Mystical Languages of Unsaying

Such a meaning event is not about a particular thing that can be defined or abstracted (a 'what'); rather, it is a repeated process in which the gaze is continually drawn away from the 'what,' eschewing any and all attempts at definition and reification.

“Such a meaning event is not about a particular thing that can be defined or abstracted (a 'what'); rather, it is a repeated process in which the gaze is continually drawn away from the 'what,' eschewing any and all attempts at definition and reification (Sells 1994, 215).”

While it may not entail the dramatic apparition of visionary or miraculous phenomena, this shift is the intimation of what Michael Sells has termed a 'meaning event,' one in which searching and its inbuilt dichotomizing tendencies give way to a recognition that there is nothing to see or to search for.

“while it may not entail the dramatic apparition of visionary or miraculous phenomena, this shift is the intimation of what Michael Sells has termed a 'meaning event,' one in which searching and its inbuilt dichotomizing tendencies give way to a recognition that there is nothing to see or to search for (DPG 317.1 in Esler 2023, 102-3).”

To conceptualize such a spiralling idea of the path, we must combine directional hierarchies with a more basic sense of absolute equality and identity, which keeps the hierarchies from becoming too rigid.

“In order to conceptualize such a spiralling idea of the path, we must combine directional [10] hierarchies-which are envisioned in terms of relative space and time and allow for spatial, moral and intellectual distinctions (i.e., the stages on the path)-with a more basic sense of absolute equality and identity, which keeps the hierarchies from becoming too rigid (Sells 1994, 213).”

The Dzogchen attitude is somewhat similar to that of Christian mystics Meister Eckhart and Marguerite Porete, who taught that virtuous deeds are pointless as an end in themselves but led active lives and would have regarded forceful cessation of activity as wilful action symptomatic of spiritual pride.

“Despite their radically different doctrinal backgrounds, the Dzogchen attitude is somewhat similar to that of the Christian mystics Meister Eckhart (ca.1260-ca.1328) and Marguerite Porete (d.1310), who both taught that virtuous deeds are pointless as an end in themselves but led active lives and would have regarded the forceful cessation of activity as a form of wilful action that is itself”