Meaning,

 

Everything has meaning, every experience, whether good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant. What it means is what you tell yourself about it. You give meaning to your experience with your language. If something seems meaningless or useless, then that is all the more reason to pay some extra attention to it.

 

Of course you can also rely on the religious, political, commercial, philosophical, psychological or cultural explanations for how entire populations have continued to behave for centuries. You can fool yourself, with both your own explanation and the explanation of others. Chances are, however, that you have been fooled by the explanation of others, which is so ingrained that you have come to regard it as your own explanation. Whether that so-called explanation was given to you by others or by yourself does not really matter much, because the two always – yes always – go together.

 

You miss out on the opportunity of a lifetime if you don't engage in Embodied Language (EL) and follow your own path. Your life has only the meaning you give it, and if you continue to be in trouble, it is because you can no longer sustain the lies of your verbal delusion. When you have finally, bravely and responsibly assigned the correct meaning to what you are experiencing - whether it was a positive or negative experience - then each experience will be a transformation of your previous history, in which similar experiences were misinterpreted.

 

Giving your own meaning or translation to 

your life makes you happy or unhappy. It 

also has to do with asking the right question,

 to yourself. Usually most people remain 

busy with questions that they have never 

had themselves, but which, due to upbringing 

and culture, have come to determine their 

lives. Also the answer to questions about

 moral life issues was never produced by

 themselves and if inevitable doubt arose, 

about the belief determined by their 

conditioning, their own answer was 

always – yes always – overruled again,

 by the pre-existing belief . In short, 

because we are used to Disembodied 

Language (DL), we have never even 

bothered with our own questions and

 our own answers.

 

In EL, it turns out, to our great surprise, we have very few questions, because our own answer is the correct answer. In fact, the insignificance of the many questions we were burdened with is such that the whole issue, which those questions were about, disappears, as no answer is even needed for that ridiculous question. This is the case, for example, with questions about our so-called mind, which doesn’t appear to exist from our reasoning with EL.

 

The realization of what is valuable or important to us, comes from giving verbal attention to anything that demands our attention. We can describe and listen to the shift of our attention, in such a way – in our own way, with our own words – that what we say and hear coincides with what we experience and that speaker and listener is experienced as one.

 

Honesty, authenticity, liveliness, awareness, intelligence, wisdom, love, creativity are nice words, but they don't describe what actually happens when we give meaning to all our experiences. Because in EL, we listen while we speak, we articulate and find our own unique meaning. Probably, what you will do with EL is something completely different from what I do and have done so far. This is because EL puts all other experiences in a different light. In my case, many of my previous experiences have become unimportant, as I became mainly concerned with speaking, listening, writing and reading.

 

I realize – because everyone is busy with DL and I  continue with EL anyway – I no longer make any more effort, with talking, to bring EL to anyone’s  attention. As a result, the emphasis of my EL has come to lie on writing to myself and speaking to myself. In other words, because I speak, I can listen and go along with what matters to me, and because I write, I can read and therefore act on what is always – yes always – good for me. So, I am never concerned with just listening or just reading, because that, without speaking and without writing, is meaningless as far as I am concerned. Nor do I feel the need to hear or read anything about DL. For me, DL is a done deal.

 

The appropriation of language is a good 

description of EL,  I only recently started 

using. Repeatedly dealing with the same 

subject and describing and considering

 everything connected with it from all sides, 

calmly and comprehensively, is something

 that not only gives me great joy, but also

 bears many fruits. The consequences of 

my EL are truly phenomenal. This is 

vastly different from DL, from which 

we inadvertently, endlessly engage in 

all sorts of distracting behaviors, that 

don't suit us and therefore undermine and impair us.

 

Today, I only listen to myself and my actions come from what I have described. That's how I live and that's how I want to live. The remarkable thing is that I can live like this and that I can afford all this. Most people are not themselves and have no idea what it means to be yourself. I know someone who earns a lot of money as a lawyer and who owns a lot, but who complains bitterly, because he never does what he really wants, because he doesn’t know what he really wants.  

