More Complexity = More Reliance
Everything in the world has become more elaborate than is necessary.
When spirituality becomes complicated, we may hear words, but do we experience them?
I speak as one who has sat through decades of lectures and retreats. Why so much talking? It just led to doubts and fantasies. When people start saying they saw a black bird, a cloudless sky, a rainbow, and it meant something … one does wonder.
The creation and construction of a beautiful Kalachakra sand mandala is mesmerising and enthralling – but is it necessary for realisation? It is the Tibetan culture.
When the dream is dispersed,
the veil is lifted,
and the reality is a shock.
A bird is just a bird.
A clear sky is just a clear sky.
A rainbow is just a rainbow.
Emptiness is just emptiness.
BUDDHA IN THE MUD is a blog - a living book based on the Dzogchen teachings. Our teacher is life, and life is karma. We are all Buddhas in the mud of concepts. 
So the mind is just a mind and not a mirror obscured by dust? The moon is just a moon and not a reflection in a pond?
Buddhism is full of metaphors, analogies and similies, as are all religions. And poetry as well. They have all been used effectively as teaching tools to achieve the desired result.
It is the thoughts in the mind that obscure the mirror of consciousness. When it is said that the moon is reflected in the pond, it illustrates their inseparability – non-duality. Appearance and that which perceives appearance are at one.
The desired result is to experience and understand the meaning of words.
This is our personal path, as one size does not fit all.
We learn sequentially, through personal experience.
Tony
Thanks Tony but I wasn’t really talking about the mind or the moon. I was talking about using metaphors, analogies and similies in religious texts and poetry. It’s been done for thousands of years. A bird might be just a bird but if you are teaching and want to keep people interested it can be much more. Otherwise we might all as well just read the dictionary.
Reality is beyond words. We have to use them to get the general flavour of meaning.
The ‘so much more’ is personal realisation. We all come to a realisation in our own way. But, the things we discover, suddenly become redundant.
Going deeper, we go alone, but this doesn’t attract others. Some things aren’t easy to explain so we use metaphors but the overuse of these can become mechanical and the effect is lost.
Personally I love dictionaries as they can throw more light on original meaning.
The Dharma isn’t a history lesson of stories, it is going deeper within to realise what we are.
As you suggest, this could be boring to most people.
Your comments are beneficial.
Tony