Psychological Resilience To A Pandemic 😀

In general, trauma will be caused during this pandemic,
and there will be a post traumatic effect.

So how do we stay stable?

We all know that life will end at some point due to anger, design, accident, old age or sickness. There can never be said to be the right time to end life. We know, however, that death is inevitable, and platitudes are of no help in this situation. Perhaps belief is helpful, but belief isn’t for everyone.

As long as we believe that we are this body and mind (which are temporary), we will suffer or feel threatened. Belief can cloak fears and maybe, in certain cases, this is a good thing if people aren’t mentally strong enough – even Buddhists pray for protection.

So how do we become stable?

When we truly realise that we are not this body or mind, and have confidence in the fact that we are pure consciousness and that everything that occurs in life is karmic – a product of our past – then we get a glimpse of accepting whatever happens, and we make do. Relative life can never be perfect, save that confusion perfectly breeds more confusion. What is important is having a stable mind now. We achieve this through mind training in meditation by acknowledging wanderings in the mind.

The title “Psychological Resilience To A Pandemic” may sound serious but we have to realise that this fear is in the mind and therefore has no true reality (although, of course, we still have to take precautions – but that doesn’t have to include fear). Much of the media is hyped up to the extent that the message is trivialised, and hence, confusion perfectly breeds more confusion.

Simply don’t be confused.

A good heart and a good immune system are good enough for a good life and a good death. We may not be able to prove that there is very subtle consciousness after death, but we were born knowing … something … and all our life, we have known … something. If we can recognise and realise what that … something … is, then we will stop this cycle of confusion and fear.

Do I Have To Act?

We all go into an act of some sort, as we aspire to be thought of as better than we are – and ‘spiritual’ people are no different. This is foolish. Who are we trying to impress? This isn’t spiritual development – it’s adopting a cultural identity, and spiritual teachers do not stop the foolish behaviour of binding ourselves to a group. It is not only unimpressive – it’s an unnecessary elaboration, a cloaking device!

We are demystifying all so-called mysteries. True consciousness is naked and without attitude; it makes no demands and only appears mysterious to those who aren’t looking.

When we realise our true essence, we can happily be ourselves as we no longer take our self seriously.

The Buddha is nothing special.
He just recognised his originality.

We are not clones.
We are all originals!

If We Fixate About Our Spiritual Path …
… then we are not on a spiritual path

Fixation:
“the process of reducing a volatile spirit
into a permanent bodily form”.

A true spiritual path is consciousness
freed from feeling guilty, touchy or obligated.

Obligated:
“restricted to a particular function or mode of life”.

Be aware that religion can become a culture
as opposed to a spiritual path.

On a genuine spiritual path,
we are free to be at one with everything and everyone
because, ultimately,
everything and everyone
is recognised within pure consciousness.

Appearances and recognition are simultaneous.

Never be divided, as pure consciousness is inseparable from
everything and everyone.

Become Buddhist And Find God!
😀

It’s all about our true reality:
to realise that we are what we seek.

Believing is not seeing.
Believing is ignorance.

Seeing is knowing,
and knowing is realisation.

Modern Times: Lulled Into Confusion

We are lulled into confusion by distraction, thus creating dissatisfaction, depression and suffering. When our attention is turned away from the breath of consciousness – life itself – we will always be wanting.

Now is the time to realise what is truly valuable in life: right food for right health, right company for right atmosphere, and right realisation of what we are for right confidence. This right attitude creates right empathetic love, in which there is no confusion.

As long as we are confused,
we will lack insight and so, lack love.

If we must read,
read the signs of the times
to see where they are leading us.

Today’s Entertainment 😀

Meditation is resting in spirit.
The word ‘spirit’ means breath.
Resting in pure spirit (being undistracted) is pure consciousness.
That is what we are.

Our supreme reality is our pure consciousness.
We could call that ‘God consciousness’.
God is not a belief.
Belief is ignorance.

God is pure experience, pure realisation.
We realise that we are what we seek.
Truth is never, ever in a book.
Truth is in the experience and realisation of the word.

The graven image that we all worship
is a self-identity, a persona.
We place that in front of pure consciousness
and hold on tight.
It is this that causes us dissatisfaction and suffering.

The devil is hellbent on distracting us,
feeding off our reactions.
As long as we react, the devil is happy.

However – the devil doesn’t exist!
The devil is our own ego
… I … myself … me …. my likes and dislikes.

Become Buddhist and find God!
😀

Find Out How Crazy You Are

These are ideal times to see the cracks in our mind.