 

I've spent a long time trying to figure out who I really am and what I really want, because I was confused about that from how I grew up. My always – yes always – pre-existing ability to have EL and therefore to talk to myself was always overpowered by the busy hustle and bustle of the family, in which everyone was involved in a battle for attention. Talking to and listening to others - which is the essence of DL - was so overwhelming that, many years later, I am still amazed at how, despite that, I have become one with my EL because I began to write about my Language Enlightenment (LE).

   

 

Betekenis,

 

Alles heeft betekenis, iedere ervaring, ongeacht of het nou een goeie of een slechte, een aangename of een onaangename ervaring is. Wat het betekent, is wat jij erover verteld aan jezelf. Jij geeft betekenis aan jou ervaring met jou taal. Als iets betekenisloos of zinloos schijnt te zijn, dan is dat des te meer een reden, om er eens meer aandacht aan te geven.

 

Uiteraard kun je je ook verlaten op de religieuze, politieke, commerciele, filosofische, psychologische of culturele uitleg, voor hoe hele volksstammen zich eeuwenlang zijn blijven gedragen. Je kunt jezelf voor de gek houden, met zowel je eigen uitleg, als de uitleg van anderen. De kans is echter het grootste, dat je je in de luren hebt laten leggen door de uitleg van anderen, die echter zo zit ingebakken, dat jij het als je eigen uitleg bent gaan beschouwen. Of die zogenaamde uitleg je door anderen of door jezelf werd aangepraat, doet er eigenlijk niet eens veel toe, want die twee gaan altijd – ja altijd – samen.

 

Je loopt de kans van je leven mis, indien je je niet met Belichaamde Taal (BT) gaat bezighouden en zodoende je eigen weg kunt volgen. Jou leven heeft uitsluitend en alleen de betekenis, die jij eraan geeft en als jij in de problemen blijft zitten, dan is dat, omdat je niet langer de leugens kunt volhouden van je verbale zins-begoocheling. Wanneer je de juiste betekenis hebt toegekend aan wat jij ervaart – ongeacht of het een positieve of negatieve ervaring was – dan is iedere ervaring een transformatie van je voorgeschiedenis, waarin soortgelijke ervaringen verkeerd waren geinterpreteerd.

 

Het geven van betekenis of vertaling aan je eigen leven, maakt je gelukkig of ongelukkig. Het heeft ook te maken met het stellen van de juiste vraag, aan jezelf. Meestal zijn en blijven mensen bezig met vragen, die ze nooit zelf hebben gehad, maar die, vanwege opvoeding en cultuur, hun leven zijn gaan bepalen. Ook het antwoord op vragen over vele morele levens kwesties werd nooit door henzelf geproduceerd en indien er onvermijdelijke twijfel ontstond, aan het door de conditionering bepaalde geloof, dan werd het eigen antwoord uiteindelijk altijd – ja altijd – weer overstemd, door het al reeds bestaande geloof. Kortom, we hebben, omdat we Ontlichaamde Taal (OT) gewend zijn, ons nog nooit met onze eigen vragen en onze eigen antwoorden bezig gehouden.

 

In BT blijkt tot grote verbazing, dat wij maar heel weinig vragen hebben, omdat ons eigen antwoord het juiste antwoord is. De onbelangrijkheid van de vele vragen, waarmee we waren opgezadeld, is zelfs zo, dat de hele kwestie als zodanig, waarover al die vragen gingen, verdwijnt, omdat er niet eens een antwoord nodig meer is op die belachelijke vraag. Dit is bijvoorbeeld het geval met vragen over onze zogenaamde mind, die vanuit onze redenatie met BT niet eens blijkt te bestaan.

