The Deceptive Word

Words can be incredibly deceptive.

Looking at the simple process through which we speak and communicate, this dilemma with words can be easily seen. First, the speaker has a thought. That thought needs to be processed and articulated into language. Then that language is communicated. The communication is then heard by another, reinterpreted through their own language abilities, their own perspectives and their own abilities before turning back into a thought in their own mind.

With all of the layers of potential miscommunication and misinterpretation present, it seems obvious that words are deceptive. Often times, what I mean to say, is not what you will hear. Even when it is written, edited, re-edited and modified several times. Is the true message in the words being conveyed?

Words are a risky business indeed... Sometimes I wonder, why did God choose to communicate His message in such a flawed form?

When I hear or read the words of the Holy Qur'an, I am reading or hearing another's interpretation of these words. Even when listening in their native language of Arabic, the listener hears inflections and tone that the speaker puts into the text... There is always some level of interpretation, there is always some flaw.

But is this a flaw?

Diversity of belief and interpretation are a part of what makes our world beautiful. It leads to ugliness as well, but also beauty. The world is made up of opposites, without ugliness, there can be no beauty for beauty would be the norm... it would be average.

When I read something in my flawed perspective, and you read something in your flawed perspective, we are transmitting something that may be inaccurate in it's parts, but accurate as a whole. When I look at the big picture, all of us together in our beauty and our ugliness. We represent a bigger tapestry, a larger calling, a beautiful mosaic.

We need to move back farther, accept our own failings and those of others and believe in the bigger picture. This is unfortunately, impossible for most of us to do. Seeing the perspectives of all of humanity is daunting, but adding in the entire universe of thought? Inconceivable...

So, what can we do? I say, never trust your words, they can betray you at any time. If you can't look at the perspectives of all of humanity, turn instead to no perspective at all. Clear the mind of thought and let the vessel be filled not with words that you cannot control but with grace that guides. Don't go with the flow, be the flow.

Ripples

Sometimes I wonder if we are all ripples in a lake.

When I think of the greatest mystics of all time, I begin to wonder about their effects that these individuals truly have had. When I think of their lives, I think of a rock being thrown into a lake. The rock changes the lake in many ways. Some ways which are immediately noticeable, some which may take centuries to become known.

Poetry, love, literature and song are ways in which the Divine Spirit can manifest. Those who are one with the flow of the universe act as conduits for this spirit. So, in the analogy of the rippling lake, the stone is not an individual life, but rather the message of the Divine.

I wonder, if we are ripples that have been created by past disturbances to the lake. Maybe the great lovers of the ages manifest themselves through you and I? Or maybe we are meant to be the disturbance. Maybe future ripples will look back on the works we have created and marvel at the effects one small stone or word has had on the entirety of mankind.

Leave no stone unturned in the search for the truth, especially not if you have the chance to throw that stone into the lake of time. Maybe even a ripple can create a splash?