomfortable.
We really do know.
We know now.
We have always known.
But we still ignore this knowingness.
Why?
We obsess about facts and, in doing so,
miss the knowingness itself.
This is the great distraction, the deep sleep.
The more that we think we know,
the further we move away from knowingness.
All we have to do is recognise the knowingness
that is ever present;
that knowingness is pure consciousness.
Working within knowingness
keeps everything fresh, simple and relaxed.
People might think, “So what?”
“So what?” is turning over, and going back to sleep.
Knowingness is wakefulness,
seeing the causes of karma.
How Do We Know We Are Normal?
We assume we are normal, because our behaviour is in keeping with those around us. The word ‘normal’ relates to a carpenter’s square – something we can rely on, a perfect position from which we can tell when we are true or not, like a spirit level. In human terms, what is our perfect, reliable state, our true norm?
Is our spirit, level?
How many of those around us have a level spirit?
A level spirit – or consciousness – is a state of perfect equilibrium, perfect balance.
Once we realise this, we can then take a good look around, and understand.
Normal is having empathy;
unconditional love.
Our Covenant With The Dharma
Our covenant with the Dharma:
To be free and never disappointed.
Our covenant with religion:
To be bound and to conform.
Our covenant with society:
To be bound to compassion.
Conform: to be moulded.
Dharma: to break the mould.
Conformity is the act of matching our behaviour in response to subtle unconscious influences and social pressure to feel secure within a group.
Spiritual Materialism: Acting Apart
Authentic spirituality is the empathetic study
of the inner psychology of consciousness.
It never excludes others.
Is There A Universal Principle Watching Over Us?
Yes.
It’s called karma, which is created by our attitude,
and shows us the way to enlightenment.
Karma is the result of previous actions and reactions; it is this that controls our motivations. Kind and unkind activities both create pleasant and unpleasant situations. We should not cling to either as that creates more karma. Good karma is favourable but has to viewed carefully, as we can fall into making all sorts of claims.
The moment before judgement starts is known as the yoga of one taste. It is, first and foremost, just experience – pure experience, pure consciousness. The decision about whether the experience is pleasant or unpleasant comes a moment after. That is how the universal teacher – the symbolic teacher of all phenomena, karma – guides us. The quality of our existence is always in our own hands.
The universe doesn’t control what happens to us. We do. If we ignore the ice on our path, we will come under the law of gravity. The universal law of karma just sets our scene, and we can either stick to our script, or end the drama.
Whether we want to call the universal principle ‘God’ or ‘pure consciousness’ is up to us, but the work takes place within our own mind and heart.
The three pure, universal principles lie in the wisdom of
emptiness, compassion and consciousness.
The law of karma is created
when we ignore those three principles,
and they transform into desire, fear and indifference.
In this way, karma becomes our teacher,
and leads us back to the three pure principles.
Becoming Too Eclectic
If we wonder what the best approach is, but never settle on any particular one, we may be confusing ourself.
Settle and focus on one view, one system or one method that appeals. Really get into this; see how it feels, and how it relates to other systems. Find the main theme of a system and rest in that. It won’t hurt! If we become too eclectic, we may keep swapping one idea or dream for another.
All systems ultimately dwell in silence. That dwelling in silence is meditation. We only read or listen to inspire and keep us positive.
The summit is perfect understanding of all paths. There are many approaches leading up to this. Our journey is something we undertake, rather than something others have done. Because people do long retreats doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to; our retreat may be dealing with our emotions while living among other people, being a stable, town yogi. As such, we are maintaining inner peace in all this confusion.
The mind will run around in circles but ultimately, there is pure observation that is spontaneously present. We can call that whatever we want although, in reality, it can have no name. If we name it, we are back to relating, referring and fossilising it in duality dogma.
Find a quiet space at home, outside or maybe in a church – a place that is released from worldly vibrations. Rest in mental silence. Be aware of sitting and breathing. Be aware of the space you occupy. Become one with that space. See how that feels. Realise that oneness-of-space feeling is the summit of non-duality, and nothing else.
