Peeling Back the Layers of Spiritual Language
The Pesto Problem
Words like God, love, sex…gnocchi – all get thoroughly sauced and modified through use, and therefore become altered slightly in their flavor, over time. Throughout the ages, humans have layered perceptions, beliefs, fears, hopes, rights & wrongs – adding layers of conditioning like lasagna upon words that at one moment, had a pure essence.
So we learn a recipe of meaning about: life, God, love, church, heaven, hell, and gnocchi- however it may not be our own true understanding. It’s humanity’s saucy historical concoction. We inherit these meanings before we can question them. Before we can taste the essence underneath.
The essence of words can get so covered in the sauce of the ages it’s hard to make out what anything actually truly means. Especially the big ones. The sacred ones. The words that hold power and mystery and something we can’t quite name but desperately want to understand.
Sitting With the Word
If I sit with a word, and get still and curious and naked of my collected perceptions and broiled beliefs – there is an essence that begins to sing. The word shows me it’s original song.
This is spiritual practice in its most intimate form. The practice of stripping away what we’ve been told a word means and discovering what it actually whispers to us. What it awakens. What resonates in our own bodymind complex when we let go of everyone else’s definitions.
It’s like meeting God, prayer, devotion, or love for the first time. Not as concepts weighed down with centuries of doctrine and debate – but as a living, breathing essence that wants to communicate something beautiful, directly to us.
Before the Box
For what was a word before it was captured in a box labeled. Didn’t it sing and dance around free like a breeze? A breeze that everyone noticed, felt and eventually agreed upon a word to encapsulate its essence into.
Think about it. Before “prayer” was p-r-a-y-e-r, it was simply the act of communicating with something larger. Before “God” was G-o-d, it was the mystery that made people stop and wonder in awe. Before “love” was l-o-v-e, it was the feeling that moved through bodies and connected souls without needing a name.
The words came after the experience. The labels came after the essence. And somewhere along the way, we started believing the label was the thing itself.
Letting the Steam Rise
So when all the labels steam off, the spirit, essence, or breeze of the word is set free to express a meaning perhaps not articulated in humanity’s contemporary recipe. And momentarily this essence can be caught a glimpse of, and just a glimpse is enough.
This is the work of spiritual awakening. Not adding more beliefs, more conditioning, more layers of sauce – but letting the vintage ones steam off. Sitting in the alchemical heat of genuine curiosity and watching what rises when we stop defending our inherited definitions.
Just a glimpse is enough. Just one moment of touching the essence underneath “prayer” or “devotion” without all the historical baggage. One moment of feeling what these words truly meant before they could be articulated via verbal language.
Too Big for Boxes
With this, a depth of understanding can penetrate the human bodymind complex. An understanding so big that perhaps it could never fit fully into a word or sentence at all. For the essence of anything “life” is ultimately too grand, mysterious & ever changing to fit perfectly logically inside the manmade lines.
And maybe that’s the point. Maybe spiritual truth isn’t meant to be captured, boxed, labeled. Maybe it’s meant to be experienced directly, tasted fresh, felt in the body before the mind rushes in to name, claim, and sauce it up with meaning.
The essence of prayer, of God, of love, of devotion – it’s all too alive to be contained. Too mysterious to be fully known. Too personal to be prescribed.
So we experiment curiously. Let the steam rise. Catch the glimpses of our inner knowledge and wisdom – and we can remember that the magical essence of the breeze was here long before we agreed on what to call it.
Loving you always!
Meghan