by Ray Bratcher Jan 2016
I ran across this quote quite by accident. Which is to say, the Universe arranged matters in order to supply me with it. Nevertheless, other than this quote, I know nothing about its author:
“Fervently and deeply I wanted the truth, and I could see that none of the teachers knew the truth; none of the books told the truth. It was nothing but words, and words about words. Brick by brick, word by word, I saw the wall being built around us children to seal us for life into one room of our brain, with only two windows, our eyes, safely guarded with prison bars of words stronger than steel that also kept out most of the light; with every other gate of the mind carefully sealed by a word, so that no feeling could be arrived at, save through a word first, like putting gloves on our hands, shoes on our feet, spectacles on our eyes, muffs on our ears, and a woolen padding on every nerve end so we would be cut off from the quivering, life-giving pulsations of direct contact with the truth.”–Joseph Sadony
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Words.
Words, words, words.
Words words words words words.
Words about words.
Brick by brick, you build a prison for your soul.
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The conceptual mind uses words to build maps of reality. The map is not the place. For example, you could be an expert on maps of St. Croix, even arguing with other experts about these maps (words about words), yet know almost nothing about St. Croix itself having never set foot there.
In like manner, most people do not live in reality, nor do they experience it directly (“cut off from the quivering, life-giving pulsations of direct contact with the truth”). They live in their heads and experience only their ideas, their maps. Often it happens that they will argue with others about whose map is superior. Words about words–now they are twice removed from reality!
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Is it any wonder then, that these arguments often lead to wars? Who but the doubly insane could think war advisable?
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A woman goes to an art museum and stands before a painting. In her hand she carries a guidebook which tells her when the painting was painted, and by whom, date and place of birth, etc., and then goes on to explain to her the place of this painting and its artist in art history, its role in the development of the primary artistic schools of its day, etc. etc.
She barely looks at the painting itself, her attention focused mainly on reading the words in the guidebook. Yet, as she walks away, she feels she has seen, understood, and experienced the painting. Of course, she has not. She has only understood the guidebook’s map of the painting. And now she has successfully placed that map inside her head–another experience successfully acquired. Or so she thinks.
Another woman, who has no guidebook, stands before the same painting.
And looking at it, is moved to tears.
Which of them saw the painting?
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Here is the truth about knowledge: you do not KNOW a single thing.
You can know ABOUT the painting, but you cannot KNOW the painting. You can only experience the painting. Knowledge is acquired, experience is not. The mind consumes, the heart shares. Knowledge presumes subject and object while experience, true experience, is the meeting place of both.
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You do not even know who YOU are. So you feel separate and alienated and alone in a hostile and uncaring universe. Naturally, fear arises. So to assuage that fear, you tell yourself stories. You call these stories “knowledge”.
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Words.
Words, words, words.
Words words words words words.
Words about words.
Brick by brick, you build a prison for your soul.
Sacred Breath 