What Are Words?
by Wesley Birch
I woke up this morning at 5:12 feeling rested and ready for the day. I sat down on my meditation stool and meditated until Bre’s alarm went off at 6:00. My body, mind and soul have all been feeling at peace this past week.
What are words? Words are the only tool available to me through blogging, and yet they always fall short. Words are simply road maps to lead our brain into thinking about the “real” thing that the words are pointing to. Let’s take the word “water” for example. The word water is just a word, I can’t drink the word water, I can’t feel it, taste it, or touch it; I can only read it or hear it. The word “water” is much different than the actual liquid substance that I can touch, taste, feel, see, and hear. I know this to be true, and yet, the mind is constantly getting words confused with the “real” thing that the words are pointing to. Words are useful tools, but they are never “real”, and yet we give them so much power over our mind, our emotions and our hearts, but why?
My brain thinks in words. I have heard that some brains think with pictures and images; I can conjure up pictures and images in my brain, but the majority of the “thinking” that takes place in my brain is in words. When I had no control over my own thoughts, my brain was constantly convincing me that these words were “real” and that they had consequences; in other words, I believed every stupid thing that my brain told me. Most of the words that my brain conjured up were negative and usually directed toward myself or others. My brain had a natural desire to makes sense of the world around me and to assign blame for all the negativity in my world on something. Many times that blame was directed outwards to other people, and many times that blame was directed back at myself; I was full of “negative self talk”.
Through my studies and meditation, I have come to have a new understanding of words. I now understand them to be more of a road map. I can consult the road map and use the map to get me where I need to go, or to direct someone else and help them go where they need to go, but I no longer view the map as “the real world”. It used to be that my brain would point to a place on this “road map” and convince me that I was residing on that place in reality. I would believe my brain every time it told me that I was the reason that my mother left, or that it was her fault, or that the fault lies with the lady that counseled my mother, but none of those thoughts are true or “real” and they only conjured up anger, resentment, and hatred. The reality of the situation is so much more nuanced and beyond the power of words to describe, just as the reality of God is beyond the power of words to describe. The only way I have been able to come to “real” understanding is by calming my mind, letting go of this clinging to words (or putting down the road map), and opening up my senses to the reality of the world, and the reality of the world is… … …
Well I guess trying to explain the reality of the world with words would be like biting my own teeth, or looking myself in the eyes without a mirror. Reality is something we must experience and feel within our own selves… At some point, we must put down the road map and start the real journey on the path of understanding; otherwise we’ll never go anywhere.
(A more poetic way of saying the same thing):
Can words behold the beauty of Love?
Nay, though words may direct the mind, as a map may direct the wayfinder, it is from within that understanding will arise. To be still and feel the power of understanding bubble up from within, as a spring burst forth from the mountain stone, is to be in the presence of God, and yet, in the business of the mind, this presence of God is never not there, but only not felt.
And as the mountain spring nourishes the lips of the body, may the spring of understanding nourish the heart of the soul within; and in this calm contentedness shall seeking cease to be, and peace arise to the forefront of awareness…
All the love,
Wesley