We find ways to amuse ourself: we focus and fixate upon books, games, music, films, news, social media, work, family … There are all based around some distraction to which we react and, all the while, pure intelligence, pure consciousness, pure sanity looks on unnoticed.

We were born into a world full of cracks in reality!
😀

Crazy: 16^th century, full of cracks.

Learning How To Relate To Others

From a Dharma point of view, learning how to relate to others is empathy. It is through sadness which arises from recognising that emotions obscure our true state of inner peace that we can have compassion. Even though we talk about absolute reality as opposed to relative reality, we still have to function (nicely) as humans.

We all have a karmic propensity, a persona. This is the vehicle by which we expression ourselves, and it is by understanding this that we can relate to others. In fact, the more suffering and dissatisfaction we experience, the more we can empathise and relate.

Everyone wants someone to listen to them. Understanding this, we learn to listen to others without judgement. Discrimination is still present as we know what is beneficial and what is harmful.

We can recognise that others feel right in their view, while noting that their view may be disturbing them.

From a Dharma point of view, we are learning the clarity of pacifying, magnetising, enriching and destroying (which is merely cutting through, and has nothing to do with aggression).

May the Bodhicitta (unconditional selflessness) arise within consciousness.
May emptiness (uncontaminated reality) arise within consciousness.
May non-aggression (causing no harm) arise within consciousness.

Healing And Provoking

We either need to become stable before we can cut through our opinions, or cut through our opinions in order to become stable. The sort of mind we have will dictate the approach we need; one isn’t superior to the other. Hopefully, this blog covers both 🙂

Because we are delicately dedicated to our opinions, we need an approach that frees consciousness from ideas, by allowing our mind to see clear either through healing or provoking.

Stress and anxiety create a disturbance in our subtle body. In modern terms, this is our nervous system while, in ancient terms, it is explained as ‘winds, energies and channels’.

Stress and anxiety are created by our mind’s confusion and doubt, as we lack an honest understanding of the way we actually work – we just arrive here and join the chaos! 😀

Through this habit pattern, tensions can occur in the body: a name or a symbol creates a reaction in our mind, and then in the body. We experience this through feeling; this has been proved scientifically though ‘branding’ observation.

This old video explains how we can control subtle body ‘wind’ to ease tension. In Tibetan, this is called ‘lung’ (pronounced ‘loong’). I chose to do this 108 times once a day for six months to get my ‘lung’ down, but this may not be necessary for every individual. You may find that, when interacting with others, the lung rises, and doing the practice for just a few moments can help you feel more relaxed.

How Do I Know If I’m Happy?

If we are neither unhappy nor indifferent, then we are happy.

The nice feeling of being happy comes about when everything we are doing drops away.
If we are neither unhappy nor indifferent then we are happy – but there may not be a feeling of being happy.

The feeling of being unhappy usually comes from the inner energies rising in the body from just below the navel area. We feel out of place, and to rebalance and relax, these energies are to be taken down to just below the navel by using the subtle breath exercise (see video below).

Try it and see.
Conscious chanting or singing does the same thing.
Being happy is being in tune in body and mind … !

😀

Formal Dharma And Informal Dharma

Formal Dharma is using all the right words.
Informal Dharma is the experience of the right words.

We may go for all the right words
and stick to them …
but realisation is becoming unstuck.

Enlightenment: Release From Self-Hypnosis

This self is a collection of ideas generated from influences around us when young; it’s a programme we are caught and held by that we believe to be real. We are all “Manchurian candidates” – push our button, and off we go! The more information is acquired, the more elaborate the programme.

We have both an “I” fixation and a “social I” fixation = nature and nurture. ‘Nature’ is a self identity to which we cling (it’s our second nature, the first being pure consciousness, which we ignore). ‘Nurture’ is the influences around us.

The more compliant we are, the more we conform. The more we think we know, the more self-hypnotised we become. It’s only the enlightened who escape the illusion as they have realised emptiness of everything, including self.

Meditation is only a method of release from self-hypnosis.

It is not the meditation itself that releases us
as that can, in itself, become a form of hypnosis.

It is the realisation gained through the experience of emptiness
– pure consciousness –
that releases us from the deluded state.

In this way, we only meditate when we forget our natural being.
That is the key to liberation.

We can be hypnotised by the expectation and projection of truth,
rather than genuine experience.

We are free in the moment of seeing …
the hypnotic state.

😀

Conscious Communication, Or Just Noise?

