Academic Limits

There are fundamentally three factors which act together in the actuality of something. The first two factors must interact in opposition while the third mediates. This is like the principle of a sailboat. The wind and the resistance of the sail are in opposition. If the vessel is unmanned, it will only go where wind and tides capriciously dictate. But when a pilot holds on to the tiller and controls the rudder, using strength to keep it steady, specific directions and destinations become possible.

To continue the reply to J.L.’s post:

[3] there’s no point upgrading to a better delusion.
[4] there’s no point to anything.
[5] meaning and truth are linguistic constructs.
[6] all there is is the cosmic dance and the primordial ground it emanates from.

3. Dzogchen “practice” is presumably the upgrade you mean to reference. In that case, you are then confounding two very distinct states of mind. Certainly, if someone is doing Dzogchen practice while under the influence of delusion, self-liberation will not result. However, the real meaning of Dzogchen practice does not refer to a specific meditation technique — it refers to a specific state of mind, from which context any meditation technique becomes Dzogchen practice. The two states you are confounding are delusion and clarity. A deluded state is characterized by the mistake of identification and reification. Clarity, in the specific Dzogchen sense, is devoid of those mistakes. The imaginal content can be the same in both cases, but this content is understood differently depending on whether one is in a state of delusion or a state of clarity. So, although Dzogchen practice does have some unique features in the material sense, the real magic lies in the level of one’s understanding. As I have previously explained, understanding (in the Dzogchen sense) is the meeting-point of knowledge and level-of-being. With any particular knowledge, understanding increases directly as the ascent of level-of-being. Therefore, the advocation of Dzogchen practice is not the advocation of upgrading to a better delusion.

4. The statement, “There’s no point to anything”, correctly characterizes of the situation of someone who endeavors to succeed in ordinary life. But lamenting such pointlessness is an indication of being hung up in life and lacking the knowledge of cosmic development. If someone has knowledge of cosmic development and recognizes one’s own current place in that cosmic scale, the situation will seem much more grim than there merely being no point. From a cosmic perspective, there definitely is a point, however, it does not include or afford any benefit whatsoever to individuals. This is an extremely important matter. Genuine spiritual teachings are for the benefit of individual living beings. How these teachings benefit beings is by revealing ways in which individuals can change their own level-of being. Level-of-being means one’s functional level of being. For example, a human is at a much higher level-of-being than a snail. And a god, like Yahweh, has a much higher level-of being than a human. Even though all individual living beings are primordially identical in essence, their momentary capacity to function willfully varies greatly. The point of the Dzogchen teaching is to reveal, in oneself, direct access to the highest level-of being: Being-as-such, Buddha-nature, etc. In Dzogchen this highest level-of-being is called Bodhicitta. The Dzogchen teachings can facilitate our discovering this highest level-of being which is our own primordial potential. The point of that will be definite as well as compelling to anyone whose mind-stream has been sufficiently inoculated with the wisdom and mercy of enlightened beings.

5. I disagree with this. There is pre-linguistic meaning as well as pre-linguistic truth. Anyway, language is both temporal-qua-symbolic and essential-qua-immanence. So, any connection language has with meaning and truth — even a possible (however unlikely) monopoly — doesn’t really change anything.

6. Many people who are passionate about dancing take dance lessons. It is well known that dance lessons received from a master dancer can unlock complete freedom of movement in the student.