"In the beginning was the word...........
These words are from the Bible, The first line of St. John's Gospel John 1:1 (King James Version).
What I propose is that exactly before the beginning, there was Truth and as soon as the first word came into existence, truth was covered with it. The true nature of universe is beyond words and every word points us to that beyond word phenomenon.
However importance of words is to give reference, pointers and sign-posts to qualify the feelings or experiences.
I want to quote 'words' by Adhyashanti "Truth is silence. You will always find that you will never say anything that's more true than that there is before you say it..That puts me(or any spiritual teacher) into interesting predicament"
One of the well-known sacred book 'Tao Te Ching or (Dao de jing)' written in 6th century BC by a Chinese philosopher - Laozi, begins with a warning. The first line in the Tao Te Ching is "The Tao that can be spoken of is not the true Tao"
Meaning " The Truth that can be spoken is not the true truth" After this warning the Laozi writes the whole book, which is great if the basic understanding is rooted in silence. Thats why the warning in the beginning.
In several sects of Buddhism, to speak is to lie,and in Zen, it is traditional to apologize to an audience before speaking.
John Sojun Godfrey once said-
“I’m sorry for speaking,” he said. “If I came here with the intention of showing you the truth, of telling you the truth, I would stand here and say nothing at all, but since you won’t let me not talk, I am forced to tell you lies. It is a long-held principle in East Asian traditions, that the truth cannot be spoken.”
Then why so much of Spiritual texts like Vedas, upanishads, purana's, Bhagwat Gita, Dyaneshwari, Koran, Bible, Guru Granth, Tao te ching..Why spiritual talks, discources and poems like Rumi and Ghalib-poems, Kabir-Dohe, Meera-bhajan, Tukaram-Abhang, Ramdas-Dasbodh, Tulsidas-poems. Philosophers and saints for ages trying to put the truth in public. Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Confucus, Zen, Osho...the list is endless..Why so much of content when actually truth cannot be spoken or told?
Well, the most gifted aspect of language or words is that it has ability to point beyond words. Words point beyond itself..for example, what happens when u read a poem and get the zest of it.. you go into deep contemplation or appreciation or simply the trance and joy. Thats what compels the audience to applause..wah..wah..
Anyway, Words create concepts..but words can be used to point beyond concepts.
usually words are used to point more words-which point more words and so on.... But there is a possibility that words can be used to point beyond words,beyond the conceptual framework.
Thats what Satsang, spiritual dialogue, philosophy, books, poems, abhang,Doha......... is all about, so that words can be used to point beyond words..The reason for dialogues is not actually so that words can point back to more words. Its important that spiritual seekers understand this because otherwise the words seem to pile up upon themseves and before you know, you have a full mind and an empty heart.
But if we always remember that any damn spiritual teaching is to got beyond words and into deep contemplation, then !!!aaaahaa...hahhh.... it can be very powerful.
Once we start doing that... we soon realise that Spiritual inquiriy /contemplation will not give nice, pretty, dandy answers, that we can store in your memory, and that we can take them out sometime and discuss over a cofee as we discuss other things. Spiritual inquiry is meant to point beyond your ideas.
And this is just a beginning.......