Consciousness is our true inner state; the intelligence centre. It is concerned with the practicalities of maintaining a conscious life, one that can investigate the nature of reality scientifically through meditation = uncontaminated seeing!

The ‘noise’ is the chattering interference that wants yet another song, game, possession, party, book on the history of ‘noise’ … and has nothing to do with conscious intelligence.

For this reason, true communication is so rare. If we want entertainment, we only need to look more closely at whatever we’re doing thinking and saying – which is amusing when we know that we are so much more than chatter.

Chatter: To imitate; incessant childish, meaningless or unimportant talk.

We are conscious beings
– all worthy of veneration –
who can laugh at our own stupidity
rather than that of others.

🙂

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Gurus Don’t Do It For Me
😀 😀 😀

The term, “doesn’t do it for me”, usually means something is no longer satisfying.

In the context of our progress, the experience of the teaching is more important This leads us nicely to realising that the teacher cannot do it for us; it is we who have to realise!

Never feel guilty.
It is an inferior position.

Do You Know What Is Real?

Nothing that we see has any reality
as it’s all impermanent.
Reality is in the seeing.

When we understand this,
life is no longer serious
and we can be happy.

The world is full
of physical and mental viruses;
all the while, pure reality just is.

We note the causes, the reactions,
and the consequences.
Unshaken, we remain pure reality.

Is Covid-19 World War Three?

People have been talking about WW3 for years …
it turns out that we are the enemy!

In These Abnormal Times

In these abnormal times,
don’t try to act normally.

Normality is conforming to a standard.
 Abnormal: Latin abnormis ‘monstrous’

When we realise our true reality is pure awareness,
anything ‘normal’ is a monstrous standard of deviation.

We are God and the Demon.
We are the light and the dark.

In pure awareness, this is seen clearly and understood,
and so there are no problems, no surprises.
The world is confused, chaotic and misled.

The gold standard is pure compassion,
born of wisdom, rather than common platitudes.

How To Become An Alien

To become an alien, we detach ourself
from organised political, social and religious associations.

Alien: Belong to another
ie not belonging to organised political, social, and religious associations.

“The organised political, social, and religious associations of our time are at work convincing the individual not to develop their convictions through their own thinking but to assimilate the ideas they present to them. Any one who thinks for themself is, to organisations, inconvenient and even ominous as they do not offer sufficient guarantees that they will merge into the organisation.”
– Albert Schweitzer 1875-1965

Pure consciousness is beyond Samsaric machinations.
If we do not fit in, then we are an alien – simple.
In truth, we are all aliens!
😀

Thank goodness.
Who’d want to join anything?

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Tony

Enlightenment, Constant Enlightenment And Super-duper Enlightenment

Enlightenment:
Realising pure consciousness and purifying karma.

Constant enlightenment:
Realised pure consciousness and purified karma.

Super-duper enlightenment:
Carrot before donkeys.

Conclusion:
There is no carrot. There are no donkeys.

This Is Exactly The Right Time For Spiritual Progress

Like the Buddha, we see people suffering and we see that life is tenuous. In these turbulent times, the Dzogchen teachings on Rigpa (pure consciousness) are perfectly relevant to know what is real and what is seemingly real. We suffer because of identification with this body and the contents of the mind.

Pure consciousness – that which actually sees – can never suffer as it is non-material. We may wonder if something non-material exists; we cannot see it because we are it. It is extremely subtle, but obvious when investigated – which means that we have to investigate 🙂 Being told something isn’t realising it. We have to see pure seeing in experience, and there are no shortcuts.

We can empathise with others’ suffering and, in this recognition, are moved to be of benefit, avoiding the creation of further harm and suffering.

Our precious opinions of blame are unnecessary. We must maintain inner sanity for the sake of others, and this inner sanity comes from understanding, experience and realisation of the true nature of things and self. This is why it is said, “Know thy self.” It isn’t said, “Make assumptions about thy self.”

Knowing that death is not the end, we never give up. It is because we see the impermanent nature of things and self that we know this is all an illusion. What knows? Pure consciousness.

Illusions may feel real, but that which sees without comment is the real reality. Whatever is seen has no reality – things and self image come and go. When we realise that we are not this self image, our view changes. It is our desperation to hold on to illusions that causes us suffering. When we wake up, we see that we have been living others’ dreams. Who have we been trying to impress?

Whatever happens in the next moment is uncertain, but what is certain is that pure consciousness is always present. That is the most important realisation we can achieve, by simply doing nothing.

With this understanding, our actions, speech and thinking will be a guide.

The time is always now.
There are no excuses in Dzogchen.
Every moment is a teaching.

