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.

Clearly Seen; Few See It

Clearly seen: pure consciousness just sees. It doesn’t do anything.
Few see it: because we’d rather do something.

Realisation isn’t something fabricated.

Realisation is disappointing … “Is that all there is?”
If you met me, you’d be disappointed … “He’s a bit ordinary.”

We are so used to associating the words ‘pure consciousness’ with a person of ‘importance’ that we fail to see that we are pure consciousness, ordinary and uncomplicated.

What’s the point of realisation?
We gain confidence in what is truth and what isn’t truth. That confidence brings relief of realising that we have always been happy, and that we no longer have to be clever or impressive. We are just pure consciousness embodied in a karmic form of confusion and unsophistication.

With realisation comes the sadness that others do not realise that they too are happy. We have been taught to want to better ourselves, which creates the conditions for unhappiness and intolerance.

What do we do with this realisation?
We earn just enough money to keep this body and mind in good condition, to have time and space to lead a contemplative life, free of fear and hope – and perhaps to pass on what we have learnt before we pass on 🙂

“We have always been free in the moment of seeing.”

What Does “Beyond Birth And Death” Mean?

Taking that saying literally implies something supernatural – that life goes on elsewhere (which may be possible).

Another way to see this is to realise that pure consciousness is always present, and is neither created nor ceases; it just is. This present moment can neither be improved nor impaired.

One view is to relax in whatever happens,
while the other is to worry that we aren’t doing enough.

Whether there is existence after death or not, the point is to live fully, here and now. Unfortunately, these words zoom over our head: we assume that we are living here and now, but we don’t see how we project into the future and hold on to the past.

Living in the here and now is rare. Few realise that this spontaneous presence of Nirvana, Heaven, Zion, Elysium, Paradise … is here, right now. Wishing for something else is living in the angst of hell … right now. Just observe reactions.

It isn’t necessary to be clever or intelligent or scholastic to realise that our true reality is empty cognisance. We don’t see space simply because we are attracted to the things in it. We don’t see consciousness simply because we are attracted to the conceptual thoughts in it.

Be at ease in whatever happens.

Karma brought us here for a reason;
to bring an end to our karmic misunderstanding of reality.
Simply enjoy sweeping the path
so that others see no obstacles.

We can either live in servitude to the strong,
or live in servitude to the weak who think they are strong.

Perhaps there is a beyond, and perhaps there isn’t …
At least we are no longer in hell,
and that’s a relief.

A sense of relief is happiness.
🙂

We Never Noticed The Switch

Do we own our minds and bodies?
Where did our ideas come from?
How long have those ideas been there?

Our mind is full of ideas acquired since birth. Just as the name given to us, we are neither those thoughts or that name. We have become a fallacy, a mistaken belief. An identify is registered at birth to say who we are, and this has nothing to do with our actual reality. We have learnt to believe that we are this name, body and mind, just like everyone else.

Our name represents something recognised by a system as ‘the person’, or as ‘the commodity’.

The system cannot deal with our true reality of pure consciousness, so we become part of the system. We work for someone, who works for someone, who works for someone …

Identity documents are used to prove that we consent to a personal identity, our strawman.
Strawman: getting someone to identify with a fallacy.

When we meditate, we discover that
we are nobody else’s imagination
but our own.

We are enlightened beings;
rulers in an independent state.
That is our right of birth
… and we never noticed the switch.

Masters Of Procrastination

We all know when we procrastinate
but we still do it, with excellent excuses.
The more we are presented with distractions,
the more we become diverted.

We need some sort of discipline …
but we don’t like discipline,
so we need some sort of shock.

The shock is personal
as the reason for our denial is personal;
that is our path to enlightenment.

We either master procrastination,
or have procrastination master us!

If you’d like to talk privately, 
write to Buddhainthemud@hotmail.co.uk
– even if it’s just to say hello. 

Clear doubts, gain confidence.
All confusion dawns as wisdom,
when we (pure consciousness) recognise confusion,
realising that we have never been confused!

For modern times, we need spiritual, scientific psychology
that we can see in an instant.
No elaborate mysteries needed.

What Guides Us?