Promoting Diversity Promotes Alienation
Promoting diversity promotes alienation, and they know it.
Who are they?
The promoters.
We are constantly being divided and ruled. Divide and conquer is the dark art of a cultural war.
From Wikipedia:
“Divide and rule (Latin: divide et impera), or divide and conquer in politics and sociology, is gaining and maintaining power by breaking up larger concentrations of power into pieces that individually have less power than the one implementing the strategy.The use of this technique is meant to empower the sovereign to control subjects, populations, or factions of different interests, who, collectively, might be able to oppose his rule.”
Niccolò Machiavelli advises in his book, The Art of War (1521), that a Captain should endeavour with every art, including suspicion, to divide the forces of any enemy, causing them to separate and become weaker. This is how the few control,
In our hearts, we are all one, but in our minds, we differ due to backgrounds and cultures. We have different aims in life.
Diversity of people is wonderful and colourful and tasty but, unfortunately, it is also the ingredient for provocateurs and trolls to create distrust with the aim of generating hatred. Accusations of hate crimes can then be applied, and the once-whole community splits up and divides. While there are two sides to every story, there may be just one cause – confusion. In consenting to take sides, we give our power away.
Through meditation, perception changes.
We no longer merely see situations:
we see through them, to their causes and conditions.
Being aware is being prepared.
How To Control Humanity
By embellishing a non-existent enemy.
Number one: believing in a Self.
Have you ever seen it?
Number two: creating diversity.
Our commonality is a pure heart,
rather than an identity.
Number three: ignoring one and two.
If we believe in a Self and diversity,
we become a panicking “bull in a china shop”.
Whatever happens in the material world
cannot affect a pure heart.
Self Realisation – We Don’t Have To Change Anything
We don’t have to change anything for self realisation.
We only have to see our self in action,
and then we know what to do.
Our illusory self image will be with us until enlightenment.
Trying to change it is trying to swap one dream for another.
Being happy with our self,
we have all we need to fulfil our heart’s desire.
We are not copying others;
we are following our path to reality.
In seeing our self in action, what is it that we see?
Pointless clinging.
What If We Believe In God?
If we believe in God, or communicate with those who believe in God, there is no need for separation. We all have a right to choose our path and way of life, which will ultimately lead to the same destination – our destiny.
Making a decision that our path is through God – through God consciousness – can lead to union, oneness, non-duality. It is our birthright to be free to choose what we value and how we value it. When we consider something and come to a conclusion, it’s such a wonderful feeling, with a sense of relief and acceptance.
On an esoteric level, there are no differences.
I don’t know about other countries, but in the UK, there is something called Common Law, or Natural Law. Its main tenet or theme is “Do no harm.” This is very much in keeping with living a good life and finding our way while remaining at peace.
On an exoteric level, “Do no harm” seems straightforward; we may think it means don’t hit someone :-). From an esoteric viewpoint, we do no harm in body, speech … and mind. Don’t even think it! That makes the path both challenging and practical for progress, and exemplifies why the esoteric is for the few.
At the exoteric level, there is reliance on belief, and we jog along, going up and down like everyone else. If, however, we take this teaching to heart, it becomes our way of life – and that is the esoteric level.
Our path is all about gaining confidence. Unshakeable confidence, so unshakeable that it needn’t be defended, and we are never offended. Being offended may cause harm to another’s mind, and this is where generosity, patience, morality, discipline, concentration and wisdom come to the fore.
May belief dawn wisdom.
May confusion dawn as wisdom.
Wisdom is beyond words and names.
Happiness is beyond words and names.
Our Mind Has Become Our Cinema
Our thoughts and emotions are creations in our mind; it is our cinema full of projections that entertains, distracts and lulls us into dreams.
The audience is the essence of mind – pure consciousness.
