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.

What Starts An Argument?

What starts an argument?
Karma.
What ends an argument?
Recognising the effect of karma.

‘Karma’ is a Sanskrit word for our load of acquired ideas that affects our behaviour. In modern terms, it’s our programme ‘guide’, that runs and replays our entire life. It’s what makes us predictable.

When we fixate, we become intense. If meet someone who is also fixated, there is a clash of karma. The clash of ideasisn’t the problem; it’s the intensity that causes trouble as it transforms into a verbal weapon. Because we identify with our ideas so strongly, this build-up can explode at any moment when karma creates the perfect storm.

So what do we do?
Recognise what is happening, and wait. No reaction, no retaliation.
We rant when we see something as unjust. This is normal for human beings (and our chickens do the same thing!). Trying to put things right may even make things worse, because the whole situation then seems even more real, when it’s just about ideas. Holding on is hell.

We all just want to be heard.
The karma has to play itself out.
Merely wait.
Suddenly, we’ll wonder what the fuss was about.

Such trauma is very uncomfortable; it’s something that we don’t want to face, but it’s a special, cathartic moment of release.

Cathartic: early 17th century: via late Latin from Greek kathartikos, from katharsis ‘cleansing’. 

Demons are said to cause trouble for practitioners: we become more sensitive and pick up more, so we need to be skilful. It’s just a spiritual hazard. 😀

These clashes can feel like a demon attack. Demons are ego, and ego does not exist. They’re just a mental flare ups and, if that is so, then that is wisdom. In the very first instant of anger, the mind brightens and illumines. That is pure wisdom, before our demon sets in 😀 The same applies to all negative emotions.

We do not need antidotes:
we just need to see clearly to neutralise the effects.

When Did My Ignorance Start?

The universe is infinite. Sentient beings are infinite, each having an enlightened essence that goes unnoticed. We are infinite consciousness. To ask, “When did my ignorance start?” is an impossible question to answer, as it always starts and ends now.

There may be dimensions, realms and planets that are more conducive to enlightenment, but here we are, now. We can only deal with now, which is a pretty good place to start as there is so much dissatisfaction! This is because we dwell in such an illusory state that we cannot “see the wood for the trees” – unable to understand a situation clearly because we are too involved in it. This involvement created a self image, which is our forest of ideas, all made out of emptiness.

Emptiness is our natural, pure state which is fully aware, before we become involved in thoughts of this and that. We use the method of meditation to arrive at emptiness, and then the method of meditation is dropped. We stop asking questions the moment we arrive. Enlightenment is “Stayin’ arrived!”

To see how ignorance starts, watch the moment in meditation when we become attracted to the feeling of meditation – and we find consciousness wandering off … again! 😀

The Practice Of Meditation = Clarity And Calm

Meditation brings about a simpler way of life that is satisfying; we do not succumb to the collective hopes and fears. Through clarity and calmness we see what is happening – and the consequences.

There is much in the world that divides people. Even if we could eliminate whatever we think is causing division, division will still remain. It’s what humans do, even though we call ourselves ‘social’ beings.

We may agree for five minutes, and then the divisions appear. There is no point in being disappointed or expecting anything else, as we all have different backgrounds and cultures. We just remain clear and calm, and from that view, we use whatever skills of empathy we have to deal with situations. Our countenance says more than words as it reflects how open or closed we are; an open face goes a long way towards healing.

There is a rightness about everything. When we complain about the traffic jam we’re part of, who are we going to blame? If we (consciousness) ignore consciousness, we will remain confused. By becoming involved, we are entangled in a sequence of events that must come to fruition.

Trungpa Rinpoche said, “When awaiting someone’s arrival, we aren’t waiting; we are just sitting.”

Enlightened beings come along to show us a way – a path – out of our confusion, but our salvation is up to us. It is we who have to become still and calm to see clearly and realise that our confusion never existed. We just reacted and became distracted, and were thus divided from our true nature.

