Dirty Enlightenment (Peter Brown)
Calling Dr. Albert Hoffman
[My 1-star Amazon review (NDA) of "Dirty Enlightenment: The Inherent Perfection of Imperfection" by Peter Brown.]
I haven’t done drugs for many moons, but this book is so far out I almost felt like I was tripping while reading it. The author, Peter Brown, is a deep thinker steeped in Tibetan Buddhism, and his philosophical musings, which will seem profound and penetrating to the non-cognoscenti, are entertaining, if not demystifying. The book, in a nutshell, is a Reality consideration, and Brown attempts to enlighten us about Reality, or Being.
Brown begins his book by stating that “Reality is indescribableâ€â€”but, of course, he then proceeds to describe it: “So we are left with Reality apparently being wholly a mysterious “consciousness/energy field†consisting of nothing but itself as a unified, infinitely complex, ever-changing, never-repeating, open-ended whole, within which infinitely complex degrees of patternings are spontaneously, simultaneously appearing/disappearing. This is close to the true pcture.â€
Since Reality includes all that exists and nothing unreal could come from the Real, Brown informs us that “We have never experienced anything other than Reality.â€Â Brown restates this: Consciousness always experiences nothing other than its own energies.†I would restate this Ultimate “Point of View†as follows: Reality, or Being, or Isness, or Truth is Consciousness-Energy, or Siva-Shakti, and as such, It is the perfectly “Subjective Conscious “Experiencer†as well as the objects it experiences, which are gradient forms of Energy—from the highest, Clear-Light Energy (the Sambhogakaya), to the lowest, dense matter.
From this Ultimate “Point of View†of Mind-Only, everything that exists is simply a modification or permutation of this single Mind-Substance; therefore Reality is the play of Consciousness--Consciousness endlessly and creatively modifying itself as a universe of energies and existents while not being implicated by its own emanations, or created objects.
I have no problem with Brown’s “Ultimate Point of View,†but I don’t vibe with his points of view relative to this Reality. Further, he runs into problems because he doesn’t understand the difference between uncreated, or Divine, Energy, the Sambhogakaya, and created energy. (More on this later.)
Brown can’t grok the possibility of free will in his “Brownian†Universe. He informs us: “The bottom line is we don’t have any control.†Then how can consciousness in his words, “make the non-leap from confusion to clear seeing?†He answers: “Fortunately it does so by itself, motivated by its own inherent nature. In fact, until our consciousness internally motivated this leap to seeing, there is absolutely NOTHING we can do to MAKE it happen. Period. THERE IS NO PATH.†(Pardon the extreme capitalization, but that’s Brown’s LOUD style of writing.)
I couldn’t disagree more with Brown. Effortlessness, or unconditional self-surrender, does not cut it as a sadhana. Without spiritual “work,†namely conscious force (or presence + oneness), which is analogous to voltage in an electrical circuit, there can be no full flow of Grace (Clear-Light-Energy), which is analogous to amperage.
Brown, like all proponents of non-doing, ends up contradicting himself, because he then tells us we need to “open†(which implies a degree of conscious work). He writes: “And the point is if we open completely to the fullness of our experience in realtime as it is, we are seeing reality. Period. There is nothing more beyond this, this is the absolute, this is Tao/Teh. This is the Trikaya. Elsewhere Brown repeats the same meditation directive: “Become aware of all your experience as it is. Experience the full field of your experience, and your experiencing your full Reality. So how do you remone the filters to experience all our actual experience? Just notice it.â€
Brown’s description of real meditation, or opening to Reality, is PISS-POOR PATHETIC. PERIOD! Experiences have nothing to do with Ultimate Reality. One cannot “see†Reality until one can Be It, and one cannot Be it until one unites the Sambhogakaya and the Dharmakaya within oneself, the En-Light-ened Nirmankaya. Brown doesn’t have a foggy clue about the realization of Reality and the Trikaya, which, unbeknownst to Brown, is forever outside of realtime and realspace. Furthermore, THERE IS A PATH! And that path is consciously uniting one’s awareness (the contracted immanent Dharmakaya) with Clear-Light Energy (the Sambhogakaya). A Bodhisattva channels progressively greater “amounts†of Clear-Light Energy, until, finally, this Energy unites with the Divine element of his “soul†(the contracted, immanent Dharmakaya) in his Heart-cave (the Tathagatagarbha) and and he achieves Buddhahood, or Bodhicitta (En-light-ened Consciousness). The En-Light-ened Buddha, or Nirmanakya, by uniting the Sambhogakaya and Dharmakaya within his incarnational vehicle, realizes and embodies the Trikaya—and Tibetans call this realization and embodiment the Svabhavikakaya.
Brown fails to provide an integral Dzogchen method (which would necesarrily include Togal and Trekcho) for realizing Reality; instead, he resorts to a banal neo-Advaita Vedanta approach: simply notice. So, in a nutshell, Brown combines sophisticated Tibetan Buddhist metaphysics with superficial neo-Advaita Vedanta methodology. He identifies Reality and the Matrix obstructing its Realization, but doesn’t provide a clear, detailed map--a Red Pill that can awaken one to the Svabhavikakaya. Moreover, because he fails to differentiate between conventional, or conditional, reality and Ultimate Reality, even his “sophisticated†metaphysics falls apart in his philosophical arguments.