When pure consciousness clings to these projections, it downgrades into an organ of perception and memories, and our mind becomes captured. Pure consciousness can never be captured – not even by us – because it isn’t a thing created. It just is. It can never be found through searching, as it is that which seeks. This is like the eyes trying to see themselves; they can only be seen in a reflection. If we want to see the quality of our consciousness, we should look into our mind and see whatever it is projecting.
For the first time in human history, we are so bombarded with images that, by the age of 16, we know everything – or think we do – while actually experiencing nothing. Our world is just a series of junk films through we live, and these are so exciting that, in actual life, we become easily bored. That is the addiction trap … “What do I do when the series ends?” More will produced for you! Sad, isn’t it?
Experiencing nothing in reality, there is nothing to live for. Our search for relief creates boredom, which is a psychological state experienced when an individual is left without anything in particular to do, is not interested in the nowness of experience, and feels pointless. This modern technological phenomenon has become our cultural dimension. Apathy and depression naturally follow, leaving us under-stimulated and craving relief through more cinema time (‘cinema’ is interchangeable with drugs, alcohol, gambling, sex, news … social media … sport … religion … politics …
It makes one wonder what the cause of suicide is.
A feeling of pointlessness?
There is a vital point to life, and this knowledge is being denied.
We are not here because we are an arrangement of chemicals.
We are not made to be cinema-goers.
We are here to realise what we are – in reality.
We are pure consciousness beyond consciousness.
Step outside any cinema projection and blink.
Wake up to all the senses.
Wow! Doesn’t it taste good?
Are You Satisfied With You?
Any dissatisfaction can be the beginning of enlightenment. If we aren’t dissatisfied, we stay as we are – unenlightened. Dissatisfaction could be about our self, or the world in which we live. Can we change our self or the world in which we live? Yes but, like a new coat, it has to fit properly so that we can address the world with our new-found wisdom.
We assume that we are the contents of our mind. That’s me! says science. Science might say our self is our sense of who we are, deep down – our identity. When we let someone else know us well, we reveal our true self to them, but that is merely a set of ideas. If the subject of our thoughts is us, we’re thinking about our self all the time.
The problem is that we aren’t seeing properly. We ignore what is seeing those thoughts. Asked what that is, people can only say, “Me!” This is the conjuring loop in which we live. When we start to investigate our selves, the answers come only from a spiritual point of view – the non-reified self. Words such as ‘spirit’, ‘soul’, ‘consciousness’ are used, and this can lead to confusion and argument.
We cannot be words.
We are pure experience.
We are therefore not those thoughts about ‘me’.
Pure experience has no identity:
it is pure consciousness.
Science does not say anything this.
A true scientist just sees in the first instant
– we can all just see in the first instant.
We are all true scientists.
Be satisfied with your dissatisfied self,
for its dissatisfaction is the path to enlightenment.
It’s a funny, old, upside-down world.
Just Because It Is Written In A ‘Holy’ Book …
… doesn’t make it the actual truth.
The actual truth is in our proven, personal experience.
Words are merely a guide, a reminder; that’s all.
Words have no life of their own; it is we who give them life.
To flog words and whip up a frenzy is ‘flogging a dead horse’.
This is futile diligence.
Believing in words from a book,
we become imprisoned by a war of illusions.
Reality is realised experience.
Unconscious Brain-Washing
This is why we have to ‘get out’ mentally while we can!
From My Dinner With Andre:
This script was written in 1981
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8v_XqFO8Bc
Wally: Well, why…why do you think that is? I mean, why is that, I mean, is it just because people are…are lazy today, or they’re bored? I mean, are we just like bored, spoiled children who’ve just been lying in the bathtub all day just playing with their plastic duck, and now they’re just thinking, “Well, what can I do?”
Andre: Okay. Yes. We’re bored. We’re all bored now. But has it every occurred to you, Wally, that the process that creates this boredom that we see in the world now may very well be a self-perpetuating, unconscious form of brainwashing created by a world totalitarian government based on money? And that all of this is much more dangerous than one thinks. And it’s not just a question of individual survival, Wally, but that somebody who’s bored is asleep? And somebody who’s asleep will not say “no”?