Humans will run around trying to make things ‘right’ but this creates conditions for further sequences of division. The world is has a ‘rightness’ about it; if we ignore, we will be confused. Our true rightness is consciousness. Within consciousness is the clarity of calmness, and that is pure consciousness. The purpose of life is to realise this ultimate truth.

Enlightenment comes to fruition through sustained calmness and clarity arising from the sequence of realisations that lead to full enlightenment.

Or … we can stay in the traffic jam.
Actually, bodhisattvas do exactly that!

Darkness Suddenly Lifts

There are times (many times :D) when we feel heavy, out of sorts and down – and then, suddenly, that feeling changes and we feel happy and lighter for no reason. It’s a karmic moment from our past: we must have done something good as nothing comes from nothing.

This means all things come to fruition and all things must pass, so don’t worry too much. It’s just either a karmic cloud or clarity passing by. The more the selfless deeds, the more the clarity. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true – the more the self-centredness, the more the clouds.

“Nothing comes from nothing
nothing ever could.”

What Do We Value Most?
Turning the mind to reality.

If we choose money, power, football, family, friends, freedom, God, religion, science, nature … the question then arises, “What is it that values these things?”

Most will simply say, “I do”, and that’s that, but the conjuring up of desires is our dream state. This dream state arose because consciousness identified with objects and ideas rather than the origin of recognition. We are trapped in our illusion through ignorance of our true reality.

The answer must be consciousness for, without consciousness, these things and ideas would not be known. When we value consciousness, everything changes. We now see consciousness in everything, because consciousness is the reality of the observation. Everything becomes brighter – literally.

There is more.
When investigated, the very essence of consciousness is clarity and pure vision, free of human intrigue. Thus, we do not have to be scholars, academics, gurus or saints. We can be what we originally are. Now, everything makes sense because we see that whatever we value obscures this pure vision beyond intellect. This isn’t something holy or religious – it’s a fact!

Nothing compares to the joy of realising consciousness, which is free of limiting ideas. Everything is now a plaything, a toy – but then, we recognise how much others suffer for their dreams. Consciousness becomes the compassionate bridge over troubled, muddy waters!

Consciousness is my shepherd; I shall not want.

Gratitude is enabled, leading to stillness.

Recognising consciousness restores inspiration on the path.

Walking towards death, I fear nothing; clarity and compassion comfort me.

Karma prepares a table of abundance in the presence of adversity.

Goodness and inspiration present themselves, dwelling in pure consciousness forever.

Tummo? … Tummo!

We know that when we sit properly (or exert our body) we breath properly, and feel brighter, feel better. If we slouch, we constrict breathing; our oxygen intake is limited and we feel sluggish.

This set of videos will introduce you to understanding the benefits of breathing properly. If this breathing exercise from Wim Hof is Tibetan Tummo practice (one of the six secret doctrines of Naropa), people should know about it, because it can work for anyone. We have to bear in mind, however, that in spiritual terms, we are only concerned with the effect of getting enough oxygen into the body to feel more awake and be aware of the presence of pure consciousness, rather than an enhancement of physiology to engage in extreme sport and prowess.

Chanting, singing, physical exercise, inner wind practice and watching the breath (shamata) are all versions of or preparations for this practice of breath control, cleansing the body by ridding it of carbon dioxide, oxygenating the blood, clearing the mind, and feeling good, relaxed and at peace.

We live by breathing!

All we are doing is expelling stale energy for enriched energy. It takes some time to get used to breathing deeply, so we can feel slightly uncomfortable at first. Once we feel brighter and more relaxed, we stop the physical practice to rest in awareness. We may find that we only have to do one round of breathing to feel the benefit, and then maintain by aware of the breath throughout the day. We gradually build up an awareness of the importance of breathing properly, rather than being unaware of the breath.

This exercise also generates heat in cold conditions, and enhances the immune system. As people tend to overdo things, practise carefully and follow the instructions. Use common sense. Find the point of just letting go, and realise the presence of pure awareness, pure consciousness.

