Tagged: words

Notes on Quotes: Words

In most of our civilized world, the use of words has utmost importance. Although words are only instruments, signals to communicate we have been conditioned to believe that a word has consistency in itself. The word is the thing, for all practical purposes. If I talk about “God,” every person has a different meaning in their head of that word, but yet their own belief, their own conditioning will filter and accept the words I use or reject them based on their view upon that word. Very seldom we realize that perhaps we have used the same word but with different meanings.

“So difficult it is to show the various meanings and imperfections of words when we have nothing else but words to do it with.”
—John Locke

Words cannot describe the indescribable. Words as they are in many languages are the invention of a dualistic mind. Their view and perception will lead an unaware individual to perceive only separation, antagonism and conflict.

“The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.”
—Thomas Jefferson

As words intensify their confusion as they add up in sentences, less is better.

“Words may show a man’s wit, but actions his meaning.”
—Benjamin Franklin

In our society, most have decided to select pretty and witty words given by politicians and entertainers over their word’s meaning, that is their actual actions.

Always short of words

Life cannot be explained through words.
Any attempt to explain it becomes only a limited perspective.

 “Seekers” embrace different belief systems with the attempt to explain Life: “After you die, your spirit will continue on…” That is one belief which will separate into other beliefs: You will either go to heaven or hell OR you will take birth again in another body. But there are many other alternatives. Then, the confused “seeker” will want to know the “truth.” What is the “truth”?

Whatever it is, it cannot be explained through language without using our conditioned mind and limited experiences to make sense of something completely new. Thus, be aware that many times all we get are just mental speculations until we experience the experience ourselves.

Let us say that we live in the 1600. We see a supersonic fighting plane in our dreams.
Observe that anyway we explain the dream, it will be short from the truth. We could say something like: “I dreamt about a very fast flying object.” I cannot say “plane” for that label is not yet known. My description will be very lame.
What material is the plane made of? How fast does it fly on the sky? What sort of engine it uses? I saw something but I don’t know much about it. I can only use my limited past experience to explain something new. However, if someone else had the same dream, little words will suffice for mutual understanding.

The same concept applies with any explanation that individuals have about Life and the afterlife or the spirit world, etc. They may have experienced things but in the language that they use to transmit their experiences to others; there is plenty of inaccuracies and assumptions.

Therefore, any explanation of the unknown, is limited by knowable terms.
It is said that Gautama Buddha was silent when someone asked him about God. What was the general interpretation?
“Buddha does not know God. Buddha is an atheist, that is why he is silent.” However, I can see know his compassion. Silence is the alternative to an amicable lie.

Similarly, a state of being which hasn’t been experienced, cannot be understood intellectually through words. For instance, the use of comparisons is typical in our society. Our language thrives through the use of comparisons, without them we could not understand properly what someone means.

A self-realized individual does not compare with others. His BEING does not depend on the duality of higher/lower than, but yet when using language to make a point, a comparison may need to be used.
What is the general misinterpretation? A person cannot be self-realized if he is comparing. People driven by the mind, typically judge based on language alone. “He said this, therefore; he IS like that.”

Any knowing that is worthwhile in Life, is not reflected in just words. Look beyond the words. The mystery of Life is not meant to be explained through belief systems. None of them could have “truth” when our dualistic language cannot allow it. The mystery of Life is meant to be lived, experienced and that “knowing” cannot be transmitted to another. It has to be lived, experienced to be understood.

In our society to “re-invent the wheel” is considered to be a waste of time and resources. However, in Life; that is the way to legitimately know. 🙂

Nothing but the “truth.”

Many seekers are all enticed by the “truth.”
Finding the  spiritual “truths” in books, or talks becomes their motivation, as if the truth could be written or shared to another.
When we deal with the “Office world,” truth could be a synonym of “fact.”
When we look at Life, any fact could be viewed from many perspectives depending on our state of consciousness.

Death of a person could be a “fact” of termination, a “fact” of a new beginning, or a “fact” of continuation.
In the “Office world,” Death is a fact of “loss.”
What is the only truth of those “facts” about death?
Caught up in meaningless words, questions and answers, we are unable to see the journey.

In this blog, I share a journey, which is my truth.
From my first post here on 2/26/12 to the last one as of today, 10/31/16. That is the journey. No one using human language could ever share “truth.”

The truth is not what you believe in. It is not what is widely accepted. The “theory” that “majority cannot be wrong;” is just conditioning for those who believe in “right or wrong.” The “majority rule” could be a fact in the “Office world,” where the important thing is to sell stuff, economics, supply and demand, etc. but in Life… that is just a perspective based upon collective consciousness, conditioning.

Observe your own journey. Do you see the changes?
Many times we will not be able to notice dramatical changes, for there is an orderly process, a day by day subtle movement; but if you go back to the first day in your Life that you have recollection of; and then switch to today, you may see them. Everything is cool when changes are gradual, but when Life changes course immediately, a 180 degrees turn, that is when the ego is swamped by trauma. The ego does not like change; that is why, it separates from Life.

