Surya,
“The mind is both the enslaver and the liberator”
I can agree with this, but for a totally different reason. Because without mind, to come to one’s awakening is impossible - the mind is like a bridge which can be used or which can stand as a barrier. It is the case with any instrument, not just the mind. Any instrument can be used in a thousand and one differnet ways depending on the hands which are using them. This is why in the yogic sciences, there have been usually two different approaches towards samadhi. Either you can cut off the stream of the senses and bring the mind into stillness and come to samadhi, or you can stimulate the mind and the senses and come to samadhi. Stimulation of the senses can be used as a skillful means, the same thing which in other approaches they have been trying to avoid. That is why there have been several tantric maxims which have said, “The very poison that kills becomes the elixir of life when used by the wise”, or “one must rise by that which one falls”, and that Bukti (enjoyment) can be used as a means towards mukti (liberation).
“but the same language can liberate us, when you can clearly label things, understand how things work, and then utilize those things towads our benefit.”
Our language is useful in that way, but if you start clinging to our words, descriptions, and knowledge - then they become barriers.
“Like it or not, you have to use language. You do live in a real world. You do have senses and you do have mind.”
That is great, it has taken millions of years of evolution for the mind and senses to develop to what they are now. But to have clarity into the mind, something beyond the mind is needed.
“If you did not use language, you would not know the difference between a snake and a rope”
To know the difference, no language is needed - just the capacity for seeing. Out of seeing, then perhaps you can say something about it to make the situation more easily accessible to others. But it should be understood - that everything that we are using in language has it’s roots in experience, and language is not a substitute for experience.
“Why, because we are separate conscious being”
I would question this.
“Buddhism went the nihilism path”
I am not a Buddhist, and there are a thousand and one things which I would not agree with in Buddhism. Truth is neither Buddhist, Hindu, or otherwise. But you are wrong - “Buddhism” is not nihilistic. Nihilism is itself another projection of the mind.
"Yeah, lets just annihilate ourselves and not make any efforts "
That is also inaccurate. If one knows anything about the training of the Buddhist monks - they have been just as arduous and one-pointed in their disciple as any other tradition, they are yogis.
"You expect us to throw away language, throw away control, throw away our ego, and just leave ourselves prey to nature. "
No, that is not my approach. Everything is to be seen, understood, developed, and integrated. Even the ego, when put where it belongs in one’s total structure, becomes supportive for one’s expansion. Nature has never put anything in one’s system without a precise function.
“For even to deny you, you would have to admit the one that denies. The fact that there is a you, who knows, sees, desires, feels is absolute.”
In a sense, there is. In a sense, there is not.
