Questioning the Word / Speaking the Word

Written Fri, 2011-01-21

Part One: Questioning the Word

“In the beginning was the Word.” Thus begins the Gospel of John in the New Testament. In the Gospel the Word is the means through which God brings creation into manifestation: "Let there be Light." In the teaching of John's Gospel, the Word is given ultimate expression in the form of Jesus, the manifestation of God in human form, whose Spirit has been with God from the origin of the universe. But why does John refer to Jesus as "the Word"? Why not “the Light,” or “the Saviour,” or any other metaphorical description?

The original term in John’s gospel is Logos, an important concept in ancient Greek philosophy, which influenced Christian ideas. The meaning of logos goes beyond “word” to encompass language, thinking, speech, and the power of reason. It is a powerful and mysterious idea that creation is a sacred manifestation of the creative source, through the medium of the Word. In fact, religious traditions all over the world give similar prominence to this meaning of the Word, and the power of language. In the Judao-Christian tradition, the Bible itself is the Word of God. In both Judaism and Islam the scriptures are considered to be an eternal expression of God. The Arabic Koran is believed to be a perfect expression of a vaster cosmic and transcendent Koran which is the very source and form of God’s awareness and creation. (For more on this understanding of the Koran, see Lex Hixon's "Heart of the Koran.") Moreover, the shapes and sounds of the Koranic Arabic letters are considered to be an expression of the divine reality. Similarly, in mystical Judaism (Kabbalah) the very letters of the Hebrew alphabet are considered to be the building blocks of creation. Also in Judaism, the physical form of the Bible, known as the Torah, which is kept in all synagogues in scroll form, confers a blessing by touching it. Together followers of these three traditions have been called the people of the book.

We can also find similar ideas in other traditions such as Hinduism. There the Sanskrit alphabet is considered to be of divine origin, and seed syllables and divine names transmit the divine reality through their shapes and sounds. All these religious traditions consider language or “the Word” to be present from the very beginning of creation and to be none other than the vehicle of creation.

What does all this mean? From a rational point of view language would seem to be a late appearance in evolution, an invention of our human forbears, intelligent primates who began to employ sounds, and later written shapes as a communication system. Why then do religions describe language as being present at the beginning of the universe? In part two of this essay – Speaking the Word – we will look more at how mystical and religious philosophy answers this question, and we will give respectful consideration to the primordial role of language.

However, the perspective I want to present now, starts with the opposite approach, examining the dominant role language plays, not only in religion, but in our everyday life, and questioning its influence on how we perceive reality. I suggest that when our religious traditions describe language as being the very means of divine power they are describing as much a human reality as a cosmic reality. The power assigned to “the Word” is a reflection of the dominance language has in our human existence and especially in our consciousness. (Or course the fact that our consciousness is part of the universe might suggest that linguistic consciousness is indeed an important feature of the cosmos, but I will consider that idea in the second essay.)

There are other intelligent animals on the planet: dolphins, whales, chimpanzees, and gorillas for example, and researchers have shown that these animals and others do seem to possess the capacity for, and at least, the rudimentary beginnings of language. If so, then what makes us different, and suddenly (in a few thousands of years) capable of dominating the planet so thoroughly as we do today? There are certainly many factors here, but I propose that a central factor in the human explosion is “the word”, an explosion of linguistic consciousness via the development of abstract symbol systems, first oral, and then written, thereby facilitating and creating whole new levels of communication, technology, and consciousness.

When John’s Gospel says, “In the beginning was the Word” – as much as one can see this as a metaphorical description of the beginning of the universe, one can also consider it an unconcsious homage to the awakening of human linguistic consciousness in our early human ancestors. With the use of words and language, human beings wake up to new and powerful forms of thinking and conscious activity, and which mark the beginning of a history that we can describe, remember, and write down.

My primary purpose is not to argue ideas about our evolution, nor to discount religious concepts. There are valid arguments and questions raised by suggesting that evolution of human language is a defining difference between humans and the rest of life, and investigating whether this is true and how. However, my focus is a little different, to simply examine and question our current condition, a major feature of which is the predominance of language in our minds. While language is extraordinarily powerful, and an essential step in evolution, we must also recognize that there is reality and realms of experience and awareness, beyond the limits of linguistic consciousness.

Based on my own life experience, it seems to me that much of the time we humans are (seemingly unconsciously) trapped inside our linguistic minds. We believe our concepts, stories, and descriptions of reality to be reality itself, and in doing so we cause ourselves tremendous suffering.

Descriptions are not the things itself; the “map is not the territory.” Like the people in "the Matrix" who are unaware that they are enslaved, because their minds are experiencing a false synthetic reality created by machine intelligences, we humans today are largely unaware of how what we perceive is so entirely shaped by the worded descriptions we believe and follow. Therefore it is essential for our own happiness, enlightenment, and the future health of life on earth, that we question the role worded mind plays in our lives. By learning to see our descriptions of reality to be only that, we will be able to take them more lightly – our religious and philosophical opinions and doctrines, as well as our ordinary everyday ways of thinking and interacting with the world.

Part Two: Speaking the Word (forthcoming)