The truth of living Life in joy, cannot be found in books, seminars, talks, etc.
Just like a self–realized individual is not standing behind certifications, degrees and many years of living under a religious/spiritual dogma.
Living Life in awareness, feeling it; may give us more than answers. It gives us fulfilment.

Feel Life empty of words. Feel beauty without the word beauty.
The word beauty, creates ugliness and that is how innocence is lost.
It is not the word, but our strong belief in that word, the ideal, the mind.

Lighten up from the heavy hindrance of conditioning.
Allow for the heart to lead your direction.
Love will no longer be a pretty word, a cliché to hide our inability to feel.

The truth is in the depth of our feelings not in the complications of the mind and its emotions.

Truth is already within us and the journey, Life is there to become aware of it.  🙂

Finding God

Some individuals have an idea that God is “someone,” (HIM but not HER) according to their experiences or belief systems. There are others, who have experienced the fusion of their “self” with everything else, as when the drop of the Ocean forgets to be just a drop, to become the Ocean itself.
What do they call that experience?
To be one with God.

As that experience was related to others without the experience, misunderstanding occurred.

“I am God and so are you.”
The “I” thinking to be God. That is a gross misunderstanding.

God is probably the most misunderstood word in spirituality. All definitions of God, from different believers do not match. All experiences from different believers are not the same… but yet, ironically some will call their experience, their belief, their definition or concept to be the “Only Truth.” Do you see the issue? It is ONLY about the “I” who expects to be “right.”

That is why, it becomes prevalent to look at that which is the only thing you can only know in its entirety, without intermediaries; that is YOU.

The “know yourself” is not another concept, another belief for we cannot define it, cannot put it in words.

Observe. Find out who is that “I.” Find out if the mind is that “I” or the “I” has a mind. Find out if the “I” produces thoughts. Just observe thoughts without using the mind to ask questions such as: Where do they come from? How can I stop them? The minute you use words to describe your internal universe, that is the minute your description becomes a lie.

Why? Words are static. Life is not. Words convey duality. Life is not. Words separate. Life is not. Thus, how could we use a tool which does not fit the job?

Any spirituality where literal words are used as “truth”… is truly a lie. There cannot be such a thing as the “holy words of God.”
Life cannot be described in words, thus; to learn about YOURSELF may be all there is, away from words.

We cannot know about that “someone else” who is known as God, for to know means to BE; but when “Your-self” is “no-self;” there is no difference between that ego-less “someone else” and “you.” Then, you know… “God.”

Words do not allow me to go deeper, for I cannot express myself clearly in English, if I don’t use the pronouns “I” and “You.” But let me add that what may be “real” is well beyond those 2 words. We are trapped in pretty words, in the mind.

Someone who has an “I” cannot know God.

That is known as “self-realization” or “God realization” or to make it less religious: Awakening.

Hoping on Hope

When the box of Pandora was opened out of curiosity, all evils spread out around the world. Pandora closed the box and only one “evil” remained: Hope.

In “Spirituality 101,” the word “hope” is used as some sort of virtue.
“I have hope in the world.” “Let us hope for the best,” etc. All catchy phrases, dreamy states of consciousness…

“To be positive is to be hopeful.” Another pretty phrase without much meaning.

Observe how hope arises as a desire for a particular outcome, an expectation. That outcome is what we believe to be convenient for us or for someone.

Once a seeker “grows up,” to be hopeful of a particular outcome is to live in a wishful tense,  the future.
That wish or hope is not consistent with “what is” now. It is just a mind trick.

It is through that hope how we could create a dormant state of consciousness.

Many times the hope of some future event will even stop our  need to experience in Life. Something will present to us, it is there; but we will not take it “now,” for there is “hope” in the future that something else, “better” will come up.

This hope is a mental distress, a mental issue.

Let us not confuse hope with a “gut feeling.”
Yes, I could postpone something, but it is not out of hope for something “better,” but it is a “gut feeling” which is advising me not to do/take something now. That is it. There is no information as if something “better” will happen at another time. No expectation.

Once we realize that all of those pretty words called “virtues” are merely concepts, then we will not be concerned on definitions for “spiritual” keywords.

A tiger is strong. The word “strong” is qualifying the tiger. The word “strong,” is a way of comparison. The tiger is strong compared to a squirrel, but not to a Blue Whale.
Without the word “strong” the tiger “is.”
Of course, when speaking we need to say something about the tiger, so we add a word, we believe it, we assume it, and we keep that mental association of “strong,” with the word tiger.

In reality, a tiger is neither strong nor weak.
In reality, there is no room for hope, but for “what is.”

The beauty of no-words

When a spiritual teaching is meant to increase ego, it is all about “becoming,” changing, transforming, conquering. When a teaching is meant to decrease ego, it is about peeling, unlearning, taking away.
Both teachings are necessary according to the consciousness and level of awareness of an individual.
That is why, there is no religion able to bring “enlightened” individuals in mass production.
Self-realization is not for the masses. It requires an individual who is ready, ripe, full of blossoming ego, to overcome the emotional pain of being someone different (Catharsis.)

