On Expressing the inexpressible. Cultivation as 'sacred' dance?

[GrandmasterP]

Expressing the inexpressible can be a tricky business and using language to point at exactly what language can't point at, for example the Tao is a bit of a struggle.

The constant attempt to construct things, or 'ourselves' out of language is the sort of fun that keeps us busy online yet most of us on here, if only from time to time; seek silence as a refuge from wordy selfhood.

Silent, solitary cultivation might then be our attempt to express or reify the transcendent in terms of its radical difference from anything we can say or post. That sense of 'sacred dance' be it QiGong or TaiChi or howsoever we cultivate when we are not talking about cultivation. Cultivation then as an active escape from our attempts at construction of its meaning via language.

To overcome language by means of language is obviously impossible. Turning within, we will only find words and images that are part of ourself.

But to turn outside ourself - lost in moments of cultivation and those quickly changing places where Tao might be sensed yet never described, only 'known', fleetingly.

Now that's a struggle and I have struggled here by using language to point towards exactly what language can't point at.

Forgive me.

:-)

[Spotless]

Grand Master P states: "'To overcome language by means of language is obviously impossible. Turning within, we will only find words and images that are part of ourself.'"

 

There are ways to overcome language by means of language though I understand the tenor of your statement - it was the words "obviously impossible" that caught me:

 

If you have read Gurdjieff you will find his book "Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson' almost intolerable for a good portion of the beginning of the book - nearly 1/3 of it.

The level of constant egoism is beyond toleration - it is a constant aggression upon one reading it - grating and grating and holding the note - and it is truely a work of conscious writing that in holding that note - the glass breaks!

 

You read the book, you are reading the harrassing level of ego and it breaks down the very thing harrassing you. If you make it past this "disgusting display of vanity" he then holds another note for the entirety of the next 2/3 of the book - slaughtering everything sacred on our earth including any shred of puffery we may have left.

 

The words do not do what the tone does. The entire book may leave you with a crew-cut and a distaste in your mouth for his way - but it will have its effect and given the exceedingly thick skin of the ego - his way has been very effective in treating the malady.

 

(the book is some 1200 pages)

 

Please do not steer away from this book because of my observations - it is an excellent read.