Brown makes numerous statements I don’t vibe with. I’ll quote some of the statements and provide my rebuttals in parentheses:
“All sensory experience, all mental experience, is pure Shakti, pure divine energy.†(False. Shakti, Divine Energy, the Sambhogakaya, is uncreated, acosmic, Light-Energy, not sensory or mental experience, which pertains to created, or cosmic, energies.)
A student inquires: “What’s the difference between being spaced-out and being enlightened?†Brown responds: “No difference. They are one and the same. Ultimate spacing out IS enlightenment.†(Turn on, tune in, and drop out, and, of course, space-out. Who said En-Light-enment takes discipline and work?)
A student inquires: “So we need to take care of our bodies, because they are the vessels of Spirit? Brown responds: “No we don’t need to take care of it, because it’s taking care of itself.†(According to Brown’s laughable quasi-Christian Science “logic,†if you get terribly sick or break bones, there is no need to go to a doctor, because the body will take care of itself.)
“At some point you might want to eat a hamburger, it might be what you need. It’s not like hamburgers are evil and healthfood is good.†(If you prefer Jack in the Box to Whole Foods, then Brown could be the spiritual teacher for you.)
“It’s a matter of noticing. It’s all a matter of acquiring perspective. Nothing needs to be different than it is. You just need to see what ACTUALLY is from the broadest possible perspective. Let your perspective be free. Get drunk every now and then. Take drugs. Meditate. Do different things.†(Yep, spiritual life is simple: Just notice and acquire a broad perspective. And be sure to add some hamburgers, beer and drugs to your life. And since “doing different things†will free and enlighten you, why not rob a convenience store to pay for your hamburgers, beer, and dope?)
A student inquires: “Have you read Jed McKenna? “ Brown responds: “Oh yes, I love his books, he’s a hoot.†(I gave Jed McKenna’a book “Spiritual Enlightenment: the Danmedest Thing†one star in my Amazon review.)
I really don’t think LSD, psilocybin, ecstacy, or ayahuasca are strong enough drugs to make Brown’s nonsense appear to make sense. Therefore, I’ve pulled out my ouija board and will be contacting the late Dr. Albert Hoffman on the Other Side to see if he can concoct a drug that will enable me to grok Brown’s “Dirty Enlightenment.â€Â
[My 1-star Amazon review (NDA) of "Dirty Enlightenment: The Inherent Perfection of Imperfection" by Peter Brown.]
I haven’t done drugs for many moons, but this book is so far out I almost felt like I was tripping while reading it. The author, Peter Brown, is a deep thinker steeped in Tibetan Buddhism, and his philosophical musings, which will seem profound and penetrating to the non-cognoscenti, are entertaining, if not demystifying. The book, in a nutshell, is a Reality consideration, and Brown attempts to enlighten us about Reality, or Being.
Brown begins his book by stating that “Reality is indescribableâ€â€”but, of course, he then proceeds to describe it: “So we are left with Reality apparently being wholly a mysterious “consciousness/energy field†consisting of nothing but itself as a unified, infinitely complex, ever-changing, never-repeating, open-ended whole, within which infinitely complex degrees of patternings are spontaneously, simultaneously appearing/disappearing. This is close to the true pcture.â€
Since Reality includes all that exists and nothing unreal could come from the Real, Brown informs us that “We have never experienced anything other than Reality.â€Â Brown restates this: Consciousness always experiences nothing other than its own energies.†I would restate this Ultimate “Point of View†as follows: Reality, or Being, or Isness, or Truth is Consciousness-Energy, or Siva-Shakti, and as such, It is the perfectly “Subjective Conscious “Experiencer†as well as the objects it experiences, which are gradient forms of Energy—from the highest, Clear-Light Energy (the Sambhogakaya), to the lowest, dense matter.
From this Ultimate “Point of View†of Mind-Only, everything that exists is simply a modification or permutation of this single Mind-Substance; therefore Reality is the play of Consciousness--Consciousness endlessly and creatively modifying itself as a universe of energies and existents while not being implicated by its own emanations, or created objects.
I have no problem with Brown’s “Ultimate Point of View,†but I don’t vibe with his points of view relative to this Reality. Further, he runs into problems because he doesn’t understand the difference between uncreated, or Divine, Energy, the Sambhogakaya, and created energy. (More on this later.)
Brown can’t grok the possibility of free will in his “Brownian†Universe. He informs us: “The bottom line is we don’t have any control.†Then how can consciousness in his words, “make the non-leap from confusion to clear seeing?†He answers: “Fortunately it does so by itself, motivated by its own inherent nature. In fact, until our consciousness internally motivated this leap to seeing, there is absolutely NOTHING we can do to MAKE it happen. Period. THERE IS NO PATH.†(Pardon the extreme capitalization, but that’s Brown’s LOUD style of writing.)
