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.

A Lack Of Empathy Causes Harm

We cause harm
when we lack empathy.

Dear Illuminati; Karma Never Fails

Dear Illuminati,

The creation of ‘A New World Order’ or ‘The Great Reset’ or ‘Build Back Better’ must be founded on compassion, on doing no harm, and on allowing people freedom to realise their true potential.

If not, this creation will sow the seeds of bad karma for both instigators and enablers for generations. Karma never fails.

Our reactions to plans that limit life are due to inherent divinity within us. That divinity is pure consciousness, and its realisation never fails.

Yours sincerely,
Tony
🙂

In Ignoring The Truth, We Accept Lies

When a lie no longer works, another lie is added.
Even though the new lie is a contradiction,
it creates hope … and fear and hope …
… and we fall for this every time,
because we are gullible in our search for salvation.

Salvation is being free from harm
or deliverance from sin/ignorance.

We Gain Certainty Through Practice

But what practice?

Real practice – real Dharma practice – is gaining confidence in just being,
rather than excelling at repeating texts and chanting mantras.

Just being is esoteric realisation.
Being good at a practice is exoteric realisation.

For realisation, we do not have to become ‘spiritual’.
We just have to be aware that we are the very essence of consciousness.

The very essence of consciousness is what we all are,
and therefore, we are nothing special.

We gain certainty through spiritual practice when this results in genuine, skilful kindness; otherwise, our practice remains pointless and argumentative. Just look at Buddhist forums 😀

There is no way to realisation other than genuine empathetic compassion; this is not only the means to an end, but it also stops us becoming arrogant.

It does not matter what we have read or heard, the practice that matters is observing our behaviour, understanding mind and gaining confidence, rather than feeling superior.

Authentic spiritual practice is the generosity, patience, morality, discipline and concentration of selfless kindness. This will lead us to transcendent wisdom.

Alternatively, we realise transcendent wisdom, and selfless kindness naturally follows.

Transcendent wisdom is the knowingness of pure consciousness. As long as the way in which we work results in skilful kindness, this means we are facing in the right direction, and are of true benefit to others.

When we are truly confident,
we can never take offence

We put ourselves right
before we can put others right.

Matthew 7:4

“How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’
while there is still a beam in your own eye?
You hypocrite! First take the beam out of your own eye,
and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
Do not give dogs what is holy; do not throw your pearls before swine.
If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.…”

This has to be repeated, generation after generation,
otherwise society will fall apart.

Stop Looking For Togyal

It’s too needy 🙂

Tibetan Lamas say that Togyal has to taught to the right person.
We can wait a very long time …
and that, in itself, makes us needy.

Togyal is the realisation of spontaneous presence. It’s the direct approach, actually letting go and leaping over contrivances, and is a miniscule step back from Trekcho, which is cutting through/undoing. It is direct realisation, needing no explanation or interpretation. This direct seeing is pure consciousness.

Spontaneous inspiration comes in many ‘forms’.
If you see it, kill it.
It’s not what you are.

How The Media Works – It Influences The Influencers

Psychology at work:
How easily are you influenced?
You don’t need sheepdogs … just sheep.

This video isn’t for entertainment. It’s a sad warning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RksLFJ7A2M

Still say TV, films, music, cartoons, ads etc don’t affect you?
Neurolinguistic/image programming is our way of life.

We can recognise influencing when something is over-emphasised: this blog does that, with the proviso that you don’t take the Buddha’s word for it – you test it for yourself.

Sadness Resulting From Joy

Sadness is empathy and compassion.
Knowing what is natural,
sadness – rather than anger – arises when something is amiss.

Human beings, although enlightened in essence, are a devious lot.
Devious: departing from the direct route. 

We have both a light side and dark side, a positive side and negative side; we also have a choice of which way we go.

The direct route is spontaneous clarity of pure consciousness
= we have arrived.

The indirect route is self-obsession that contaminates consciousness
= we go round in circles.

It is sad that people do not notice their true nature of unity in compassionate wisdom, preferring either to drift in states of vacancy or become self-absorbed in whatever they practise. If we are angry, we misdirect precious energy into division and confusion, when that very energy could be used to bring about understanding and harmony … if there are ears to hear 🙂

We are misdirected and misled from birth to ‘better ourselves’ and be competitive. Our outer manifestation of self is our dream state, and once we understand this dream state within ourselves, we understand others better. Instead of taking advantage, we can now prepare the ground, pave the way, lay the foundation … to better their understanding.

The moment clarity recognises confusion, wisdom dawns.
Empathetic sadness arises,
and life naturally turns for the better, the good.

The way in which we then manifest this understanding
will depend on our ability to empathise.

Sadness and joy both bring tears.

Enlightenment Is Disenchantment

As long as we are enchanted,
we will remain trapped in sentimentalities.

Enjoy life mindfully,
being neither obsessed, nor caught and held.

Overcome enchantments
by realising their limitation.

Realisation is disillusionment
resulting in joy … and sadness.

How Long Has Humanity Been Imprisoned…?

Q: How long has humanity been imprisoned … by the mind?

A: For as long as humans have been led to believe
in something they cannot see.
This has been going on for thousands of years.

