Creative Language (A means to an end)
Saturday 29 Dec 2012
Creative Language,
I have been thinking recently about language and how important it is to our comprehension and creation of the world as we know it. It is not something that is normally explored because it happens sub-consciously, but with the speed of change in the way we relate to the world it becomes a great Chicken & Egg question. Do we create the world with our language or is it all inherently there waiting for us to discover?
There is no question that our consciousness over time has changed enormously. There are still examples of tribal consciousness to be found in the world today. These are situations where ones life is tied directly into the tribe. Health and welfare and even you're very being is dependent on the tribe. Comprehension and perception of the world is through the tribal agenda and tribal language reflects this.
Today, for most of us we have an individual self-awareness. For better or worse we have embraced the world of individuality, although Country and Clan and Family identities are still strong and are reflected in the way we think, relate and communicate.
Notice though that our individual consciousness can be expanded in many ways. This computer I am writing on and its connection to the world through the Net feels very much a part of me. My thoughts go onto the screen and I own them, perhaps even more than if I just spoke them normally! The machine feels like it is part of my consciousness in the same was as my car does when I drive. My identity extends through the steering to the wheels. If I happen to dent a mudguard, it just as much a shock as if I grazed my leg with a fall.
So individual consciousness extends into many areas and will shape our view of the world depending on the way we are relating. We perceive things through a myriad of physical devices and I have not even started to consider the filters of our mental conditioning. Each person develops their own perceptions from their own mental formations and then goes on to feel and shape their view of the world to suit.
This is where I believe language has a huge affect.
A Perth friend close to me attended school back in a time when dyslexia was not known about. The result for her was that she could not spell. She made a fantastic job of phonetic spelling but has used tricks all her life to make sure she can spell the words she has to spell properly, say at the Bank or Post Office. She has made a great job of her life, but not without her problems. Her comprehension of situations and the words that she hears spoken are often very differently interpreted compared with what others will understand they have said or meant. She is a powerful woman so her point of view is not to be trifled with and she will garner support for what she thought happened. You can imagine that it has left her with a life full of tension and trouble combined with a deep anger she tries to suppress. Her situation does not get better and cannot without external intervention and help following some self-awareness. Self-awareness is difficult though when you "know" you are right about your world view! Happily for her she has good self-confidence and manages her life well enough with the help of her very supporting immediate family. She also has an understanding and caring network of friends who see that she has an innate goodness, especially when her anger is under control. This story illustrates the way that language shapes our individual world and how the feedback from us shapes the wider world.
Words, their meaning and the way that they are spoken all feed into the perception of what we think is happening. The mental flow takes the shape of the perception and feeds into feelings which develop the emotions, which then feedback through the physical form until we can see clearly (from our perspective) what it is we are conditioning ourselves to experience. More layers of conditioning, more certainty. We may be part of a group experiencing a powerful event where we can be certain of the outcome and consequences and then make judgements that seem impeccable, but seen from a different perspective, we may see that what we have understood and done is totally abhorrent. Derren Brown the UK Illusionist has done many experiments to show situations like this to good effect.
Consciousness is a very slippery thing. It is the energy force at the base of our human experience but we know very little about it scientifically. As I have mentioned elsewhere, as our language around consciousness gets better with clearer definitions scientists may be able to work with it more. It is however a force that can be experienced directly in meditation. It can be seen as a conditioned stream of energy that permeates the Universe. All the forces in nature are attached to it and it shapes and conditions our Universe. We in turn condition the stream of consciousness.
Because consciousness is a conditioned force, that is, it arises dependant on other conditions for its existence; it is therefore not a permanent thing. It is subject to change and can be seen to finish in the stillness of deep meditation. There is no doubt that if a being were to finish with their life in a state of this perfect stillness there would not be another birth for that being, because there would be no stream of consciousness to carry the rebirth.
The stream of consciousness carries our individual story or Karma in a way analogous to a sine wave that carries individual radio signals, piggy backed onto the main wave. The sine wave is modulated with these individual frequencies. Carrying the analogy further, we have our own individual frequency to tune into, and that frequency helps support the main energy wave. When our individual frequency is subsumed in the stillness we finish with the main wave, and our individuality is finished temporarily if we are still alive, but absolute unconditioned peace will be known if we happen to experience real death in that stillness. This takes a lot of good practice though!
I have written a poem to try and capture a sense of what has just been said by exploring language back through time as conditions that were being built up into what we see today. Language is obviously very important to the way we see the world and important to understand if we are to develop the wisdom to see past the conditions and into the Absolute Truth of the Unconditioned.
