Stepping Out of Self-Deception by Rodney Smith

Author:Rodney Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shambhala

8

Language Entrapping View

You cannot enter into any world for which you do not know the language.

—LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN

THE WAY WE define our spiritual predicament will determine the effort we apply toward its resolution. The Buddha speaks about the conditions leading to suffering in this way: “In so far only, Ananda, can one grow old, die, pass away, or appear; in so far only is there any pathway for verbal expression, in so far only is there any pathway for terminology, in so far only is there any pathway for designation, in so far only is there any sphere for knowledge. Only thus can the rounds be kept going where there is any designation of the conditions of this existence.”1

We are beginning to understand how our growth is distorted by the way we verbally describe it. Language entraps us within a view like two mirrors facing each other, each reflecting the other’s image. It provides the entire context of our worldview. We cannot see anything but what the word proclaims because we are looking through the word to see the world. Only by understanding how the word limits perspective will we become quiet enough to listen beyond the word’s definition. When we see the limitation of language, we are already moving beyond it.

The Buddha explains, “The mind is molded, oh monks, by the way in which one repeatedly contemplates and reasons within oneself.”2 Our language is the articulation of the view we hold. Much of what we assume to be true is culturally determined and does not rest on fact. If those assumptions remain unquestioned, our intentions and effort will be derived from an unwise view and will lead to further “pathway[s] for verbal expression” and “sphere[s] for knowledge.” The previous chapters have pointed out how concepts tie us to a particular view of the world and prohibit us from seeing clearly. We will now explore how spiritual language maintains its revered misperceptions at the expense of fully embracing reality.

By way of review, let us inquire into the Buddha’s quotation in the first paragraph. We have seen how our perceptions are entombed within the concepts we use. Every word only allows us to see the concept’s description of reality, and simultaneously negates all other possible ways of observing. What we see is just what the word allows us to see; everything else is excluded. The past conditions us to define the word in a certain way because our past history reifies what we allow the concept to mean, and after repeated use the concept remains frozen within our interpretation. As an example, very few of us can hear the word “mother” free of our conditioning.

Concepts form “verbal expression[s],” and this language provides our frame of reference for reality. The function and existence of all separate objects depend upon and coarise within a single concept. Each concept substantiates all concepts. Once you have a bird, you have a nest, tree, sky, etc., with each concept proliferating out to form the whole world instantaneously. This world also includes the concept of the “I” who knows the bird.

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