What guides us?
Conscience? Karma? Consciousness?
They say, “Let conscience be your guide.”
Well, that will depend on several things …

Our conscience tells us whether what we are doing is right or wrong. When we’ve done something wrong, we are left with a bad taste. When we’ve done something right, there is no aftertaste.

Conscience?
Conscience is knowing right from wrong in any situation in which we find ourselves.

Karma?
Karma is the situation in which we find ourselves at this present moment, which is created by past reactions to past situations. If nothing changes, the same scenarios reoccur.

Consciousness?
Consciousness sees all these comings and goings. It is the quality of consciousness that influences both karma and conscience.

The more that consciousness refines by dropping impurities (concepts), the more conscience refines (sees causes), and the more karma refines (has fewer habitual reactions), until all karmic reactions drop away. Situations, conscience and consciousness become pure perception, pure consciousness.

What is preventing refinement?
Our holding on to obsessions and fixations that cause us to see through a glass darkly.

Simple meditation – together with analytical meditation – are the methods to clear away our confusion and doubt. At every moment, we are being taught something about ourselves to see what is guiding us. By being methodical, we can all work this out.

By virtue of the light of consciousness,
we know we see darkly.

It is of paramount importance to appreciate
that the clear light of pure consciousness is always present,
and guides conscience.

Spoon-Feeding Or Realisation

It doesn’t matter what scientists, philosophers or gurus say, their findings are theirs, not ours. Because we hear something doesn’t mean that we know; accepting what others say is merely hearsay. It is we who have to test and realise what is true. We will never ever find truth in a book or video, as truth is in the experience beyond mere words. Truth is experiential.

We may watch a plumber’s video on how to change a flush valve in a toilet. It’s useful information, and it’s kind of the plumber to make the video, but our toilet has a different configuration of pipes and connectors, and so we have to work it out for ourselves.* We could just rely on paying a plumber to do it for us, but we will never know how it works, and only have a general idea about it all.

Enlightenment is the same.
Our path to enlightenment is to realise the cause of our dissatisfaction, our confusion and our indifference – not someones else’s.

The Buddha came out of his father’s palace and found suffering everywhere;
old age, sickness and death.

The suffering that we see may be more complicated,
but the cause is the same:
the delusion of belief in a self image.

(* in our toilet, our flush valve had deteriorated and,
as it came from another country, it didn’t quite fit with the video
… but we now have a happy flush! 😀 )

Best Wishes

The cause of suffering and dissatisfaction
is a mind filled with a muddy concept of self.

We transform the mud through spiritual awakening,
thus realising the activity of a Bodhisattva – a well wisher.

And they don’t all look like this …

Communal Gaslighting

Our confusion isn’t all our fault.
Communal confusion is the result of institutionalisation.

‘Gaslighting’ is a form of psychological manipulation in which a person or a group covertly sows seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or group, making them question their own memory, perception, or judgement.

It may evoke changes in them, such as cognitive dissonance or low self-esteem, rendering the victim additionally dependent on the gaslighter for emotional support and validation. Using denial, misdirection, contradiction and misinformation, gaslighting involves attempts to destabilise the victim and the victim’s common sense.

Gaslighters belittle the victim’s emotions and feelings, staging of bizarre events with the intention of disorientating the victim.

The goal of gaslighting is gradually to undermine the victim’s confidence in their own ability to distinguish truth from falsehood, right from wrong, or reality from delusion, thereby rendering the individual or group pathologically dependent on the gaslighter for their thinking and feelings.

Sound familiar?

Feeling Inhibited?

Inhibited: a feeling of being self-conscious, fearful, and unable to act in a relaxed and natural manner.

Our main cause of anxiety is a feeling of self which we feel that we have to protect.

Did you see it?
Who is the ‘we’ that has a self to protect?

We have become a confused conundrum, and the world around us is intent on making us even more inhibited with a programme of new-age guilt.

The real we (our actual reality of consciousness) identifies with thoughts about ‘me’ and ‘mine’, and this very identification has imprisoned us, making us self-conscious and unable to act in a relaxed and natural way.

Simple meditation, sitting in silence unaccompanied by thoughts, allows consciousness to relax and see clearly without a subject or object. Just being natural.