Check out the comments under the videos
and see if you agree or not.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoSMm2OHnsk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cvhwquPqJ0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFSL_Qk9qKw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BNejY1e9ik

The more we are aware of the breath,
the more aware we are.
Get high on your breath, and feel brighter.

😀

Taking A Rest From Media Obsession
…and my own!

I’m taking a short break.
If you want a heart-to-heart or mind-to-mind,
we can talk about any concerns at
buddhainthemud@hotmail.com

When looking at the media – or any mass-communication –
read between the lines.
Observing our own reactions
tells us everything
we need to know.

We Are One Word … Predictable

For years, I’ve wondered, “Could there be a word that would sum up unconscious beings?” That word is … predictable: always behaving or occurring in the way expected.
As long as we are governed by desire, aversion and indifference, we will be predictable.

It doesn’t matter what we say or do, we will react by falling into our pattern. We might say, “I am conscious!” but here, we are merely referring to the perception of some thing on an ordinary, semi-conscious, functional level. This downgrades consciousness, while the nature of consciousness itself is our true reality. Realising this upgrades consciousness to our ultimate truth, being aware that we are the nature of consciousness itself – and so we live accordingly. Now, we will no longer be mechanical as every moment is reviewed, bearing in mind that, as we are in a human form, we need to be able to communicate in a skilful manner rather than merely maintaining an unconscious charade.

Charade: an absurd pretence intended to create a pleasant or respectable appearance.
From French, from modern Provençal charrado ‘conversation’, from charra ‘chatter’

Science searches for predictability in order to know exactly how a thing comes about. The outcomes can be either beneficial or harmful, and for this reason, we need more than street level consciousness.

Turning Love Into Hate, And Hate Into Love

If like can turn into love,
then dislike can turn into hate.

Sadly, we are not going to change the world in which we live: even the Buddha and Christ and Moses couldn’t do that. People will argue about anything and everything. Something praised will, at some point, be condemned, and likewise, something condemned will be praised. It’s the way of conflict, chaos and confusion.

Comedy, fashion, politics, dictators, religions, science, philosophies, guns, toys, sexuality, language, police attitudes, social attitudes … statues … all come to pass!  All are glorified, only to be condemned later and, in condemning, we set the new normal for further discord. That’s the trap.

When humans lose their sense of direction – their path to enlightenment – confusion ensues.

Luckily, there’s a path away from being constrained by our reactions to others’ ideas. This path is found within the esoteric teachings.

At every level, everyone is right, but that isn’t the complete picture. An age-old story exemplifies this: when several blind people touch one part of an elephant and describe it as reality, whatever they feel may be correct and be argued about, but that isn’t an elephant.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_men_and_an_elephant

“The Devil Makes Work For Idle Hands”

“An idle mind is the devil’s workshop” :
an interesting piece of social engineering
to induce guilt.

When we are doing nothing,
we have time to contemplate the truth of our existence –
and we won’t want to better our betters!
😀

The word ‘idle’ means empty and useless. The devil (‘ingenious’ mind) wants us to be productive for its purposes, not ours. The wisdom of resting in our pure state of consciousness is useless to ‘ingenious’ minds as they cannot gain anything from us. We know what we need, and we know what we don’t need.

Our problem is that we have become so dependent on ‘ingenious’ minds that we forget that we are free, autonomous beings.

In the 4th century, the theologian Jerome expressed the idea that the devil finds work for idle hands: “If people don’t have anything to do with their time, they are more likely to get involved in trouble and criminality.”

Sloth is one of the seven capital sins in Christian teachings, but whether it’s a ‘sin’ or not depends on whether we are viewing it from a material or spiritual perspective. ‘Sin’ is merely a mistaken understanding, from an ultimate point of view.

To the dogma of a devil mind, realising and resting in our reality of pure consciousness may be seen as the cause of “trouble and criminality”, as a genuinely peaceful mind cannot be disturbed. 😀

Simply put, enjoy your own eureka moments of genius!

