Malcolm is talking from a different context. Archaya Mahayogi Shridhar Rinpoche is talking about a different context (his point is not 'things are real, yet dream-like'). I am perfectly fine with describing everything as illusory as it is true that everything is unreal (as long as it is not mistaken to mean a dream that ceases and changes to an alternate or underlying absolute reality like Brahman upon waking up), or describing everything as like an illusion (as long as it is not being mistaken with a realist view of things being real yet resembling an illusion). As I wrote recently:Lotus_Bitch wrote: Damn, I really am confused. Thanks for posting this (Malcolm isn't a Loppon for nothing.) Do you think it completely undermines the whole article? I'm guessing the answer would be yes, huh?
Also, I beg to differ that the blog is complete nonsense. It has a bunch of articles from different traditions and different masters (some of ChNN's stuff is on there) and from people in the real world who has direct insight into Buddhas teachings. Though, not everyone would agree, but whatevs.
Can you post a link to the thread you quoted from?
To taiyaki: I think Namdrol/Malcolm was very insistent that it (what is empty) is not 'like an illusion' but really what is empty is 'illusory'. He made the comment that 'like an illusion' is still a realist POV. He has some good points there. Indeed 'like an illusion' should not be mistaken to mean something is real yet dream-like. It is pointing out that what appears is utterly empty of any real existence.
However, 'like an illusion but not an illusion' also points out that our perceptions are not something fabricated or projected in a way that they cease after 'waking up', as if when we 'wake up', we find an alternate or ultimate reality that transcends or lies beyond the appearances. There is in fact no ultimate reality beyond appearance, though there is the ultimate truth of emptiness, which is inseparable from luminous clarity and the appearances/display. Your awakening does not alter your pure sensory experience which pretty much goes on the same way (they are certainly not like a dream that disappears when you wake up), except now you are no longer projecting false imputations, and you are truly ‘tasting’ the vividness/luminosity of everything without any projection of self/Self.