Andre: See, I keep meeting these people, I mean, uh, just a few days ago I met this man whom I greatly admire, he’s a Swedish physicist, Gustav Björnstrand, and he told me that he no longer watches television, he doesn’t read newspapers, and he doesn’t read magazines. He’s completely cut them out of his life because he really does feel that we’re living in some kind of Orwellian nightmare now, and that everything that you hear now contributes to turning you into a robot.
Andre: And when I was at Findhorn, I met this extraordinary English tree expert who had devoted his life to saving trees. Just got back from Washington, lobbying to save the redwoods, he’s 84 years old, and he always travels with a backpack cause he never knows where he’s gonna be tomorrow. And when I met him at Findhorn, he said to me, “Where are you from?” and I said, “New York.” He said, “Ah, New York. Yes, that’s a very interesting place. Do you know a lot of New Yorkers who keep talking about the fact that they want to leave, but never do?” And I said, “Oh, yes.” And he said, “Why do you think they don’t leave?” I gave him different banal theories. He said, “Oh, I don’t think it’s that way at all.”
Andre: He said, “I think that New York is the new model for the new concentration camp, where the camp has been built by the inmates themselves, and the inmates are the guards, and they have this pride in this thing they’ve built. They’ve built their own prison. And so they exist in a state of schizophrenia where they are both guards and prisoners, and as a result, they no longer have, having been lobotomized, the capacity to leave the prison they’ve made or to even see it as a prison.” And then he went into his pocket, and he took out a seed for a tree and he said, “This is a pine tree.” He put it in my hand and he said, “Escape before it’s too late.”
Andre: See, actually, for two or three years now, Chiquita and I have had this very unpleasant feeling that we really should get out. That we really should feel like Jews in Germany in the late thirties. Get out of here. Of course, the problem is where to go, cause it seems quite obvious that the whole world is going in the same direction. See, I think it’s quite possible that the 1960s represented the last burst of the human being before he was extinguished and that this is the beginning of the rest of the future now, and that, from now on there’ll simply be all these robots walking around, feeling nothing, thinking nothing. And there’ll be nobody left almost to remind them that there once was a species called a human being, with feelings and thoughts, and that history and memory are right now being erased, and soon nobody will really remember that life existed on the planet.
Does Evil Exist To Test Us?
The universe is a place of opposites: dark and light, good and evil, selflessness and selfishness, mirror and reflection, appearances and recognition … when, in fact, none of these are separate. There cannot be one without the other.
We have two sides to us; thoughts and the observation of thoughts, self consciousness and pure consciousness.
There are two aspects to realisation; the negative and the positive.
There are two approaches to realisation; to start either at the beginning or at the end.
Our approach to a path may be through the positive or the negative – the good, or that which obscures the good. Most of us want to consider only pleasant things such as that we are Buddhas, and we do compassionate prayers for all, but we don’t exemplify Buddha nature or actually have compassion. This where the opposite approach comes in: what is it that stops me being a Buddha and actually having compassion?
The two approaches to realisation are either to start at the beginning and do focused meditation to set the scene in order to arrive at pure consciousness, or to start at the end by being introduced to pure consciousness and then using focused meditation when we become distracted.
Although absolute/supreme/God consciousness is what we are, we can pretend and dwell in a belief system, happy as long as nothing disturbs us. If, however, we are fully aware of disturbing forces – the evil in the world going under names such as Mara, Devil, Satan, Lucifer – these can bring light to us. Evil is testing us, seeking out and showing us our weaknesses. The ‘goodness approach’ doesn’t do that.
The first noble truth is to admit that we are dissatisfied/suffering. No one does this better than evil intent, as it lies in constant ambush. How do we recognise this ambush? It’s in our own likes and dislikes.
At a certain level of practice,
the evil in the world wakes us up.