We ARE already complete, but we have acquired layers of “knowledge” to identify with, set of beliefs to follow, and gathered traumatic experiences in Life which are difficult to accept by an ego in pain. Things did not occur the way we desired, so we felt hurt… and to make it a deeper wound; we decided not to forget that incident.

When the baggage is gone; thoughts will diminish in our minds as clouds dissipate in a sunny afternoon. We could look at things without emitting a thought.

The sky could be glorious; immaculate bright and blue like a swimming pool. As long as there are no words in our minds, we could be lost in the experience of seeing. That experience is felt and thus, we will feel fulfilled.

How do we kill that experience?
When we say something like: “Look at the sky… Isn’t it pretty!”
Thinking, words, expressions will not allow us to be in communion with that which we experience.

To say that the “sky is pretty” does not add or take away anything from the sky. It is just a judgment value, a way to fill the “boring” space of silence between people or even within ourselves.

A “black or white” vision of the above realization is: “ I shouldn’t speak. I shouldn’t say anything, for that is to be elevated, spiritual.”
That is repression.
You feel like talking, for you have been trained all your Life to chit-chat to fill the void, to be “friendly.”

The type of silence that I am talking about is not something DONE artificially; it is something natural, which appears as our emptiness increases.
Paradoxically, it is in that silence when there is greater communication between lovers, between friends, between creatures of Nature. Silence is the common ground.

The sky is blue and bright. The sky will be gray and dark. It will happen. Matter of fact. It is a process. It is a matter of time.
Why then use a word such as “beautiful” to describe the blue sky? Why create the dichotomy of “beautiful and ugly”?
That is exactly what we have been trained to DO.
We label and create a duality. Thus, we choose between A or B and create our own suffering. We judge and create our downfall at the same time.

The blue and the gray sky… It is the same sky at different times.
To enjoy both states is to go beyond qualifying words. Language needs contrasts, but we do not need to believe in language as “reality”… Then we are away from the duality, the dichotomy.
Place your attention in what is, your awareness in that, not on descriptive “pretty” words…
Then communion happens between the observer and that which is observed. There is union without looking for it, thus… true union.

Oneness becomes an experience and not just another “pretty” buzzword.
Until March 28th! 🙂

Increasing ego

As shared in previous articles, the journey of a “seeker” is to increase his ego just to let it go.

Our society’s make up and religious beliefs are truly “methods” to increase the size of the ego.

For example, in our dualistic mind we are programmed to only enjoy when someone praises us: “ Oh… Robert… He is a loving, fun, compassionate guy…” If Robert is hearing that comment, his ego will inflate as a turkey puffing its feathers out.
Robert may say to himself: “ I should be humble. My religious teachings say so. I will not allow those praising words to get to me.”

However, it is too late… the minute we are aware that we need to reject something, to change our thoughts… it is because we ARE not that which we BELIEVE to be or want to be.
We are not humble. To be humble is not a matter of rejection of praising words.

Robert heard from someone: “ …That Robert is an angry, greedy and obnoxious guy.”
At that point, Robert will get very upset. Robert cannot accept to be something which does not fit the “image” that he has about himself. That image is “pure” ego.

Robert could be “angry only today,” but he cannot tolerate to BE anger. Robert could have been greedy in one action; but he is ready to ask for forgiveness to his God, so everything goes back to “normal” to his previous image; but Robert is not ready to accept BEING greed.

Ego has chosen an image that Robert must fulfill.

In religious groups and in our society we learn to play the game of being “virtuous,” but we cannot accept to be the opposite (sinful) as well, in that way; inner dishonesty is created. We have ben taught to identify with one side of the duality.
Chaos and order are not opposites but complementaries of each other. They are 2 changing states of the same thing. Those states will replace the other by themselves, for Life is change and it can change because of the movement created between those apparent opposites. It is the dance of Yin and Yang.

When the mind is dualistic, it will be attached to one side of the duality (virtue) and reject the other (sin) thus, ego increases through that attachment. Observe that our definitions of what is sinful and what is not, delimits our duality.

We may believe that we are “virtuous” because we follow a particular law or “word of God,” but observe that there is not a single thing in Life which could be separated as “Black or White” as everything is inter-related. The only place where that separation could exist is in our dualistic minds.

Therefore, if a religion tells me that ”I need to DO” certain things to gain Heaven, it is without a doubt a “method” to increase ego.
Increasing ego is not “bad,” for that ego needs to mature, to be big enough to explode.

Every religion, every belief system, every Guru can only offer “methods” to increase the size of the ego. That is why, there is no religion, no belief system, no Guru, who could be “bad.”

Little ego, means that a person does not need yet to get involved with religions and Gurus. Once the ego becomes big enough to bring inner suffering, then the “search” for a “solution” starts.

At that point, every “method” will be “good” as long as ego increases to the point of “explosion.”

Not to follow a “method” is also a “method” to increase the ego.
When we are beyond that, not as simple mental understanding or a rejection… then  the “practicing  a method”  is no longer  part of our consciousness.
We have gone beyond that duality.