A WORD TO THE WISE (IS SUFFICIENT)
by Morgause Fontleve
Most people speak because they find their speech more tolerable than silence or simply because they find the sound of their voices and opinions very pleasing to their ears. Why is it that even when our lips are not moving and throats utter no sound, our minds are screaming away in protest? Why do our fingers type out arguments so loud it awakens the Nemesis in others? I believe it is because speech is the perfect distraction to remove us from the clamour and turmoil within. We do not know ourselves and essentially we find ourselves unwittingly arguing against our own reflection.
Speech is a powerful and essential part of communication and reciprocal growth that however has been misused and has lead to so many flame/Witch wars within our own community. It not only reflects our immature egos, our innermost secret makings, but it also throws us into a state of spiritual amnesia, into the misinterpretation and misidentification with information and words.
Words like “I” and “Me” become symbols of one’s identity, giving rise to duality, separating us, the collective man, into the illusory “you” and “me”.
But what are words besides being the building blocks of phrases, sentences and discourses?
In The Secret Doctrine, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky stresses the importance of symbols in raising our consciousness, because they convey something more than the obvious meaning.
The Theosophical Glossary defines “symbolism” as the pictorial expression of an idea or thought. Primordial writing first had no characters. A symbol stood for an entire phrase or sentence. A symbol therefore was a recorded parable, and a parable was a spoken symbol.
Symbols are the language of the gods and speak directly to the heart of understanding rather than the mind of intellect. – Aurelius R. Maximus
According to Carl Jung the unconscious expresses itself primarily through symbols. The symbol defies reason and has connotations that are unclear in that it is occulted from us. A sign stands for something else, according to Jung, but a symbol is something in itself. It is a dynamic and living thing.
Language (written or spoken) is also a living thing. Language is made up of symbols. We struggle to look at things directly and are accustomed to symbols conveying the message. We rely on opinion, conclusions, images and words to understand and express ourselves.
On the one hand, direct or mechanical communication needs no explanation; e.g. a punch to the stomach or a shot to the heart. The message is clear.
On the other hand, when we observe something happening, we speak of it spontaneously, without recognizing that the words we utilize are symbols. Symbols which convey many messages on many different levels of observation. Symbols which ultimately are interpreted differently and relatively from within the different frames of reference by them who experience or observe.
The expressions of the mind are fragments of something in the mind. How does an artist express what is within?
“The artist is not a person endowed with free will who seeks his own ends, but one who allows art to realize its purposes through him. As a human being he may have moods and a will and personal aims, but as an artist he is "man" in a higher sense - he is "collective man," a vehicle and moulder of the unconscious psychic life of mankind." (from 'Psychology and Literature', 1930)
The Sanskrit word Mandala is a symbol of wholeness, completeness and perfection. For our purpose here, it symbolizes the Self. Still in Carl Jung’s words, “a symbol is an indefinite expression with many meanings, pointing something not easily defined and therefore not fully known.”
A sign always has a fixed meaning. Symbols go deeper than signs.
“The religious and esoteric history of every nation was embedded in symbols; it was never expressed in so many words. All the thoughts and emotions, all the learning and knowledge, revealed and acquired, of the early races, found their pictorial expression in allegory and parable.”
(S.D., I, 307)
Stilling the chattering unruly monkey of the mind, through the contemplation or meditation on our tools of communication, assists us in achieving the inner calmness that affords us the ability to see clearly and discerningly, as well as to hear the music of the spheres, the voice of the All-Comprising Divine Essence or the sound that’s beyond the all-enveloping silence.
Those who are slaves of self-justification are annoyed when their faults are pointed out. They will insist on keeping up their position/opinion as well as the prestige they believed to have achieved through their commentary. Reproached, they pretend to comply, to resign themselves to the rule that guards the Good of the Whole, but with every phrase they utter or write, the ego begins to assert itself. Pride and arrogance are the fruits of this internal process and the rules are inevitably broken, once again.
We need to evolve in our ability to display tact. The elements needed to develop tact are an understanding of other’s feelings, having insight into their motives, the ability to observe closely, the power to reason, and the ability to act quickly before our little egotistical inanities step in and take over hijacking the noble intent. Do the right thing, say the right thing, and think the right thing. For words and actions are born of these thoughts which we now entertain.
The whole world is an expansion of thoughts. When our thoughts are directed to words and symbols on the outside, we are led into bondage. It would be advisable to direct our thoughts towards the Divine within and train our mind into disciplined propriety or into the power of discernment.
In Tendo Nyojo’s story about the old plum tree, the tree is the expression of the entire universe, absolute and relative, fleeting and eternal; instantaneously. Through it the world of blossoming awakens, spring commences and countless eternal blossomings come into existence through it. Blossoming is the plum tree’s selfless offering.
In this case the tree, is called a plum, the fruit of that tree is also named plum, as is also the dried prune ; implied are: a treasure, something desirable and sweet, a good choice/position or part of a book, something promising, plum-crazy [being a state of mind] and a woman’s genitals.
According to HPB true symbols have 7 interpretations: 3 fundamental truths and 4 implied ones, as we have seen in the above example of Tendo Nvojo’s plum tree.
Reading with the eye of Understanding, mastering the seven headed dragon and grasping the gems of Adriane’s crown is our boundless destiny and our selfless sacrifice (making sacred).
Speech is a vehicle of social transformation. Since we cannot keep quiet indefinitely, let us say what is spiritually upbuilding and upholding. Let us tune in our consciousness to the spiritual level through daily spiritual practices.
In the words of Samantha Perry, elected Representative of the SAPC, “I think a lot of misunderstanding comes in because if something can be taken in
three ways, positive, negative and neutral, we are all too quick to hop onto the negative one. So how about in future we all read messages in the most positive meaning possible instead?”
The keys of Universal Symbolism are in the safekeeping of the Initiates! Trust that which gives you meaning and accept it as your guide!
Let these words be our guide!
References:
"On the Psychology of the Unconciousness", 1917 – Carl Jung
The Secret Doctrine, 1888 – H.P. Blavatsky
Psychology and Literature, 1930 – Carl Jung
Peace is within, 1994 – Sri Swami Sivananda
The Theosophical Glossary
Samantha Perry, 2008 – SAPC mailforum
Aurelius R. Maximus, 1998 – Lunaguardia
Jyoti: Swami Vivekananda, 2006
The Second Penguin Krishnamurti Reader, 1970
Nine-Headed Dragon River, 1985 – Pieter Matthiessen
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