Idle: Old English īdel ‘empty, useless’, of West Germanic origin; related to Dutch ijdel ‘vain, frivolous, useless’ and German eitel ‘bare, worthless’.

Genius: late Middle English: from Latin, ‘attendant spirit present from one’s birth; innate ability or inclination’

“What Is I?”

In Latin and Greek, the word ‘ego’ means ‘I’. The moment we refer to I, we personalise consciousness.

What’s wrong with I? How did this I come about?
I is a mistaken identity; it is an attachment to consciousness.
We say, “That person has such an ego!” when, in fact, we all have egos that we carry around.

Our original consciousness is pure and empty of ideas; it is just aware, and reflects like a clear mirror. It’s doing that now, being spontaneously present. It’s what we are. It’s seeing these words. Look away from this screen and it’s still there, just being. It is like pure space – whatever we do in space, the space stays the same. Well, the essence of mind – pure consciousness – is like that. Whatever we stir up in the mind, essence (pure consciousness) stays exactly the same. We don’t have to do any spiritual conjuring tricks to see this – it’s just here, right now.

The mistake we make is asking, “Who am I?”

If we ask, “Who am I?” we will merely go round in circles,
because we will want to identify, failing to realise the pure experience.

Ask the question, “What is I?”

The essence of being is the mirror of pure consciousness, and ideas are reflections in that mirror. Whenever this essence identifies with the reflections and holds on to them, a false feeling of self is fabricated because now, that is all that consciousness sees. It forgets the seeing and it (or we) becomes caught and held. This clinging is maintained by our likes and dislikes which gradually become our ‘second’ nature. We hold on to our judgements about a situation, instead of acting accordingly to bring about harmony, dropping any fixations.

This is a totally different picture than the one we are taught. This world that we live in is all about boosting and bettering our I, our self image – and it is this that causes misery.

We will have some sort of ‘I-fixation’ until enlightenment. In the meantime, we use a ‘social I’ – a stand-in self image to which others can relate – in order to communicate.

Whenever we personalise consciousness, we limit experience,
and consciousness can never resolve into realisation.

Our fundamental nature is happiness,
free of all fixations.

We’re Not A Who, We’re A What

‘Who’ is a person.
‘What’ is the information.

Person = persona = actor’s mask.
Information = something learned about the person/the mask.

A mask is a covering or a disguise, and has many thicknesses.
Information is whatever’s behind that mask, and has many levels.

We think we are a display,
when we are, in fact, pure consciousness
behind the display.

Know what you are, rather than who you are!

Understanding Of Both Positive And Negative

Generally, we only want to hear nice things – nice ‘spiritual’ things – uplifting things to make us feel good. We don’t want to hear anything negative, but we have to be realistic to realise reality. Seeing the negative isn’t being negative.

The word ‘Buddha’ means awakening from the sleep of ignorance, having purified the dark fixations that obscure realisation. So we have to be aware of the dark side of our mind as well as the light side. In truth, they are one and the same thing, when appearances and recognition are simultaneous. To designate dark, light has to be already known.

Being told that we are enlightened and that we just have to realise this is a nice thing to hear – but that isn’t the whole picture. This enlightened view has to penetrate our thoughts and emotions, our self interest, which creates our habitual judgements, causing dissatisfaction.

The cessation of our obscurations is our work, our training and our practice.
That is why we are here.

The Maintenance Of Ignorance

We all like a good story; it’s entertaining.
Comedians, philosophers, politicians, scholars, corporations, religions all tell stories.
The media, films, books, songs all tell stories.
We also have our own stories about past and future,
and we fall into the trap of repeating all these stories.

Aye, there’s the rub!
In repeating stories, we exaggerate their worth and become attached.
They evolve into little porky-pies (London slang for lies).
We may say, “So what? There’s no harm in stories.”