Our hang-ups will still loiter as a residue left in the mind, but these will gradually lose their grip; if we do not know this, we will assume that we are still not good enough, reigniting the flame rather than the clear light – and off we go again 🙂

Until complete enlightenment, we will have some sort of self to deal with. Until then, watch out for being ‘Woke Gaslighted’: being manipulated by psychological means into doubting our own sanity.

The anxiety that arises from feeling we are confused isn’t all our fault.
I spent decades being confused in ‘spiritual’ centres,
constantly feeling wrong
… until I got away!

We Are A Work Of Fiction

Fiction: something that is invented or untrue.

Our world is built on a deception,
and maintained by identification with a ‘name’.
Name: a word or set of words by which a person or thing is known.

When we identify with a name,
we accept everything that goes with it.

We are not a name.
We are pure, free awareness.

We are free in the moment of seeing.
Now you see it … now you don’t.

‘Self’ is a fictional image.
When we see it, it disappears!
😀

Whatever we refuse to understand
controls us.

Conditioning = Cause and Effect

Day after day, we are being conditioned by suggestions, leaks and ‘news’ to believe in something or other by some ‘Ministry of Truth’: we either go along with or react against this conditioning. Either way, we conform without noticing, and this affects our behaviour.

Anything and everything can only come about
due to causes and conditions.
Create a condition, and that will effect a cause.
Cause and effect.

We control our mind by taming our reactions.
In this way, we do no harm.
We then may do some good
– or at least, not make things worse by reacting or obeying.

Spiritual groups (‘Ministries of Truth’) are no different.
The teachings, if applied, may be perfect,
but the form – the culture and behaviour – can take us in a different direction.

The question is:
“Are your thoughts your own?”
Were they ever?

Is The World Managed Or Mismanaged?

Is the world managed or mismanaged?
Both … each covering the other up.

Do we manage or mismanage ourselves?
Both … each covering the other up.

When we justify whatever we do,
we only make things worse.

The Buddha said,
“Tame the mind.
Do good.
Do no harm.”

That is natural law, a common law that we all know.

Seek And You Will Definitely Find!

I cannot begin to explain this,
but if we have the passion to be dispassionate,
the clarity to assimilate information just comes.

“Oh, that links to that!”

Everything has an essential cause.
Nothing comes out of the blue when we are seeking.

Facts, Experience, Wisdom

When talking with others, we have to be aware at what level we are communicating.

Facts are information.
Experience is direct knowledge through personal acquaintance.
Wisdom is the spark of realisation.

Fact … there is light.
Knowledge … I see the light.
Wisdom … the light illumines.

The Gospel of Thomas
These are some of the hidden meanings
according to Didymos Judas Thomas:

1. And he said: “Whoever finds the meaning of these words will not taste death.”

Jesus says:

2. “The one who seeks should not cease seeking until he finds. And when he finds, he will be dismayed. And when he is troubled, he will be astonished. And he will be king over the All.”

Jesus says:

3. “If those who lead you say to you: ‘Look, the kingdom is in the sky!’ then the birds of the sky will precede you.
If they say to you: ‘It is in the sea,’ then the fishes will precede you.
Rather, the kingdom is inside you and outside you.”

4. “When you come to know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will realise that you are the children of the living Father.

5. But if you do not come to know yourselves, then you exist in poverty, and you are poverty.”

Jesus says:

6. “The person old in his days will not hesitate to ask a child seven days old about the place of life, and he will live.

7. For many who are first will become last, and they will become a single one.”

Jesus says:

8. “Come to know what is in front of you, and that which is hidden from you will become clear to you.

9. For there is nothing hidden that will not become manifest.”

My personal view:

1. The realisation of the meaning of a word is esoteric experience. Our human existence is a cycle of life and death: we seek happiness, and then lose it, and seek happiness again. When we understand the bardo states (the gaps within life where the cycle of existence is not present), we will experience constant peace, which is heaven/nirvana.

