Coming from England, I’ve always liked to be playful with words and language. Brits revel in banter, joshing, creating puns and generally displaying our lexical dexterity.
But there’s a certain aspect of British humour I had to reassess the more I learned about Vedic knowledge.
In the Vedic tradition, the power of speech is treated more reverently than in English.
Sound and vibration are seen as fundamental building blocks of creation.
Through speech we have the power to create, maintain and destroy things. Speech – and language in all its forms – can build bridges; it can break hearts; it can mask the truth; it can sow division.
And through it, we will show those around – and the universe at large – whether we can be trusted.
If we want our speech to carry real power – to be able to manifest things and make things happen – then it will pay us to use speech wisely.
We can be more mindful of being flippant or saying things we don't mean.
In the Vedic philosophy, there are no prohibitions or “rules”, only observations on what wiser people tend to do.
Speech has the power to manifest
The purpose of language is to “commune”, to have shared experience , to inspire and uplift.
As increasingly wise people, we want to recognise and favour the creative and maintaining aspects of language over the destructive.
And we want to be careful not to say things that go against our best interests.
What signal does it give off if you want more money, for example, but announce "great" or "that's just what I need" when you get an expensive parking fine?
What signal does it give to those around you if you sarcastically undercut everything that everyone says – as I did for decades.
What signal does it give when you say "oh, wonderful" when your team loses or it rains on your special day?
So for this month's theme, I invite you to be more wise in your use of words – to stop inadvertently signalling to others and the universe that your words aren't to be trusted.
Sarcasm: tearing of the flesh
The Greek meaning of sarcasm is "tearing of the flesh". When we use sarcasm, it's often to have a cheap dig at someone, as you might hear in a playground - "nice hair!", "well who's a genius!"
It is rightly known as "the lowest form of wit", but its main issue for our purposes is that it makes us un-reliable speakers.
If we get a flat tyre and say “oh great”, we’re using speech to say something we don’t mean – to get humour or light relief or just as a reflective habit.
We’ve attached a negative outcome to “great” and we're celebrating our own misfortune.
Sarcasm subverts meaning and can offend people if we use it carelessly.
Communication is how we commune with others, so we should speak only what we intend to commune-icate.
Sound moves into form and phenomenon
In the Vedic understanding of creation or manifestation, sound is the first thing that emerges out of the conscious field. Formlessness curves and makes a noise. Sound gives rise to form.
A Sanskrit phrase says: "Sound and form are infinitely correlated."
If this is true then what we say matters and we probably don't want to say the opposite of what we intend.
This importance of sound is why we use a sound vehicle, the mantra, to move us back towards this infinite field of consciousness within during meditation.
As we continue to progress as consistent daily meditators, we are unified more and more with the field of consciousness that underlies everything in the universe.
And when our consciousness is at one with the universe, the universe will take our speech seriously.
Alongside sarcasm, there are some other aspects of language to look out for.
Be more precise with your language
I often use hyperbole for comic value, but when we use imprecise language, we are again making our speech unreliable.
If we constantly "hate" vanilla ice cream or reality TV, what words are left to describe things that genuinely justify our hatred?
If we "love" coconut water or the French accent, where does that leave us for words for our loved ones?
If we swear every second word, what power of emphasis is left?
And what do those listening to us hear?
Constantly swearing, like hyperbole or peppering our speech with filler words like "sort of", "kind of" or "like" devalues what we say. It conveys to other people that we don’t know what we're talking about.
Equivocating phrases
When we say "kind of", "sort of", "you know" or "just" – as most of us do (including me) countless times a day, we're devaluing our speech, we're watering it down so as not to seem too forthright or sure of ourselves.
Using these words doesn't make us seem more approachable, it makes us seem less confident of what we're saying. Instead, try saying what you want to say concisely and then asking people what they think.
What to do about it?
There are no prohibitions in the Vedic tradition, only recognition of certain natural laws that we can either work with or against.
Rather than making this something else to beat ourselves up over, try observing it and correcting yourself in a lighthearted and playful way.
Each time we bring awareness to something in ourselves we would like to change, we’re getting closer to actually changing it. We’re highlighting things for deletion.
Over time we will make ourselves more powerful and intentional speakers and our listeners will thank us for it.
Rory
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