Language fascinates me.
It provides us with a way to express what’s in the mind, heart and soul, and as if the ability to speak weren’t enough, we also have writing – the manipulation of symbols to express long, flowing thoughts that build upon one another like bricks.
I’m interested in expanding the stream of thought, which can be expressed vocally or in the form of writing, and I’m especially interested in the vibration of sound.
Even though I’m a writer, which requires silence and stillness (two things that are good for a spiritual seeker), sound captures my attention as much as the stream of thought and the platform provided by words for self-expression.
I want to crack the code behind language; I want to discover how it relates to the evolution of the spirit, because to me, it’s an important and valuable tool.
As you can imagine, I was delighted to find some words from one of my favorite spiritual writers/teachers, Franklin Merrell-Wolff, about language and its role in spiritual evolution.
Franklin Merrell-Wolff: The Spiritual Explorer
I enjoy Franklin’s writings because they were written from the perspective of someone who was on an adventure.
He was exploring new inner territory while recording what he witnessed so he could help others reach similar states of being, and you could tell through his writings that he was excited to unlock the secrets of the universe.
I appreciate the concept of the spiritual explorer, and I like to think I may have been an explorer in a previous life.
Many of us are exploring higher states for ourselves through meditation and other things meant to bring our awareness to our connection with God, and Franklin’s writings speak to the inner explorer in us all.
Does Thought Prevent Enlightenment?
I was unsurprised to see that Franklin believed words are an impediment to enlightenment and insufficient to describe it, because they prevent you from exploring the silence and tapping into the ‘Current’ of higher vibrations.
I like to think I enter a light meditative state when I write (especially when I write for long periods of time), because I can feel the vibrations moving just beyond my surface awareness.
I can sense the visions that accompany them, and I get the feeling that a few minutes in silence with my eyes closed would enhance it all.
As I mentioned, writing also requires long amounts of time in silence.
The reason for this is that writers aren’t just trying to express their thoughts clearly; whether or not they know it, they’re trying to maintain a smooth, flowing connection with the meditative Current on the other side.
This is where their creative inspiration and mental clarity come from, and silence is essential to keeping a decent connection.
Creative Writers Are in Tune
Many creative writers are in tune with this higher aspect of their consciousness, and they recognize that they actually spend time in an astral realm of their own mental creation when they write.
Avid Facebookers in the writing community may recognize the slogan, “I’m a writer – I dream while awake”, often printed onto advertised T-shirts and hoodies.
In my opinion, the dream realm is the astral realm or fourth dimension (the place we’re believed to go after death) and creative writing involves creating from within this reality in your own mind.
Imagination is wonderful, but the masses have no idea just what it is or what it can do. This, among other reasons, is why I’m fascinated with words.
Words Are Meaningless Without Meditation
Despite my fascination, I recognize that thought can be an impediment to the soul’s evolution and I take time to meditate when I’m not writing.
There are plenty of ways to expand your consciousness temporarily – writing, music, painting, other creative work, exercise – but none of them hold a candle to meditation.
Psychedelic enthusiasts who feel that meditation has nothing to offer can rest assured that it’ll take them to incredible places when combined with the entheogenic experience.
They’re probably correct that meditation by itself is inferior to entheogenic meditation, but plenty of spiritual seekers who abstain from psychedelics would disagree.
My stance is that we should do what works for us and be content with other people’s paths as long as they don’t disrespect ours.
It’d be easier to respect our various paths if we were all aware of enlightenment, but as long as your lifestyle works for you, there’s no real reason to tell others how to live.
One thing’s for sure – language is powerful but it alone won’t enlighten us.
Language Misrepresents Transcendent Consciousness
Franklin explains the futility of attempting to describe enlightenment with words, telling us they’re tied to the earthly ‘subject-object relationship’ and could never be used to describe the unknowable.
“[Fundamental Recognition] is an unequivocal transcendence of the subject-object relationship.
“Herein lies the rationale of the inevitable ineffability of mystical insight. All language is grounded in the subject-object relationship, and so, at best, can only misrepresent transcendent consciousness when an effort is made to express its immediately given value.” (1)
Language, he writes, is the ‘creation and vehicle’ of the ego.
“Language is the creation and vehicle of [egoistic] consciousness. It is imbedded in the subject-object relationship.
“Speech or writing as from the perspective of the SELF involves unavoidable obscurity, analogous to that which would be found in attempting to express abstract thought in the very concrete language of a primitive people, but in the former case the difficulty is very much greater.
“Only in the Silence can the SELF be known as It is, and this is not ‘knowing’ in the subject-object sense.” (2)
Keep in mind that depending on which school of spiritual thought you subscribe to, what we know as the ego and the material world are the creation of the Divine Mother.
The Divine Mother is the creative aspect of God we can know in lower states of consciousness, and the Divine Father is the unknowable aspect expressed through the qualities of the divine masculine (strength, perseverance, presence, centeredness, leadership, tenderness, humility, etc.).
The Father is the great mystery that a million enlightenments would only partially illumine.
We identify with the Mother when we create art in the form of writing, poetry, music, paintings or anything else, because the Mother is the knowable creative force that slowly enlightens us through our own creativity.
(Continued in part 2 tomorrow)
Footnotes:
- Franklin Merell-Wolff, Philosophy of Consciousness without an Object. Reflections on the Nature of Transcendental Consciousness. New York: Julian Press, 1973, 39.
- Franklin Merrell-Wolff, Pathways Through to Space. A Personal Record of Transformation in Consciousness. New York: Julian Press, 1973, 25.
By Wes Annac, Culture of Awareness, June 21, 2016 – https://tinyurl.com/hbgt5lw