Ultimately, evil can never win,
as it works constantly to feed our emotions.
All we have to do is see this in action
– and we are free.
Perpetual Conflict Takes Us To The Edge
… of beyond.
When we realise that the life we are leading just doesn’t work any more, we ask why. The answer always comes from within, as we know our own story and what caused our doubts and fears. That story is the result our past reactions, which is called karma, and we can usually trace this back to childhood.
Facing our fears, we realise that there was nothing there to fear; we have merely been going along with ideas that become far too limited. Don’t blame those ideas, for they know not what they do! 😀 We acquire ideas from others who, in turn, acquired their ideas from others, generation after generation.
If we only believe in this physical and mental existence, life will never feel right because that isn’t our complete story. We all know instinctively that there is something more to us. Unfortunately, when we feel we are on the edge – on the verge of new possibilities – we run back to something familiar through habit, and end up feeling ‘not right’ … and round we go again. That is our karmic rebirth.
Beyond this physical and mental existence is our original reality of pure, astral consciousness. Once we realise and accept this, there is no going back to our old ways, and no more karmic recycling. We just deal with the residue from our past, whether pleasant and unpleasant. This is where life becomes magical, and we laugh an honest laugh – “There I go again!”
Don’t blame yourself, for,
like everyone else,
you knew not what you did, and why.
😀
We may ask,
“Why didn’t I see that before?”
At the right time and place, self-realisations occur.
The Certainty Of Positivity
Whenever we feel upset and negative,
it is certain that that which is aware of feeling upset and negative
is positive consciousness.
Positive consciousness is nothing other than pure consciousness.
Never doubt that we are pure consciousness,
the hero we have been looking for.
Hero: a person who is admired for their courage,
outstanding achievements or noble qualities.
Those qualities are our ultimate truth.
When we truly understand karma,
we realise that we are responsible for everything in our life.
In uncertain times, realise what is certain.
Phenomena = Catalyst = Reaction = Teacher = Realisation
Our being is the clarity of uncontaminated consciousness, which is completely content, understanding and compassionate. Being in a body, we experience all sorts of phenomena – both pleasant and unpleasant – but before judgement rises, we remain in the original state of pure consciousness.
Reacting to temporary phenomena clouds and contaminates the mind by distracting it, and causes confusion and doubt to arise. Once we realise our true nature of emptiness/shunyata, any reaction in our mind is seen clearly, and spontaneously reminds us of our pure state. Appearances and recognition are simultaneous. It is from this viewpoint that we can now address the world without causing harm, and hopefully be of benefit. That is wisdom.
Being otherwise, we are the cause of confusion, disagreement and harm.
All events are catalysts that act as a reminder
to curb the habitual behaviour which is the cause of our dissatisfaction.
If others want us to have a reaction, be aware … be very aware.
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Phenomena: a fact or situation that is observed to exist or happen, especially one whose cause or explanation is in question.
Catalyst: person or thing that precipitates an event or reaction.
Brain? Mind? Consciousness?
Don’t be confused; they each have different functions.
The brain is a complex wiring system of conduits carrying information. As we experience, the brain develops memory patterns, creating a specific configuration of mind. Consciousness – the life force intelligence – flows through the space within the wiring; the axons. It is through
experience and repetition that the pathways develop, but these cannot go further without personal experience.
This point is very important when it comes to our understanding. Imagine a town you know: in your mind’s eye, you can only go along the streets where you’ve actually been. Nothing registers about the areas you haven’t visited, and so you go back to what is familiar. Of course, there is some subliminal information that gets into our system without us noticing, because we may not be sufficiently aware.
When talking to someone who hasn’t had the same experiences as us, there is a lack of recognition; nothing ‘lights up’ and we are met with a blank expression.
NB Brain cells that are damaged due to a stroke are not beyond repair. They can regenerate. This process of creating new cells is called neurogenesis. With practise and repetition (like everything else), recovery usually occurs during the first three to four months after a stroke.