 

Het besef van wat waardevol of belangrijk voor ons is, komt voort uit het geven van verbale aandacht aan alles was onze aandacht vraagt. Wij kunnen het verspringen van onze aandacht heel aandachtig en op zodanige wijze beschrijven en beluisteren – op onze eigen manier, met onze eigen woorden – dat wat wij zeggen en horen precies samenvalt met wat wij beleven en dat de spreker en luisteraar een is.

 

Eerlijkheid, authenticiteit, levendigheid, bewustzijn,  intelligentie, wijsheid, liefde, creativiteit zijn mooie woorden, maar beschrijven niet wat er eigenlijk precies gebeurd, als wij betekenis gaan geven aan al onze eigen ervaringen. Omdat wij in BT luisterend spreken, verwoorden en vinden wij dus onze eigen unieke betekenis. Waarschijnlijk is wat jij ermee gaat doen iets heel anders, als wat ik ermee doe en tot dusver heb gedaan. Dit komt, omdat BT alle andere ervaringen in een ander daglicht stelt. In mijn geval zijn heel veel ervaringen onbelangrijk geworden en houd ik me dus hoofdzakelijk bezig met het spreken, luisteren, schrijven en lezen.

 

Ik realiseer me – omdat iedereen met OT bezig is en ik desondanks met BT verder ga – dat ik geen enkele  moeite meer wil doen, om, al pratende, BT onder de aandacht te brengen. Hierdoor is het accent komen te liggen op het schrijven naar mezelf en spreken met mijzelf. Met andere woorden, omdat ik spreek, kan ik luisteren en mee blijven gaan, met wat ik belangrijk vind en omdat ik schrijf, kan ik lezen en daardoor handelen, vanuit wat altijd – ja altijd – goed is voor mij. Ik ben dus nooit bezig met alleen maar het luisteren of alleen maar het lezen, omdat dat, zonder het spreken en zonder het schrijven, wat mij betrefd, volslagen zinloos is. Ook heb ik geen enkele behoefte, om nog iets te horen of te lezen over OT. Voor mij is OT een afgedane zaak.

 

Het toe-eigenen van taal is een beschrijving van BT, die ik nog maar onlangs ben gaan gebruiken. Het herhaaldelijk bezig zijn met hetzelfde onderwerp en het van alle kanten, rustig en uitvoerig beschrijven en beschouwen van alles wat daarmee samenhangt, is iets wat mij niet alleen grote vreugde geeft, maar wat eveneens vele vruchten afwerpt. De gevolgen van BT zijn zonder meer fenomenaal. Dit is enorm anders dan in OT, vanwaaruit we eindeloos bezig blijven met allerlei verstrooiende gedragingen, die niet bij ons passen en die ons daarom ondermijnen.

 

Vandaag, luister ik alleen nog naar mijzelf en komt mijn handelen voort uit wat ik heb beschreven. Zo leef ik en zo wil ik leven. Het opmerkelijke is ook, dat ik zo kan leven en dat ik mij dit dus allemaal kan permiteren. De meeste mensen zijn niet zichzelf en hebben geen flauw idee, wat het inhoud, om jezelf te zijn. Ik ken iemand, die veel geld verdiend, als advocaat en die veel bezit, maar die steen en been klaagt, omdat hij nooit doet wat hij echt wil.

 

Ik ben lange tijd bezig geweest, om uit te vinden, wie ik nou echt ben en wat ik echt wil, omdat ik daar vanuit hoe ik was opgegroeid verward over was. Mijn altijd – ja altijd – al bestaande vermogen, om BT te hebben en om dus met mijzelf te praten, werd telkens weer overstemd door de drukte in de veeltalige familie, waarin iedereen was verwikkeld in een strijd om aandacht. Het praten met en luisteren naar anderen – wat dus de essentie is van OT – was zo overweldigend, dat ik zelfs vele jaren later, nog steeds verbaast sta, over hoe ik ondanks dat, een ben geworden met mijn BT, omdat ik ben gaan schrijven vanuit mijn Taal Verlichting (TV).       

