Words and their influence in Spirituality

It is unfortunate that we need to use words to try to explain what cannot be explained. What we call “spirituality” or living Life, is beyond the realm of words and therefore the understanding of those come by assimilating an experience and not by intellectual understanding.

On the internet, I see plenty of information about anything and even about “spirituality.” There are plenty of quotes from masters, gurus, saints, etc. However, many of those quotes are out of context and even the words used are not the exact words uttered by those individuals.

For instance, take the words of Tao Te Ching. Many individuals will only recite them and use them out of context. When the idea behind those words of the “Tao” are understood, that is because of the living experience we have had. That realization can seldom be put into words to explain to another without those words being misinterpreted.

That is why we end up with “easy” religion and “spirituality for all,” as the words used to explain their ideas and philosophies are only behind the general ideas of “good” and “evil,” that is the antagonism of good vs. bad.

Thus, something “spiritual” or “religious” just supports the ideas of what is “good,” “moral” and “acceptable” by the majority and easily denies and condemns those other words representing what is “bad,” “evil,” “immoral.”

As I am here writing these words, I wonder then: “What is the point of sharing through words many things which will be misunderstood by many?”

The answer for me at this point is that “few” will identify something positive since they had similar experiences. That is the end of it.

Truly, I see the need of words to inspire others and those words need to be “black” or “white.” Easy to digest without much trouble. However, do not hope to find something deep in those words. For example: “Perseverance is the glory of Christ.” That is a thumbs up for Christians as it is the meaning of the words “Yoga with Baba” for BK followers. However, what do you mean by perseverance? How do you act when you believe that your action demonstrates perseverance? Is it only perseverance what you believe to be or there are other forms of it? Can perseverance ever be detrimental?

Nevertheless, the word perseverance has a wide positive connotation. It has good social marketing. Can we teach someone to be perseverant? The short answer is “No.”

The long answer is that perseverance cannot be taught when there is the purpose to teach it as it is with any other so-called “virtue.” We need to BE the ideal to teach it, that is the ideal of perseverance and someone else who is watching us, the student; should be able to detect that. It is said that “when the student is ready the master appears.” Well, ready means when the student is observant and has done his “homework” in Life to get to that point where he will see someone in action and “get it.” The student recognition is merely the perception of a reflection of the mirror of Life. In that case, the “master” could be anyone. This act of recognition is true knowing that it is free of any sort of intellectual cultivation, or effort to achieve something.

In this world of technology where we could get plenty of information to “become better,” by signing up to many websites and face to face classes, or even in planned retreats, all we can hope for is “inspiration” which is important but superficial.

In the past students and masters used to live together, that is how the student used to learn from the master. I wonder how that changed into a mere transmission of words and fancy terminology?

Question: How to make thoughts, words and deeds to be the same?

“I need your help to explain us two of the very beneficial teachings which I still have not been able to implement 100%, but want to as they are required to keep the flow of my life smoother. So here are those two teachings:
No 1: Your thoughts, words and actions should be in harmony, what you think, same thinking should be reflected in your words and actions. (Mansa, Wacha and Karmana should be same)
No 2: Abstain yourself from creation of waste thoughts.
The only reason I still want to implement these two teachings in me is that I think about one thing, I say another thing and end up doing totally different third thing in actions. Can you PLEASE explain what a person can do (By now I know that you use DO and BE in caps in all of your articles ) to implement these two things by being and by not being a BK.”

Thank you for your interesting question.

Yes, I use caps for BE and DO, hoping readers will find that there is a huge difference.
In your question, you want to “implement” a teaching. That sounds to me like “office world” conditioning. There, you implement plans, implement solutions, etc.
When we are referring to BEING, it does not work like that.

When the Brahma Kumaris teachings says: “Your thoughts, words and actions should be in harmony or be the same,” that teaching is not telling the follower to DO something, to implement something to “achieve” that goal, although that is the interpretation. Followers are unaware of the “office word” conditioning and unaware of how DOING something who you are not, only covers who you ARE .

That teaching is merely describing how a BEING in harmony will express himself. Most want to BE that, but they do not acknowledge who they ARE now first. They just reject that.

Let me ask the question: Are “your” thoughts really “yours”? If they are, why you cannot stop them at will? Why is it so difficult to “create” loving, good, wholesome thoughts all the time?
That is the first realization to go into.

BEING attracts particular thoughts. Thus, what about if you find that those thoughts are not really created, willfully thought by you, but that they just appear?
Then the realization to OBSERVE those thoughts will be obvious, to use another Brahma Kumaris teaching, to be a “detached observer” of those thoughts.

If you OBSERVE those thoughts appearing in the sky of your mind, could we say that “you need to abstain from creating waste thoughts”?
We cannot, for those are not “my” thoughts.
What is the issue then? We are not AWARE to OBSERVE. We IDENTIFY with everything that is going through the mind as “mine.”

If there is that detachment from thoughts, what will be the problem then? None. If you FEEL what your ACTION should be and DO it; wouldn’t your words be along those lines?
But we are afraid of discovering who we ARE. We want to look respectable, we want to DO the “right” thing and not DO according to what truly I AM. Thus, we miss the greatest opportunity to discover who I AM. It is through that discovery how change happens without DOING a thing.

Would you like to DO something useful in your Life?
Learn to OBSERVE yourself. Learn to read yourself as you can do with a friend. This is not meant to judge yourself, but to allow that to BE, so if you realize it, see it, not intellectually but consciously, change is inevitable.

However, most “spiritual” teachings have been distorted through some “easy to follow” interpretation to cater to the masses.

This is easy to understand: If you don’t like it, change it. If you think bad things, change it to good things… The power is on that “I” but yet, “I” cannot stop thoughts.
We are not aware on how we change the original bad thought into a good one by faking it. The root is “bad” and we change the branch and leaf of the tree of a thought to make it “good.”
That is called inner dishonesty.

How long can we go with that “practice”? Until we become AWARE.

For the common good.