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.

The Value Of Comments

To make the Dharma practical rather then believable, feedback is vital – even genuine critical feedback. The Dharma is absolutely adaptable, with different emphases to suit individuals.

One size/pill doesn’t fit all. If we hold back a feeling, we will become stuck there, and achieve no release. This blog isn’t advertised; people come here through serendipity = karma.

(If you do comment, you don’t have to leave a name or email contact – that is a wordpress invention. Just type your words and click ‘Comment’.)

Authorities Monitor Our Thinking

Authorities monitor our thinking
so that we think the way they do.

It’s easier to control people that way.
Whether it’s government, religion, media … it’s all about group-think.

When we can monitor our own thoughts,
we are free to see their limiting effects.

That monitoring is meditation.

We Are Already In Nirvana, Looking Out

Nirvana: Extinguished self

We (pure consciousness) are already in Nirvana, but don’t realise it, in favour of being locked into an idea of a ‘me’, a ‘self’. We are enlightened beings ignoring what we are, and identifying with beliefs which cause us to create, therefore firing-up self.

This identification with beliefs and creation obscures our reality.

Once we realise our true essence, our view changes. What is important changes. We still do our daily chores, but this is to create the time and space to remember what we are.

The world is in a very dark place;
reacting to it deepens our attachment to darkness.

Acknowledge that it is the light of consciousness
which naturally extinguishes the darkness.

Riddles Control Our Thoughts

Our thoughts are cliches, overused to the point of losing their originality, and becoming unproductive. we are merely repeating conventional understanding and so, our thoughts are not our own and we live a narrow existence. We actually talk in riddles, thus maintaining circling confusion.

Interpreting these riddles – such as “Are we created, or do we create ourselves?” – results in speaking in tongues, making hollow sounds with no substance.

When we can experience the rawness of life for ourselves, the question arises, “How do I feel about this?” There is no immediate answer, as there is a cause to discover. When we no longer have to believe in others’ habitual riddles, the mind opens up to all possibilities.

As the Buddha said, “Do not take my word for truth; test it for yourself.”

The word ‘riddle’ shares its origin with the word ‘read’, both stemming from the Germanic verb rēdaną, which meant ‘to interpret, to guess’.

Know the mind,
and know how whatever’s in it got there.
😀

Knowing The Universe and Consciousness

Everything creates an opposite: attraction and repulsion.
If there is an up, there must be a down.
If there is dark, it is only known because there is light.
If there is confusion, it is seen by clarity.

This is why taking sides creates conflict,
because it’s not the complete picture.

The truth is in the unity of opposites.
A mirror (consciousness) and its reflections (mind).
Heaven and hell.

No intellectualisation is necessary.
No ritual is necessary.

The universe (empty space) and consciousness (empty space) abide by the simple principles of attraction and repulsion / hope and fear. Transcending these principles or natural laws is the wisdom of pure consciousness – panoramic vision.

This is why we have to be very careful what we listen to as the opposite will also occur. 🙂

Can Spirituality Be Organised?

When we are meditating, sitting in silent awareness,
there is no organised religion.

There is no duality; there isn’t even a meditator.
There is no ‘we’.

Being Religious Or Non-Religious

Being religious is being bound to an idea.

Religious: relating to or believing in.
Religion: being bound.

We are all attached to some idea, be it in a form of religion, politics, science, entertainment, appearance, education … it’s all in the mind.

‘Religion’ is an oxymoron: a figure of speech that is a concept with opposite meanings – it’s a contradiction, a paradox. We can be so against religion that we are religious about it 🙂

The whole point of being conscious is freeing ourself from elaborate attachments which are all in the mind. We are bound by chosen distractions but, in the moment of just seeing, we’re free of attachments. No elaborations are necessary.

This is what meditation is – just seeing.
Just seeing is clarity, and clarity is divine splendour.
Divine? Divine: Supreme reality.
Supreme? Supreme: that is above all concepts.

Freedom is not being enslaved.

When Consciousness Is Present, There Is No Ego

Consciousness is individual freedom.
Ego is consciousness ignoring itself and clinging to an idea which creates an organised ‘I’. This ‘I’ runs amuck in the mind, confusing consciousness. When we look at the ‘media’, it is constantly creating fear and attraction, which keeps us distracted, and ignorant of our true reality.

Mind terrorises consciousness but, when this is realised, it now serves as a reminder not to believe anything, and to recognise that pure consciousness is constantly present.

This is why evil can never totally succeed,
and why they constantly have to think up alternative distractions.

All the while, pure consciousness appreciates their efforts.
😀

Catch It While You Can

We may say, “There is no God”, but we’ve been brought up in a system that promotes the idea of God.

Let’s say we’re Buddhist; when something suddenly happens, we might automatically exclaim,“My God!” or “God! What was that?” That is old brain at work, and we didn’t notice it.
We never say, “My Buddha!” 🙂

Old brain has been indoctrinated, and affects our current mind.
Catch it while you can!

TRUTH IS ON A NEED-TO-KNOW BASIS

Truth Is On A Need-To-Know Basis

Those who don’t need to know think they already know.
For those who need to know, the door will open.

Irrelevant Communication Wastes Life

As humans, we have the ability to talk and communicate at the highest level.
So, what do we talk about?

Our speech is a manifestation of our mind,
and our mind is a manifestation of our interests,
while our interests are a manifestation of old brain.
And so we are reduced to being recording machines swapping histories.

Communication should be about being homo sapiens = wise beings,
but we become fluent in flaunting our foolishness.

Simple speech, pure speech, is always about now.

The Not-So-Invisibility Cloak

This cloak is the idea of self which we project to others – who are doing the very same thing. It has no reality, but we believe that others can’t see our disguise. Pure consciousness is x-ray vision, while we ignore this in favour of a mutually accepted social contract of behaviour.

When we’re young, we are taught to believe the dream, and ignore that we have a true reality. We play and act in others’ dreams. Just take watching a sport; first, we just see it, but then we watch others over-react and do the same. Instead of silent appreciation, we make gross noises.

That is the disguise we all wear, be it politics, entertainment, science, religion … we jump on the bandwagon of illusions, never admitting that we aren’t actually interested in the hoopla, and all the unnecessary fuss because we know that such an admission would upset those around us.

It’s all smoke and mirrors*; when examined closely, it proves to be an illusion.

This is our life.
But there is so much more.

*Smoke and mirrors is a metaphor, originating from 18th and 19th-century phantasmagoria shows, and describes deceptive, fraudulent or insubstantial explanations.