Wordless World

by hamilcarr 12 Replies latest jw friends

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  hamilcarr

  I don't mean a world without any language or communication, but a world in which words are taken for what they really are, namely human constructions, and not as the foundations of supertheories. I think we've all been seeking for words without really defining them, such as 'truth', 'beauty', 'happiness', etc. hence, the realisation of these pursuits can make us happy or desperate. On this board many have asked if it's possible to live without words, without universal theories trying to explain the meaning of our lifes. To answer this question indirectly, I'd like to share a wonderful passage by the German novelist Hermann Hesse from his renowned Siddharta.

  "Why have you told me this about the stone?" he asked hesitantly after a pause.

  "I did it without any specific intention. Or perhaps what I meant was, that love this very stone, and the river, and all these things we are looking at and from which we can learn. I can love a stone, Govinda, and also a tree or a piece of bark. This are things, and things can be loved. But I cannot love words. Therefore, teachings are no good for me, they have no hardness, no softness, no colours, no edges, no smell, no taste, they have nothing but words. Perhaps it are these which keep you from finding peace, perhaps it are the many words. Because salvation and virtue as well, Sansara and Nirvana as well, are mere words, Govinda. There is no thing which would be Nirvana; there is just the word Nirvana."

  I'm looking forward to read your reactions.
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  BabaYaga

  Interesting post.
  
  Lately I have been observing the very recurrent theme of words just not doing what they were intended to do. The most important things in the world have no words to describe them.
  
  It would seem to me that this realization would be a good-sized stepping stone along a chosen path... a step in the right direction.
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  Satanus

  Could it be about direct experience as compared to purely mental constructs?
  
  S
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  Narkissos

  Hi Hamilcarr,

  I first misread the thread title as worldless world, which would make another interesting topic...

  Once distinguished from their representation in imagination (the world-map which stands for the "real" in our minds), words, and concepts, and theories, can be also loved and enjoyed for themselves, in an aesthetical play. Wasn't that the kind of "meta-poetry" Hesse envisioned in Glasperlenspiel? But Joseph Knecht eventually leaves Castalia... this too shall pass.
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  hamilcarr

  Narkissos,

  I think you're perfectly right in your comment because, in my opinion, meta-poetry presupposes the view that words lack the capacity to convey unambiguous meaning. So according to the defintion on top, meta-poetry is wordless.

  In the meantime, I'm looking forward to read your thread on a wordless world
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  hamilcarr

  I would say that direct experience is beyond reach because of our complex brain, but it's true that mental constructs far too often prevent us from getting to a more profound understanding, or even better acceptance, of the "things".
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  Narkissos

  I'm looking forward to read your thread on a wordless world
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  PrimateDave

  lol @ Narkissos! So much of our mental activity is involved in the various conversations our sub-conscious mind pushes forth into our awareness. Then we spend so much of our mental life in the past or planning the future, we hardly know what it means to simply be in the present. It is well nigh impossible to be wordless in our own minds for a mere five minutes, much less to exist in a word-less world.
  
  Dave
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  Meeting Junkie No More

  All very interesting, for lack of a better word!
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  VoidEater

  Satanus: I agree.

  Words are fingers pointing. We can get engrossed in the finger, or at what is being pointed at.