 

Natural,

 

I write about my Embodied Language (EL) every day and you read my writing. Things are getting crazier and crazier, in your world, because, unknowingly, you engage in Disembodied Language (DL). If you want sanity, you would favor EL, which would make you speak with the natural sound of your wellbeing. You not only produce this wonderful vibration, but you also hear it and you are positively affected by your resonant voice. This is not some technique.

 

Although my writing is very important, it is even more important, how you respond to this writing. Sadly, for you, you don’t respond. You only read it and that’s it, but you don’t talk with me and get a real sense of what EL is like. It is necessary for you to talk with me, as I am the only one, who knows about EL. I know, you don’t believe me, but that is okay. I am not trying to convince, because my EL has made me realize my Language Enlightenment (LE).

 

This writing is not to explain anything to anyone, but to challenge you. It is up to you, to find out as much as you can about EL and, of course, talking with me is the best way. Why don’t you like to have EL instead of DL already? Of course, you want to, but you don’t know how. I know how to have EL. You could have it too and it would be as good for you, as it is for me. Moreover, we would laugh so much about all the drama involved in DL.

 

Your verbal paralysis is clear to me, but for you, it is hard to admit: you are stuck. My language works for me, but with you, language works against you. You wrongly call that your mind and you have all sorts of false beliefs about language. How tenacious you are, by repeating your troublesome convictions, because you are on the receiving end of how you deal with   language. You keep creating consequences you hate.

 

Am I supposed to feel sorry for you? Well, I don’t. It  puts you off, but, perhaps, it illustrates something of the workings of DL to you? Am I too upfront and too much in your face, for you, to take anything of what I say serious? It is easy to dismiss me, but it doesn’t matter to me. You are too full of yourself to be open with me. My diagnosis is correct and I’m not making this up: you’ve got your head up your ass and since you’ve got your foot in your mouth, you can’t get it out. There’s a profound reason, why you need to have a taste of your own shit, as you are so full of it.

 

Don’t whine about me being judgmental, I know what DL sounds and smells like. It stinks and it is disgusting and I am not going to lie about it, here in my writing. Your DL is worthless, but it is important to recognize that as a fact. You probably got more important things to do, than to consider my writing. Certainly, why should anyone want to talk with me, if I expose that they are phony, superficial, cruel and superstitious? Well, the question answers itself.

 

Let there be no doubt about it: my way of dealing with language isn’t yours. I use my language only for me, but you seem to want to use your language only for others. I don’t believe you. You are lying. You are not generous, honest or truthful, but you would be, if you stopped your manipulative DL. Although you are an egoist, always on the defense, coercing and manipulating others, to do as you want them to, you don’t get anything out of it, that has any meaning.

 

You can’t admit, that your words, the sentences you produce, that your involvement in language really harms you. Even if you did, you are merely acting as if you are the person, who you believe yourself to be. I don’t believe myself to be this or that, that’s why I write what I’m able to produce this moment. To me, every sentence is a new phase in my life and,  my words create and maintain a reality, only for me, which makes me happy and capable of realizing that I am the only person, who is doing this deliberately, skillfully and effortlessly. My originality derives from the fact that I hear myself while I speak. You can’t do this, as it goes against your conditioning, which compels you to listen to others or to get others to listen to you. In each case, you focus on others.

 

Your problem is not listening, but the way of talking which brings about listening. You are so insensitive, ignorant and dumb, because you engage in DL, but seldom, if ever in EL. Of course, it is exhausting to be you, as you are all over the map, fragmented and conflicted. Of course, you are frustrated and fearful things will get worse than they already are. You are angry and dissatisfied, as your needs are never met, I get it, but you create your own problems. Why the hell should I or anyone care about you, if all you do is burden others with your tragedies and disasters?