Get up, see what needs to be done, and relax.
When we look after our world,
our world will look after us.

If we make assumptions about our world,
the world will reflect our assumptions.

If the teachings are present in every moment,
love is present in every moment,
and our world is brighter.

Inaccurate Balance In Life

We have two aspects to our life: material consciousness and spiritual consciousness.

Material consciousness is our ordinary thoughts, while spiritual consciousness is that which perceives ordinary thoughts. To put it simply, our reality is the knowingness of knowing.

It is the misunderstanding of our reality that is the pernicious trap in which we live, especially when it comes to considering the unveiling of enlightened essence and the use of meditation.

Merely reading and hearing about consciousness doesn’t mean we are conscious. Such activity is just part of our material consciousness. To understand consciousness accurately, we must first realise the experience in everything we do and say. We not only do things mindfully, but with conscious awareness. We can recognise the truth, but that is not the same as realising the truth.

Imagine a see-saw; one end represents material consciousness and the other, spiritual consciousness. If we are only concerned with material consciousness, then the see-saw at that end goes down and spiritual consciousness goes up-in-the-air! Conversely, only being concerned with spiritual consciousness, we become ineffectual in the world – and our material life goes up-in-the-air! 😀

These two extremes are termed ‘eternalism’ and ‘nihilism’ – everything either feels permanent or is not worth bothering about: in this way, we end up either in fixations or depression … or we see-saw in between.

When our material consciousness and spiritual consciousness are in balance, it’s like seeing a reflection of the moon in a pool of water: the moon and the reflection are simultaneous, a unity, non-dual. We can enjoy the senses and, as we are in balance, we no longer have to hang on to either the experience or the experiencer. We remain in experiencing.

At the start of our journey, the see-saw is long. As we progress, the see-saw gets shorter and shorter, until there is only the fulcrum left. We are on a sharp knife’s end! 😀 “Not too tight and not too loose.”

The unknowing of knowingness:
Knowingness experiences at first hand
rather than second hand.
We constantly feel the situation.

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Covid-19, Isolation, Unusual Times

These are empathetic times: we isolate so that hospitals may cope more effectively with caring for the sick. Isolation can be seen as a retreat. It is a chance to focus on our moment-to-moment routines and, for that, we need discipline to realise what is truly beneficial, and what is now unnecessary.

Living with others is challenging, so we have to know when to stay silent and remain happy with whatever occurs – that is the discipline. We don’t become drawn into others’ neuroses. Neurosis comes from an over-reactive mind. Staying resolute and disciplined, we keep our sanity and that will give direction to others. Being precise in whatever we do is mindfulness meditation.

A retreat is a wonderful chance to observe our own neuroses without feeling guilty, and understand how these neuroses develop, and why we hold on to them.

We are not this neurosis: we are pure consciousness. The neurosis is of a temporary nature, and does not actually exist. It’s time to realise that everything is known from the pure, uncontaminated state of consciousness. Our opinions about the world are not necessary. We merely deal with whatever occurs and create an atmosphere for others to be happy.

This will be challenging but, through inner conflict and awareness, we rise above the mundane. It is a chance to review our life – and cooking and dining together will become very important!

All things must pass.

Practical, Three-Month Isolation Retreat

Practical, Three-Month Focused Exercise, Educational Meditation
and Fresh Air Retreat = Gardening!
Or window box-ing.

Maintained by focused weeding … but you can eat the nettle tops.
In three months, you will have your own food, and enough to spare.

When you stop digging, you will end up with perfect meditation.

Having Our Consciousness Drained

Be aware that the consciousness of others can drain us,
and this is why we do not react.

Sensitivity Isn’t Irritation

Becoming spiritually sensitivity, we develop insight.
Becoming sensitive to our attachments, we develop irritation.

Trapped by our intellect and drowning in a reservoir of ideas about our self and our world, anyone who projects their view irritates us.

Insight is the ultimate witness of pure consciousness; our essential nature that feels and understands other energies. Do you know what? Even dogs know this! (watch the dog-whisperer Cesar Millan at work).

As a practitioner, we dedicate our life to consciousness, not the mind. Now, when we encounter others’ ideas, we merely recognise that that is the way that their consciousness sees. There isn’t anything to argue about or become irritated by.

Sensitivity is coming to one’s senses and just perceiving, noting and learning. People-whispering is like that – we can transfer consciousness!

Perhaps We Should Revert To Ancient Greetings

Perhaps we should revert to ancient greetings,
showing recognition, appreciation, respect
and reverence for life.