Our conceptions about what the Buddha taught are false insofar as we have not realized our true nature or Mind. I should add, that even our conceptions about true or perfect Mind are false. Yet, we believe that we can reach the true by way of the false! In fact, whatever we conceive of only acts to obstruct us. Conceptualizing terms like awakened and ignorant, nirvana and samsara, liberation and dependent origination, are obstructions.
Of course we all agree that it is easy to distinguish a conceptual fire from a real fire. On the other hand, it is extremely difficult to distinguish a conceptual Buddha-nature from the actual one. We are all familiar with real fires; we’ve seen them since we were children. But we never once saw ‘Buddha-nature.’
We have plenty of help with obstructions, too. We have teachers who help our conceptualizing mind to become even more conceptually bloated. Still, this doesn’t mean we can’t realize our true nature in one instant after which, for the first time, we can distinguish pure Mind from our impure mind (this is like distinguishing clear water from muddy water).
At some point we come to sense that we are bloated with conceptions about our true nature. We are not getting anywhere and everything we try seems to be an exercise in futility. At this stage we are finally getting ready for a breakdown: the point at which we let go of our concepts all at once.
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