I couldn’t disagree more with Brown. Effortlessness, or unconditional self-surrender, does not cut it as a sadhana. Without spiritual “work,†namely conscious force (or presence + oneness), which is analogous to voltage in an electrical circuit, there can be no full flow of Grace (Clear-Light-Energy), which is analogous to amperage.
Brown, like all proponents of non-doing, ends up contradicting himself, because he then tells us we need to “open†(which implies a degree of conscious work). He writes: “And the point is if we open completely to the fullness of our experience in realtime as it is, we are seeing reality. Period. There is nothing more beyond this, this is the absolute, this is Tao/Teh. This is the Trikaya. Elsewhere Brown repeats the same meditation directive: “Become aware of all your experience as it is. Experience the full field of your experience, and your experiencing your full Reality. So how do you remone the filters to experience all our actual experience? Just notice it.â€
Brown’s description of real meditation, or opening to Reality, is PISS-POOR PATHETIC. PERIOD! Experiences have nothing to do with Ultimate Reality. One cannot “see†Reality until one can Be It, and one cannot Be it until one unites the Sambhogakaya and the Dharmakaya within oneself, the En-Light-ened Nirmankaya. Brown doesn’t have a foggy clue about the realization of Reality and the Trikaya, which, unbeknownst to Brown, is forever outside of realtime and realspace. Furthermore, THERE IS A PATH! And that path is consciously uniting one’s awareness (the contracted immanent Dharmakaya) with Clear-Light Energy (the Sambhogakaya). A Bodhisattva channels progressively greater “amounts†of Clear-Light Energy, until, finally, this Energy unites with the Divine element of his “soul†(the contracted, immanent Dharmakaya) in his Heart-cave (the Tathagatagarbha) and and he achieves Buddhahood, or Bodhicitta (En-light-ened Consciousness). The En-Light-ened Buddha, or Nirmanakya, by uniting the Sambhogakaya and Dharmakaya within his incarnational vehicle, realizes and embodies the Trikaya—and Tibetans call this realization and embodiment the Svabhavikakaya.
Brown fails to provide an integral Dzogchen method (which would necesarrily include Togal and Trekcho) for realizing Reality; instead, he resorts to a banal neo-Advaita Vedanta approach: simply notice. So, in a nutshell, Brown combines sophisticated Tibetan Buddhist metaphysics with superficial neo-Advaita Vedanta methodology. He identifies Reality and the Matrix obstructing its Realization, but doesn’t provide a clear, detailed map--a Red Pill that can awaken one to the Svabhavikakaya. Moreover, because he fails to differentiate between conventional, or conditional, reality and Ultimate Reality, even his “sophisticated†metaphysics falls apart in his philosophical arguments.
Brown makes numerous statements I don’t vibe with. I’ll quote some of the statements and provide my rebuttals in parentheses:
“All sensory experience, all mental experience, is pure Shakti, pure divine energy.†(False. Shakti, Divine Energy, the Sambhogakaya, is uncreated, acosmic, Light-Energy, not sensory or mental experience, which pertains to created, or cosmic, energies.)
A student inquires: “What’s the difference between being spaced-out and being enlightened?†Brown responds: “No difference. They are one and the same. Ultimate spacing out IS enlightenment.†(Turn on, tune in, and drop out, and, of course, space-out. Who said En-Light-enment takes discipline and work?)
A student inquires: “So we need to take care of our bodies, because they are the vessels of Spirit? Brown responds: “No we don’t need to take care of it, because it’s taking care of itself.†(According to Brown’s laughable quasi-Christian Science “logic,†if you get terribly sick or break bones, there is no need to go to a doctor, because the body will take care of itself.)
“At some point you might want to eat a hamburger, it might be what you need. It’s not like hamburgers are evil and healthfood is good.†(If you prefer Jack in the Box to Whole Foods, then Brown could be the spiritual teacher for you.)
“It’s a matter of noticing. It’s all a matter of acquiring perspective. Nothing needs to be different than it is. You just need to see what ACTUALLY is from the broadest possible perspective. Let your perspective be free. Get drunk every now and then. Take drugs. Meditate. Do different things.†(Yep, spiritual life is simple: Just notice and acquire a broad perspective. And be sure to add some hamburgers, beer and drugs to your life. And since “doing different things†will free and enlighten you, why not rob a convenience store to pay for your hamburgers, beer, and dope?)
A student inquires: “Have you read Jed McKenna? “ Brown responds: “Oh yes, I love his books, he’s a hoot.†(I gave Jed McKenna’a book “Spiritual Enlightenment: the Danmedest Thing†one star in my Amazon review.)
I really don’t think LSD, psilocybin, ecstacy, or ayahuasca are strong enough drugs to make Brown’s nonsense appear to make sense. Therefore, I’ve pulled out my ouija board and will be contacting the late Dr. Albert Hoffman on the Other Side to see if he can concoct a drug that will enable me to grok Brown’s “Dirty Enlightenment.â€Â