Those little porkies take the place of truth, and they stick in our head.
It’s exactly what happens with ‘holy’ text, isn’t it?
We listen to stories and believe them,
and then live our lives according to those stories.

We will never find the truth in a story; they are make believe.
Stories are ambiguous and confusing, and open to interpretation.
This creates tensions and divides people.
Who the devil does this?
We do. We feed off stories.

When we stop believing in stories, we can become disillusioned.
Now that is a perfect state to be in.
It seems only the disillusioned and the dissatisfied turn to the truth.

We may want to be learned, spiritual scholars,
but that doesn’t expose us to the raw experience of life.
Without that, how can we empathise with others’ suffering?
It takes one to know one.

To understand this, we need to look at the Four Noble Truths again.

1. All existence is suffering and dissatisfaction. Our lives are a struggle, and we don’t find ultimate happiness or satisfaction in anything we experience.

2. The cause of dissatisfaction is the mind itself, which created an ‘I’ identity that craves. We blame our difficulties on things outside ourselves, either grasping at them, or pushing them away. This places us at odds with the reality of life which is due to the karma we have collected, creating the life we have at present.

3. The cessation of dissatisfaction comes with the cessation of craving. As we are the ultimate cause of our difficulties, we are also the solution. We cannot change the things that happen to us, but we can change our responses in order avoid more of the same.

4. There are paths that lead away from dissatisfaction. The Buddha throws responsibility back on to the individual, because our path is undoing our individual confusion.

Thus:
We no longer believe in others’ stories.
We can no longer be manipulated.
We no longer blindly conform.

To put this simply …
we now know what we are doing!

We Will Never See the Truth
Until We Can Control Our Mind

Gently and slowly, take 10 breaths.
Breath in, pause. Exhale, pause. Count “One”.
Breath in, pause. Exhale, pause. Count “Two”.
And so on …

Be aware of thoughts, but do not follow them. If you do become distracted and forget what you are doing, go back to one and start again.

Gradually you will be able to do this without allowing any thoughts to occur. When you can reach 108, that’s pretty advanced (although we only have to count the breath for a moment or two to bring us back to realisation).

This is how we control our mind, stopping it from wandering and behaving in its habitual way. The ‘pause’ time – in which we notice that awareness is present – starts to lengthen as we relax. There is nothing else occurring, and we become more aware of awareness during the pause.

When looking into this awareness, we find nothing but awareness or consciousness. Finding nothing else, we realise that we are nothing but awareness or consciousness. The mind now ceases to control us. Thoughts will arise, but we know what is aware of these thoughts.

We don’t have to be perfect meditators. We just have to aware of what is happening in the mind, and that which is aware of those happenings. We may find (and will find) that the mind seems to become ‘worse’, with more thoughts. Good! This means we are noticing more.

When looking for the truth, we will never find it. It is only realised through becoming aware of that which is the seeing; that is the truth. We have been the truth all along. Stop looking. Just see.

One more step: when consciousness becomes aware of itself, it realises – in finding nothing else but consciousness – that that is pure consciousness, pure cognisance. That is the ultimate reality we seek. It’s not in a book.

Ordinary people can realise ordinary pure consciousness as, in truth, it’s nothing special. What is special is full realisation of enlightenment. You don’t see much of that around!

Are You Still Looking For Words … I Mean, Programming?

😀
The mind needs to be provoked, or it will just snooze on.

When we read words in books (or blogs), we get ideas. When we listen to words during teachings, we get ideas. In chanting texts, we become religious. Through studying those words, we become scholars.

For some, words are enough. For others, this isn’t satisfying because we need actual experience of those words, otherwise life seems pointless as we can no longer live through others’ ideas – we cannot take their word for things.

• Religious people (those who become bound) programme themselves by follow the rules through fear.

Religion: ‘obligation, bond, reverence’, perhaps based on Latin religare ‘to bind’.

• Scholars programme themselves by following the words in the hope of finding something new.