When does consciousness enter the body? There are different views on this. The word ‘enter’ may suggest many things. Is consciousness created by chemicals, suggesting that it is an organ of perception? Or perhaps consciousness enters the body – in which case, we may infer – or not – that consciousness can also leave the body. Two views, two ways of seeing life.
The mind can change.
The brain can change.
Consciousness never changes.
Practise meditation and see the mind expand.
It is through the quality of our mind that we express our configuration-programming.
Our Mission Chooses Us
If our intention is to discover our true reality, that motivation attracts empathy and inspiration. Likewise, if our intention is to gain over others, that motivation attracts empathy and inspiration – of another kind.
Do we find our teachers, or do our teachers find us?
Life can take some very strange twists and turns, causing our path to change direction. Events become serendipitous – being beneficial to our intention – but where we finally end up depends on our motivation.
When old opportunities wear themselves out and new opportunities are presented, our motivation can become vulnerable. Making the most out of opportunities can be perilous if we are too enthusiastic.
The conundrum:
new situations may be used either for benefit or harm.
If our intention is self-orientated, we will utilise new opportunities.
If our intention is selfless, we will utilise new opportunities.
How we respond is an indication of which path we are on.
Every moment we attract something;
our teachers come in many forms.
Is there any evidence of attraction?
Well, it’s in the way that we see.
The attraction from selfless motivation is that we see everything as an expansion of love.
The attraction from selfish motivation is that we see everything as something to gain.
Do we see the universe as fragmented or as a unity?
When we pray, we speak and the universe listens in silence.
When we meditate, we listen and the universe speaks in silence.
The universe speaks in principles of pure, conscious compassion.
When these are ignored, those same principles transform into
desire, aversion and ignorance.
Blow your mind today … now … by paying attention.
“I Get Nothing Out Of Meditation”
See how easy it is to misunderstand
… and tell the truth!
Meditation Means Distance And Inseparability
Meditation = distance = Shamata = focus = duality
transforming into
Meditation = inseparability = Vipassana = awareness = non-duality.
Distance: watching the traffic jam.
Inseparability: being one with the traffic.
We are the most sophisticated mechanism in the universe
– even while we are shopping and watching football.
Meditation isn’t about stopping thoughts;
it’s about being aware of what the thoughts are doing to us.
That serves as a spontaneous reminder
of the presence of pure awareness.
Meditation is simple, ordinary and natural …
we do it without thinking!
😀 😀 😀
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How And Why Are We The Way We Are?
It’s all to do with experience. Unfortunately, when we hear the word ‘experience’, we assume that we experience everything. We don’t, and haven’t, so ours is therefore a limited experience as we are not fully enlightened yet. Of course, in our small reality, we know everything don’t we? 🙂 Taken out of that reality, however, we flounder. We learn a little something in life, but we rarely wonder where’s that’s leading.
In our early years, whatever we experience, we repeat. This forms the pathways in our brain, our memory bank, our programming, our behaviour and our fixations. These pathways are our hard drive, while the software is written by our experiences, and forms memories. The effect is reminiscent of brand awareness, when recall takes place before we know it. For this reason, we are not fully in control of ourselves.
Whenever something happens, we refer to memory, and that is why we exist in a loop of cyclic existence. We live by fears and hopes, and conform to a type = vertical thinking. The ‘us’ is created through the feedback we receive from others, to which we respond, forming our ‘social I’ and self identity.
There is a method to break out of this pattern of behaviour. It’s called meditation. Meditation is letting go, and opening up to fresh possibilities = lateral thinking.
Choosing to stay with our special programming of ‘it’s all about me’ is vertical thinking = monkey see, monkey do. If, however, we choose to stop and see things afresh, that is lateral thinking = monkey sees, monkey wonders 😀
The choice:
conform or be elevated.
Elevate: Latin elevat- ‘raised’, from the verb elevare, from e- (variant of ex-) ‘out, away’ + levare ‘lighten’ (from levis ‘light’).
