The Limitation of Words

 

For me there is only the traveling on paths that have heart, on any path that may have heart. There I travel, and the only worthwhile challenge is to traverse its full length. And there I travel looking, looking, breathlessly. 

Yaqui Sorcerer don Juan Matus

As I write this blog, I again struggle with transcending the insidious and ultimately fatally flawed use of words to express anything in any sort of meaningful way. I have traveled down this path within the unfathomably mysterious universe long enough to reject the notion that pure reflection, reading the wisdom of others in search of hidden insights, or trying to make sense of it all through the expression of language will lead me to any sort of direct and personal understanding.

It is experience itself that enables one to move beyond the limitations of those who claim to have essential answers to life's largest questions. When we have our own experiences we find that there truly is no truth - only perception. Each perception, then, has the potential to offer magnificent insight into the worlds that lie beyond the limitation of words that were previously used to describe a particular experience. When we release ourselves from the use of words we discover that we have the ability to move freely into deeper realms of worlds unseen.

I have reached a point in life where I look back and realize that most of the teachings I have followed have now become superfluous. Once upon a time each served me well along the path of understanding, but I realize it is now time to move beyond the teachings to actualize the lessons learned. The Buddha implored his students to remember... to re-member the self... to come into awareness of the ever-present field of consciousness from which we all emerged into form... to re-member or merge with the omnipresent source of consciousness within. It is here we find the indescribable power that moves us.

Immersing oneself in this singular point of awareness focuses one's orientation on unbending intent and impeccable action. We reach a point along the path in which we have outgrown the rhetoric, where we become trapped if we do not abandon the social construct we have become all too comfortable with. When we finally discover we have aligned with someone else's story, the warrior within screams for liberation.

There is no truth, ultimately. The world shows me this at every turn. Only perception. If every path is a path of evolution, I wonder if I have reached a critical sign-post along that path, or perhaps even reached the end of it. I sense my evolution is far from concluded, however, but that the tools I have been using have become worn and no longer serve me well. Perhaps such tools are no longer required once one has integrated the lessons learned and re-membered the pure consciousness from which we have emerged.

The silent knowledge I increasingly perceive lies completely beyond my capacity to express by the written or spoken word. The ancient masters insisted that anything truly “of the spirit” - anything inspired – can only be actualized as a personal experience, beyond the intellectual expression of the written or spoken word. When one encounters the power within, it is so immeasurable and indescribable that the only expression remaining is humility in the lap of pure consciousness.

Humbly, then, I continue to attempt to put onto words the magnificent discoveries I wish to share.