• Those who don’t care follow the crowd, and are programmed through indifference, while thinking they follow nobody.

In realising the influences of these three inclinations,

we develop wisdom and empathy through introspection.

No longer looking for words,
these come by themselves through realisation.

In our aloneness,
we are no longer alone!

‘Woke’ Is The Great Confidence Trick

‘Woke’ pretends to be awake,
but “woke” merely mean awake to some injustice,
rather than the wakefulness itself.

‘Woke’ is an insidious induction
giving rise to agitation, and therefore dullness of mind.
Making a noise confuses the mind.

Remember: we are awake.
When we know we are wakefulness itself,
we have perfect confidence.

If we expect wakefulness to be more splendid,
then we are deluded.
Wakefulness is spontaneous presence of being.

Spontaneous presence is pure consciousness
that sees all the tricks
as these are anything that causes a distraction.

It is empty cognisance that sees clearly.

We Don’t Realise That We Are Believers

The world has always been divided
into believers and non-believers.

We are all believers until we know.

There are believers who believe in an life after death,
whereas non-believers believe otherwise.
Likewise…
There are believers who believe this life is the only life,
whereas non-believers believe otherwise.

No one makes us believe;
we make believe ourselves.

It doesn’t matter what we believe,
true confidence and happiness
are the pure state of consciousness.

Anything that appears in the mind (the illusion)
is spontaneously recognised by pure consciousness.

When we see, we know.

Nobody Can Give Us Freedom

Nobody can give us freedom.
We have to realise that we have always been free.
We may be limited in a material sense,
but pure consciousness is free.
Never doubt that.

Society is a place of confinement.
The deluded inmates try to convince us
that this prison is our reality.
It may seem innocuous, real and safe, but limits our view.

When we realise this, we can happily exist,
as this confinement has no reality.
We can work within it when we know that we are free.

A teacher can help us,
but seeing the inmates’ behaviour
reveals the ‘reality’ of our situation.

Why Is Realisation Happiness?

Why is realisation happiness?
It is a release from misery.

Realisation isn’t a gain, it’s a loss.
We lose all that hopes … and fears … and ignorance.
🙂

Don’t Try To Wake Up When You’re Already Awake

We hear about people claiming to be ‘awake’, but awake from what?

We are all pure consciousness and, as such, are naturally awake, but we ignore this reality in favour of something illusory and banal. We mistake our acknowledgement of the imprisoning machinations in society as freedom when, in fact, we are still in a mental prison of ideas, dreaming of freedom.

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Power corrupts so, if we fight against corruption – and even win – we are now the corruptible. Pure consciousness is the compassionate intelligence above and beyond such things. Pure consciousness does not want power; it is power. It is awake now, and its expression is empathetic compassion.

In this new world order of things, people are claiming to be awake by trying to escape, rebelling against repression and propaganda within this physical world. In try to survive, we ignore our mental prison. We’re all in the same boat of wanting to be free when we are free.

Trying to wake up when we are awake is counter-productive and has the opposite effect, whereby we stay in our dream world. Mara (demonic activity) knows and exploits this. Becoming politically, economically, socially, spiritually involved in human affairs, we lose sight of our actual reality.

We are not going to change the world. Mara has organised repression for decades to come. Through the weapon of technology, propaganda is pumped out, day by day.

When we do wake up, we see that we see – and that is the freedom we seek. No one can pull the wool over our eyes again. Without holding on to this seeing, we just see, and can no longer be exploited.

Why is realisation happiness?
It is a release from misery..

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We Are Primed To Conform

Programming: a prewritten script.

The collective is guided and divided.
This why none of us has an original idea.
We have been primed to go off!

The moment in which we see,
we are free not to react.
Reacting is the prime intention.

There is no new ‘news’ under the sun.
😀

There Is No Other God But Our Silence

There is no other God but our silence.
In silent clarity, everything is answered.

Our only problem is that we make and enjoy noise.
Silence departs.

There no other God but our silence.