Don’t feel guilty about conforming.
We all do it until a conflict arises,
and we then either awaken to new meanings
or run back to our ‘safe’ place.
Waking up is truly uncomfortable
as there are no reference points
– but there is a sense of possibilities.
Feedback
Feedback:
The action, reaction, action, reaction loop.
We relate to the world through feedback. It is through feedback that we develop a social I, and this is how we become a closed loop: “Good boy!” “Bad boy!” “Anthony is a dreamer.” 😀
Our problem is that we output bias, and then acquire more output bias from others’ input. Simply put, we believe the feedback and act on it, when we should question both others’ feedback, and what we hold in mind.
“Okay, I’m dreamer, and that’s my part in life.”
or
“Hmm … am I a dreamer? I am not ready for your view.
I need time to consider your theory”. 😀
Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause-and-effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to feed back into itself. The notion of cause-and-effect has to be handled carefully when applied to feedback systems, ie listening to others.
Simple causal reasoning about a feedback system is difficult because the first system (us) influences the second (others) and the second system (others) influences the first (us), leading to a circular argument (compounded confusion). This makes reasoning based upon cause and effect tricky, and it’s necessary to analyse (meditate!) on the system as a whole. 😀
Meditate and watch the feedback-monster release itself from pure mind.
Feedback turns out to be karma.The purpose of meditation is to break the cherished circuit.
The Company We Keep
Our progress depends on the quality of the company we keep; the influence for the good. Good company can elevate and inspire us never to lose heart. This company may be human, or it may be the ancient teachings that are devoid of cultural elaborations attached to them.
All spiritual teachings come down to one point – that we are pure consciousness. That is the highest wisdom in the infinite universe. Symbolic elaborations serve as a reminder, but remember, they are a substitute.
And unfortunately, the substitute is more spectacular
than the reality.
The Inversion Of Society
Ayn Rand described the Kali Yuga:
“We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.” — Ayn Rand 1905-1982
If there is darkness, there must be light.
That light is the clarity of consciousness.
When we truly empathise, we feel the pain of others.
If we do not feel the pain of others,
we think suffering is normal.
In Meditation, There Is No Meditator
If we think we are meditating, that is not meditating.
In meditation, there is nothing to refer to;
meditation is to remind us that all mental activities cease,
allowing pure consciousness just to be.
It’s the way to contact home.
😀
Home is our origin, our base, our essence
– pure consciousness.
How do we judge the quality of the meditation?
Through the manifestation of our inner resource of selfless kindness.
There Is Only One Secret
There is only one secret:
We are immaterial pure consciousness.
What we do with this information is up to us.
We can either use it to gain wisdom and compassion
or …
use it to gain power over others.
“How?”
By keeping it a secret.
Once an individual knows the reality of their true nature,
they will no longer believe otherwise.
Unless We Actually Practise …
Unless we actually practise looking into our mind rather than just sitting still,
we will never realise the truth
that pure awareness is constantly present.
Truth cannot be found by talking or reading about it.
In meditation, there is a moment of doubt:
“Is this pure consciousness, or isn’t it?”
That doubt comes from the thinking mind,
while awareness/consciousness is present
simply doing nothing.
We may find that we oscillate between “Is it?” and “Isn’t it?”.
Just let it all be.
The pure experience is that feeling of limbo
– an uncertain boundary –
and that intermediate state is it!
Rest there.
That’s it.
The chattering mind, however, may want more proof.
This is where study is now relevant,
to give us confidence that that is indeed it.
Practise first, study after.
If we study first, this will flavour the practice with expectations.
In Uncertainty, There Is Absolute Certainty
Our mind may be uncertain,
but what recognises that uncertainty?
Do you see the catch we’re in?
We are ever-present consciousness,
which is ignored in favour of intellectual speculations.
Be absolutely certain that consciousness is always present.
It is the intelligence behind intellectualism.
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. 