Words are powerful but, I must quickly add, their power isn’t an inherent quality but is more about the reality they point to. Words are pointers to experiences but not those experiences in and of themselves. What makes them special isn’t the specific alphabets or sounds that constitute them; even these have to be processed mentally to have any meaning or purpose. It comes as no surprise to me when words uttered can totally piss one person off while making another happy, all at once. Our mental filters depending on our neurological makeup among other conscious and unconscious factors bring about such observable differences.
There is another dimension to words that I have come to experience and rely on. It is the penetrating quality of words that go beyond the complexity of the mental realm into the simplicity of the heart. I used to think that I was supposed to understand every word I heard or read. I feel a bit of shame writing this now (most think I understand all these stuff) but actually chunk of the words that have had tremendous impact on my life are those that I still have difficulty understanding. It’s that bad that if you ever asked me to explain them to you, you’ll wind up getting more confused.
With time I have found that the difficulty I experience in trying to explain these words to people is because I’m trying to engage them mentally with words that reside not in my head but deeper in my heart. I didn’t need to understand the words and neither do they. We can simply let the words be, and allow them to point our souls towards the experience they are tied to. We can allow them awaken in us the entirety of the emotions they embody. The strife to mentally label, process and interpret words don’t allow the words to fulfill their ultimate purpose as guides and pointers. The little caveat here is that in scholarly settings, there is a more rigid structure and laid down procedure for analyzing and interpreting words, so that’s quite different. What I’m writing about here is less scholarly. It’s more personal and flexible. It has to do with walking your own path in the journey of life.
A good exercise for being less “heady” with words is by asking yourself after you hear or read some words, “How do these words make me feel?” This question shifts your focus from the noisy mental space to the calmer recess of your heart. If the words make you happy, please don’t try to figure out why you’re happy. That’s counterproductive. Simply bask in the feeling of happiness. As you do this, you’ll realize that certain ideas begin to come to you. It may be instantaneous or more gradual; it doesn’t really matter. You don’t run after them, they just come to you. It is what people call insight (which is a sight from within). The moment that happens, you know that you have had personal experience with the words that even a thousand lifetimes of obsessive reasoning can never give.
