‘Language was invented for
the purpose of lying’, this is a quotation from R D Laing. Language can be thought of as
imagination, all words are without meaning other than the meaning we assign
them. The act of assigning meaning to words involves the use of imagination.
The word did not exist until we were able to imagine that it did. There is no limit
to the number of words we can imagine and no limit to the meaning we assign to
words. When we assign meaning to a word this meaning has power so long as we
all hold and imagine the same meaning. There are some words that are reasonably
straight - forward and that most of us agree with as to the meaning. There are
other words such as god, love, truth and reality where it is not so easy for us
to agree on the meaning. We can agree on the general meaning of a word yet
there may still be great latitude between the meaning we each may hold. The
world of language is also the world of thought. We each of us live in a world
of our own thoughts. Each thought is given a particular meaning and is also
assigned a certain degree of belief. This can be clearly seen if we observe the
verbal interactions between people. We can observe the effect of words on each
individual, we can observe words that cause us to love or to hate, words that
make us angry or sad and words that can make us laugh or cry or even words that
fill us with fear. If we observe carefully we can also see that words that make
one person angry do not necessarily have the same effect on another person.
This tells us that the meaning that we each assign to words can be very
different. A word such as 'death' depending on the meaning given to it may cause some to live their lives with a
secret fear. Where there is fear there is imagination and without imagination
there can be no fear. What is it we may imagine that can cause us to feel fear? It seems that the answer to this question is ‘almost anything’. Many think that
fear is natural and even necessary, while this is understandable it is also
untrue. We are afraid for one reason only and that is that we believe in
something that is not true and this can be thought of as an inefficient use of
imagination. Suffering is always caused by imagination. The process of learning
a language begins from the moment we are born. From the beginning we hear the
voices and the language of our parents or our siblings or extended family. In
time this process is developed, we go to school and are taught not just to
speak but to write what we hear. At school we also begin to speak to our peers
as well as hear what they have to say. Ultimately we learn language from
everyone we may come in contact with. In all of these interactions we learn
more than just language we also learn about the way words are used and the
emotions that may be injected into them. Some of what we hear is truthful and
some is less so. The fears held by our parents can very easily be transmitted
through the language our parents use but also through their behaviour. If a
mother or father are overly fearful themselves this will be picked up and
ingested by the child without ever knowing what has happened. Parents will pass
on to their children all that was passed on to them from their parents and
again they will not be aware of what has been passed on. It is not possible to assign blame to anyone because no one
can be held responsible for what was unknowingly passed on. We do not choose
our parents or our language but the part of us I call the ego is the result of
all our experiences and without exception we will have ingested much in terms
of language and meaning that is not true. The chances of solving this problem are
very slim mostly because we are surrounded by others who no matter how learned
they may be have experienced a similar version of what we experienced. For most
this problem will not be apparent until the degree of suffering they experience
reaches a certain level. Suffering always tells us that there is something
wrong with the way we think about things. Instead of enquiring deeply into what
precisely is wrong with the way we think, we tend to be more inclined to ask
what is wrong with the things we think about. We do this because it is easier,
but no matter how easy something is it is worthless if it does not work.
Ray, maybe relevant to this topic is the manipulation of language and culture by governments and other controlling agencies other than our parents. Since language creates our reality to great degree, it is not a gateway that governing forces would leave unguarded. A good video on this can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr0VWqilcGM
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