Intellectual Knowledge Dazzles Most People.

[MalaBeads]

At the moment that is all I really wanted to say. Understand what intellectual knowledge is and go beyond it. There is a realm of direct knowledge, that has nothing to do with concepts. Unfortunately, most people are continually dazzled by the intellect. If a human being is exceptionally verbal, he or she can dazzle others with this and therefore give enormous power to that person. For a dzogchen yogi, this is bogus. Through and through. Dont be dazzled by that which will, in the end, destroy the world. Robert Oppenheimer understood this all too well.

[Simon E.]

I wouldn't go that far. The intellect is a very good tool. I don't think we would be communicating on the internet without it's application by Tim Berners-Lee.

But its certainly true as one of my colleagues used to say, that ' Bullshit Baffles Brains '....

[MalaBeads]

I am not against science at all. Often I am very much in the science camp, "yay, science", "go science." But you have to know it for what it is, intellectual knowledge. Science is very much samsaric. It deals with the samsaric world. Now, at a certain point, samsara IS nirvana, as the man said. There isn't anything else. As they say, "this is it". But if you start there, thinking you can dazzle people with intellectual knowledge, well, I'm sorry but i think that will be the end of the world.

Just my thoughts.

[steve_bakr]

There is intellectual knowledge and experiential knowledge. There can be a lot of value in intellectual knowledge. It can provide pointers to Rigpa and the nature of mind. But Dzogchen is more about experience, I just heard ChNN say that. My own experience is inexpressible, very difficult to articulate. Sometimes I will hear or read something that resembles what I experience, but never comprehensively. When the intellect becomes too theoretical, it moves away rather than closer to the experience. If you experience Rigpa, you are not required to articulate a sophisticated description. Conversely, a sophisticated description is not a verification of the experience.

[tingdzin]

If you want to dazzle people, display your intellection (real or bogus). If you want to be dazzled by the Web of Lotus Light, practice more.

[Johnny Dangerous]

It takes very little to dazzle, period. Spectacle is nearly always valued over substance.

[maybay]

Well there is also craft, which is not knowledge in the typical sense. It's techne vs episteme.
If you rubbish the great equaliser that is rational knowledge, legitimacy and inclusiveness are made more difficult. Craft is hard to explain. Only the talented succeed. The same could be said for Dzogchen.

[lobster]

Well there is also craft, which is not knowledge in the typical sense.

Exactly so. Without craft, no travel, no skill, no Way ...

Dazzle, glitter, common and uncommon sense are meaningless without skilfull means ...