Here is how the deception happens:
when people agree to look outside themselves
for something to worship,
they will never look inwards and realise the truth.

Truth is very simple.
It is only due to the natural purity of consciousness
that anything is known.

For millennia, we have sought the truth
when, in reality, we are what we seek.

The deceivers will never tell you that;
‘news’ has always been about deception.

If anything is ‘sacred’ and ‘holy’,
it is our true nature.

Simplicity Is Never Thrown By Complexity

When we know our essence of pure, compassionate consciousness, together with the three corresponding poisons of desire, fear and indifference that obscure this essence, we then know everything we need to know, as practitioners.

These prime aspects of life can, of course, be broken down into other elements, and that leads to confusion. Over the centuries, elaborations upon elaborations occurred, and became increasingly complex and distracting.

‘Pure’ means being empty of bias – transcendent wisdom.

‘Compassionate’ means caring – encompassing the five perfections of generosity, patience, morality, discipline and concentration/meditation.

‘Consciousness’ is what we actually are; we are embodied in a human form but forget transcendent wisdom.

Prayer For Today

May the truth be exposed
and recognised.

Why Does God Allow Suffering?

It’s something people either ask,
or use as a statement.

God/Pure Consciousness sees suffering as a conflict in the mind.
The mind and body suffer
while pure consciousness watches.

To say God allows suffering
merely shows an infantile understanding,
because we want someone to blame for our decisions.

When we realise our true essence,
suffering is seen as a residue of past ideas.

The body gets old and sick, and dies,
but all through this, pure consciousness simply watches.

When we ignore our true essence,
we suffer.

Pure consciousness never suffers,
but is sad for those who do.

You Cannot Know God Until You Know Yourself

You cannot know God until you know yourself.
Knowing yourself is to know God.
There is no difference.

Self, Pure Consciousness, God; It’s All The Same

Self Is Pure Consciousness.
Pure consciousness is Self.
And God? Oh my God, we’re God

On a exoteric level, it is claimed that these are different,
and so we are divided.

On the esoteric level, they are the same,
and so we are a unity.

We become what we spend most time with.
Choose wisely.

Talking separates us.
True communication is in the silence of non-verbal, good company.

Silence is Ramana Maharshi’s highest teaching:
the mind is brought to silence.
It is not about doing anything.
It is not reacting mentally to anything.

Note: Self is not the same as my self.
Capitalised Self is original being.
Small character self is a mind construct.

Self = infinite mind.
self = small mind.

Who Rules The World?

You do.

So why is it in such a mess?
You don’t realise that you are the power.

What’s The Point Of Gurus?

What’s the point of Gurus?
What’s the point of spiritual groups?

If we see these questions as negative,
we lack confidence in realisation.

These are valid questions.
The whole point of these questions
is to see how they are answered.

We all have to start somewhere
to know what we are.

When we know what we are,
the world is our oyster,
our teacher.

We can do anything and go anywhere,
because everything and everyone is a reminder
of emptiness and compassion.

The point is now
to help others start their quest
… and then let go.

Acknowledging Evil

If we cannot acknowledge evil, we will never be able to acknowledge truth. How does evil exist, or does it even exist? Throughout human history, this subject has haunted us.

Evil is merely negativity in our mind that creates darkness, due to biased judgement. It is biased because that mind is already prejudiced so that it never sees the light or clarity of truth. Prejudice is the darkness that turns into many levels of evil thought and action, while feeling righteous.

The very moment we acknowledge a sense of heaviness in our mind, we acknowledge the light of truth. Unfortunately, due to habitual behaviour and lack of spiritual practice, that ‘light’ creates virtuous evil-good. We have seen this throughout history.

Seeing isn’t believing. Seeing is knowing and realising how we have been caught and held against our conscience.

When The Story Twists And Turns …
… the reader’s mind twists and turns.

As long as a reader is hooked and addicted, the story will continue.

The truth of any story is the reader, not the story. Who is the reader? Consciousness. What is consciousness? It is the pure state of being, before an observer pokes its nose in. If an observer (self) is present, it has already been captured by the story, and taken sides.

How do we know when an observer has taken over? Consciousness falls into either a state of vacancy (indifference) when what is observed is just a piece of entertainment, or consciousness becomes agitated, reactionary and overpowered.

Pure being does not twist and turn. It just sees, and isn’t led down the garden path. If down the garden path, they deceive you by making you believe something which is not true.

We oppose “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” by not believing everything we read, see or hear, standing back and take an overview to understand the general picture of where a story is leading us. We read between the lines to understand the real or hidden meaning behind the  superficial appearance of something.

When we believe, we become the story.

Sincerity And Boastfulness

Unconditional sincerity or truthfulness is the absence of pretence, deceit, or hypocrisy. If we say we have compassion, this must manifest with the absence of self. To be sincere, we have to be honest and trustworthy.

Smugness is looking pretty.

How to make a Buddha laugh?
Tell them how good you are!

Escaping Chaos And Confusion

People around us are in chaos and confusion because they believe in something or other.

To escape this madness, the answer is simple. That which sees this chaos and confusion is neither in chaos nor confused. Voilà! … there you are! Simple magic. That which just sees is pure consciousness, our original reality.

The real trick is staying free.

😀