Defending words, redeeming thought

[Nikolai1]

A thought is a thing in itself - a moment of reality no less real than a perception, although equally as unreal and fleeting.

 

The same is the case for words, which are at the same time both symbols of other realities, and present moments pregnant with their own power. The word 'Fire!' shouted carries a powerful emotional charge.

 

The task is not to belittle words by reducing them to be mere symbols. Try and live always in the present moment impact of the word. This way we shall discover the immense depths in the event that is a word.

 

The word will teach us more about reality than it ever can should we reduce it to be a mere symbol of something else.

 

We imagine that the word is a symbol because the word inspires mental imagery. These images are also their own reality, but because they are dimly perceived by the mind's eye we imagine that these images are also symbols of other time, places and things.

 

Al this is a vicious circle. The more we believe in the existence other times and places, the more we reduce the living word to be a symbol of other things.

 

Focus on the word. Feel it deeply. Concentrate on the word that is Now and do not belittle it.

 

All words are sacred. They have their legitimate place in the flow of reality. The connection between things, thoughts and words is not arbitrary. The word 'rose' is as inviolably linked to the flower as is the thorn and the perfume. The name is a physical trait of that which is named.

 

Language is the sixth sense of mankind. A word is a smell and a vision. in some people this sense is deficient, in others very strong.

 

The names for things are not accidental. The poet coins the name, and the people know and feel that the name is the correct one and that there could be no other. The bards of related tribes come up with the same word, or close words without converse with other bards.

 

In modern times a true neologism is a rare thing, such bards are not needed now. For our new creations we give old names already accepted. A new thing to mankind will remain unnameable, at first. This has always been the case for the mystic who cannot express what they have found.

 

Words and thoughts are not always harmful to the spiritual seeker. They are only harmful to that type of consciousness that insists as understanding the word only as a symbol. Words therefore perpetuate their division between self and world which is itself the life of sin.

 

But when we view the word directly, in itself...this is the consciousness of the liberated.