Words continued

Continued from the previous post and contemplating further on the power of words, I was also reminded of the line from the bible:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” In essence, this is about the power to create.

As I went to buy groceries today and I was looking around, I had to acknowledge that everything I saw, the streets, the pavement, the buildings, the supermarket, the aisles with food, with products, money, the clothes I was wearing, my house, the tap I use to wash my hands, everything, started as a concept, a word in the mind. The world as we know it started as a concept, started as a word; our world is the result of our innate power to create. We can use this power for self serving goals, or use it to create a world that is inclusive and beneficial to all. Now that we are collectively forced to a halt and forced to reassess our unsustainable way of life, an enormous creative energy rises to find alternatives, to consider choices that take into account our interconnectedness.

Through the formidable effort that is being made, through the anxiety, the grief, the uncertainty that is palpable, still this creative force shines more brightly than ever. Alternatives are found, things previously thought as impossible are carried out. Our power to create does not diminish in the face of adversity, on the contrary, it rises to the challenge and shines even more brightly.

9 Replies to “Words continued”

  1. I am very struck by these words (!) of yours. I do so agree. I also recognise that thoughts need words (for me at least) to take form and in order to express feelings I need words. Feelings do not seem to exist for me in a vacuum and thoughts and feelings are so closely bound up with words.
    1. Yes, I agree Chris, thoughts and feelings are not separate “things”, they are aspects of one seamless process / experience. Words are also not separate but part of that same process of creation. Thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations and sensory perceptions, they take further shape and become more distinguishable by being conceptualized in words, that is name and form taking shape. A process that is like the focusing of a camera which makes objects distinguishable from one another.
      The opposite is the process of defocussing where objects fade out and disappear. In the case of the mind objects of thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations and sensory perceptions, this happens daily when we go to sleep. In deep sleep all mind objects dissolve and we simply rest in the peace of our being, namely that which is formless.
      Name and form appearing and disappearing continuously, it is birth and death in a nutshell.
  2. Monday night is our Nottingham group evening to bring a favourite reading. Thank you Ayse for having provided this!

Leave a Reply to Chris YeomansCancel reply