2. Finding or realising our true reality, we become troubled, sad and astonished as we will understand everything.

3. The kingdom is us, and everything that we seek, as it is reflected within pure consciousness.

4. Knowing the self, we realise that we are the child and, at the same time, the living supreme consciousness of purity.

5. If we do not realise our true reality, we will live in poverty of not knowing, having neither knowledge nor wisdom.

6. Becoming an unfettered child, empty but with pure perception.

7. Wanting to be first (the best), we separate ourselves from others and therefore lack love.

8. Whatever appears to us is only known by virtue of the clarity of pure consciousness.

9. Once realisation has taken place, there are no more mysteries.

If this is true, Thomas had contact with Eastern traditions because his words have nothing to do with an external God (and this is probably the reason why it was left out of the Bible). If Thomas realised this, Jesus must have known it also.

The way teachings are written may be poetic and obscure with the purpose of keeping them safe. This is esoteric teaching as opposed to the exoteric teachings of the New Testament, which were put in the form of stories to be believed. These have thrown us off the scent.

Thomas’s gospel – like the Eastern traditions – reveals how simple realisation and enlightenment are. It also shows that there are those who would deny us salvation and enlightenment; they want us to depend on them as, in this way, they gain power which they do not want to relinquish. This is the same in any religion: a religion is an organisation for the many, whereas true spiritual practice is achieved by personal realisation.

Of course, you have every right to see the meaning of this differently!

Miracles And Words Are Hearsay

Words are exoteric (for those of lesser understanding).
Realisation of those words is esoteric (for those of deeper understanding).
It is personal realisation that counts,
rather than seeing through others’ eyes.

Our Problem: We Identify With Everything

We acquire an identity, and cherish it.

We identify with being a guru (we believe we know),|
a student (we believe we don’t know),
a religion, a group, a God or deities,
lifestyle, family, job, class, culture, country, left/right,
gender, football team … the list is endless.

Taking sides causes enemy-identification:
emotions surface, and we take and give offence.

Even identifying with meditation, we become bound,
when the whole point is letting go.
We may act as if we love, but it’s still all about me.

Our true nature has neither name nor identity.
Empathy recognises others’ suffering,
shows compassion, and is pure love.

We Are Born With The Answer

We are born with the answer.
If we weren’t, we wouldn’t re-cognise it.

It is about asking the right question.
We are not here to gain teachings;
we are here for release from adopted answers.

When we look, we will be troubled,
because the truth is never what we have been told.
The only truth is what is personally realised within.

Once we realise the truth
that we are nothing more than pure consciousness –
we then realise whatever obscures that.

As sentient beings, we are like children running after toys.
As adepts, we lose our selves within our highest part.
In non-dual pure consciousness, there are no answers.
We are what we seek.

The question:
“What am I?”
What asks?

Sentimentality Clouds Clarity

When the truth is told, we realise that we already know it, but hadn’t recognised it. Truth isn’t a mystery: it’s not ‘other worldly’, but it can be dressed up in elaborations that keep realisation at a distance.

Sentimentality relates to the way we feel. Of course, we can have tears of joy for a moment, but we don’t cling to that as it mists up our vision. The truth is that we are pure awareness, pure consciousness, with nothing added.

Stop acting as if you don’t know! To ‘act’ is to believe or pretend. Our problem comes from adopting a culture which isn’t our own, as this merely maintains the mystery. Incantations create awe for something special. Don’t be fooled; it’s all psychological – in a good way – but we can become stuck in the glue of sentimentality.

Sentimentality: exaggerated and self-indulgent tenderness, sadness, or nostalgia.

We are all Buddha nature, enlightened nature, so it’s nothing special. There is a place for those who want to be special; it’s called ‘Samsara’, which is our materialist world of wishful thinking 😀

Compassion and empathy only come from knowing our true state of pure awareness that takes no sides; in the presence of pure awareness, this not sentimental compassion and empathy. Sentimentality is the glue that holds our illusions together, whereas the clarity of pure awareness cuts through illusions of self-tenderness that are the cause of our suffering.

Sentimentality is oversensitive and becomes touchy, being easily upset and offended. It therefore lacks warmth. Clarity just sees and, in that moment of seeing, we are free of self-cherishing. It is clarity that heals sentimentality, and we gain real confidence.

We may think that clarity is cold.
It may be so in the moment of nowness,
but that clarity is the inspired inner warmth
that ignites the inner fire of realisation.

The paradox is
“Not seeing the wood/forest for the trees.”

The trees are the sentimental view,
while the overall view is clarity.