[Posting comments from two visitors, one regarding sessions and one regarding the link between language, thought and behavior]
From CARLA in Los Angeles, CA, USA
“I understand that you live in Texas. I’m only a few hours away by plane. Are you still conducting sessions and, if so, when does the next session begin?”
“I understand that you live in Texas. I’m only a few hours away by plane. Are you still conducting sessions and, if so, when does the next session begin?”
F.: “Hi, Carla. Welcome to the site. No, presently sessions are not being conducted. The early content posted for a time on this website contained exchanges from sessions that took place in late 2001 and early 2002. The key pointers offered during each posting are still available. A woman who could not make the first meeting of the 2001 sessions asked a friend to tape it so she could listen to it later and then be “on track” when she came to the second session. Later, realizing that the silence was gaining in appeal, and sensing that the sessions in the fall of 2001 might be the last, I kept that tape and then recorded the content of subsequent sessions and then had a temp type the transcripts for me. Those transcripts have since been compiled into a 180-page book entitled FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE: a Seven-Step Journey to Reality. The silence happened more and more beginning in May of 2002, and only rarely is it now interrupted. Then, blog sites began to appear and some encouraged setting up an Advaita site. It allows the Teaching to be offered while maintaining the silence—thus the site that you are now visiting. Postings will continue on random topics, so you’re welcome to submit any questions you might have. If something beyond these posts seems necessary for full realization, the more deliberate, seven-step process that led to "my" realization is available in the book mentioned above. Thanks for visiting.
From SIM in Owensboro, KY, USA
“I just watched a 60 Minutes segment on river people named the Moken. They had no words for 'when' or 'want.' Time was not a concept of theirs, so they don't understand questions like 'How old are you?' If they catch a fish for breakfast, they aren't even thinking of lunch. There's just 'now.' A boat of kinsmen could pull up and it doesn't make any difference whether it's been 1 week, 1 year or 5 years. To them, it's the same. As to 'want,' they have words for give or take, but they don't understand 'want' and do not accumulate since they live on the sea. It’s really something, the way our language drives our thinking, huh?”
“I just watched a 60 Minutes segment on river people named the Moken. They had no words for 'when' or 'want.' Time was not a concept of theirs, so they don't understand questions like 'How old are you?' If they catch a fish for breakfast, they aren't even thinking of lunch. There's just 'now.' A boat of kinsmen could pull up and it doesn't make any difference whether it's been 1 week, 1 year or 5 years. To them, it's the same. As to 'want,' they have words for give or take, but they don't understand 'want' and do not accumulate since they live on the sea. It’s really something, the way our language drives our thinking, huh?”
F.: Hello again, Sim. Thanks for your comment, and yes, language does drives thinking. You might recall a recent post that noted that “the prerequisites for contaminating the consciousness and producing the illusion of a ‘mind’ include words, letters, language…etc.” It works both ways: thinking produces a language used to tell lies, and a language of lies results in more thinking. And we know that all thinking is in error since it's generated by a "mind" that is nothing but a reservoir for lies and false beliefs and concepts and ideas. Antropologists tell us that for millions of years, humans worked about 2.5 hours per day to meet the basic survival needs. (Their “work” is what most persons today pay money to do for a “vacation”: hunting, fishing, etc.) The remainder of the human existence was play: visiting with family, swimming, sex, dancing, singing, playing games, etc. The Aryan invasions (of more than 30,000 years ago) that drove the “Indian-Asiatics” to the east accelerated the spread of the ancient Advaitan teachings to what is called North, Central and South America as well as to many islands, and the show you watched seems to have reported the effect. More dominant, however, was the eventual spreading of the Aryan doctrines of accumulation and want and desire. Today, few own their homes, but many have homes that own them. The need to work more to produce more to earn more is driven by the desire for accumulations and the subsequent need to maintain all those accumulations. The natural living that lasted for millions of years ended as most of those adhering to the Advaitan teachings were killed by others involved in conquest and colonization. Among the few remaining descendants of the survivors, you can see vestiges of the Advaita philosophy as revealed through commonalities in their languages, especially by considering what is not included. Note the Advaitan pointers available by seeing what those who originally understood this Teaching never introduced into their languages. For example, in an Advanced Linguistics course in college, we learned that the Algonquin language groups, just as with the Mokens you mentioned, have no word for “time.” The Jiukiukwe Indians also have no word for “time," but even more significantly, they have no word for “problem.” Relatedly, in all the years I spent with my Cherokee grandmother, I never saw her have a problem or comment on a problem. She never discussed things like the weather, even as persons about her complained about it being too hot or too dry or too wet or too cold. For her, the way it was...was the way it was. Even in the 1950's, she had no electricity or running water in her house, but neither was a problem because she did not want either.
The Jiukiukwe also avoid the use of the active voice, first-person singular (e.g., “I” followed by an active verb), and you’ll notice most sages avoid that usage as well. The personal “I” is avoided by the members of that tribe because they consider its use to be a sign of arrogance. Find a person who is arrogant and you’ll have found a person self-absorbed and totally occupied with the “I,” with the “ego” (Latin for “I”). A Jiukiukwe child would not say, “I want water” but would report instead, “There is thirst.” The focus is on the thirst, not on the wants or desires or needs of a personal "I"—of a persona or a "personality." Their language preempts arrogance because their philosophy preempts arrogance first. Also, note the avoidance of any expression of desire in the languages of the members of all these tribes. The result? If there's no plethora of desires, then there is no plethora of unmet desires. If no plethora of unmet desires accumulates, then there can be no loss of peace. Limitations in the language of the Jiukiukwe Indians also provide insight into their worldview as well. They see themselves as unaffected bystanders in a world where things just are. To them, it’s the world that does things, not them, so they have no word for “doer.” Advaitans know the accuracy of that worldview. Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued 24 August 2005]