 

You are responsible for how you use your language, but you keep trying – in vain – to cop out of this  responsibility. All I can do, is shrug my shoulders and laugh about your misery. It wouldn’t do anyone any good, if I would be miserable too. You sound so tense, stressed, anxious, upset and confused. No, I don’t feel sorry for you, I already told you. Actually, I have fun hating you. I know, you believe that hate is a negative state, but you don’t know anything about hating DL, which is very delightful and exquisite.

 

Anything which reminds you of being sincere, open and humble is immediately covered up or distracted from, but I don’t let you take away my EL. Although I can’t do anything for you, as you will have to face the pathetic reality of your own DL by yourself, you neither can do anything for me nor against me. My ability to have EL, is mine alone, it is unmovable, like a mountain. I recognize your sick, twisted DL from miles away and continue to avoid it like the plague.

 

I have no use for you, other than to mock you, to ridicule you and to put you, verbally, in your place. Your DL is not my cup of tea and I’ll let you have it.  

 

Only if you can accept, I know something, which you have been too arrogant to pay attention to, can you begin to acknowledge what it is, that you have been trying to escape. I’m not going to make you listen to me or to yourself, but I write these words, to let you know where I stand. Unless, you hear your own DL, it isn’t going to stop and you won’t be able to have any EL. Unless you do that, I keep my distance and laugh at your idiotic,  insidious, but tragic antics, which are all too familiar to me. And, I can do all of this, because it comes natural to have EL.

          

 

Parting,

 

Embodied Language (EL) is making yourself audible – to yourself – in your own language. You can hear exactly whether you feel positive or negative. In both cases, you just allow it. When you feel positive, you sound like this and when you feel negative, you sound different. Because of our habitual way of handling our language, which I therefore call Disembodied Language (DL), we say that we are not really ourselves as long as we still feel negative and are only ourselves when we feel positive. Of course we are ourselves in DL as well as in EL, but the big difference is that we can only talk about this with EL and are therefore stuck in DL with a totally wrong verbal self-image.

 

Whether we can verbalize it, admit it and know it or not, everyone unconsciously tries to be and stay positive, when we actually experience negativity. This is a main characteristic of DL. However, from our EL, we are able to represent our emotional experience, our feelings, in a sincere and therefore correct way. So if you feel negative, you just say that to yourself and then, you can really hear it and then there is basically nothing wrong with that, because that's simply how you feel. You don't try to change it while you talk with yourself about it and you just let it be. You know because of EL when it changes. It is not because of a decision, but because you are aware of what you are actually experiencing.

 

Your ability to realize whether your experience is positive or negative has absolutely nothing to do with wanting to be positive or trying not to be negative. You are who you are and you sound the way you sound. You don't do anything to sound different than how you sound, that's why you can really feel the way you feel. In EL, whether you feel positive or negative, you know you really are you. Because you can allow all your feelings, everything transforms and everything becomes positive.

  

I too was busy with anything and everything.

I admit, that despite all my well-intentioned 

efforts, nothing came of what I wanted and 

pursued. Still, I feel positive, because all of

 this is now behind me and I will never have

 to worry about it again. I hear something 

has changed, but can't say exactly what it is 

yet. Have I suddenly become older and wiser? 

Is it because I quit DL forever? I don't care 

what kind of explanation I give and that feels

 very pleasant. My connection with the Dutch

 language is, of course, because of my 

emigration to the Americas in 1999, mainly

 an increasingly vague memory, because 

here I speak, read, hear and write in English. 

These words are a grateful farewell to the 

Dutch language, which could not have 

happened before with my EL.

 

It's been great, but I'll probably continue in English from now on, because there's no reason to say anything in Dutch anymore. There is no one left in the Netherlands with whom I am still in contact. As I write this, I also realize that apart from my wife Bonnie, there is no one here I can talk to about EL. It's not sad or negative, because it is what it is. I feel excited about what is to come, now that the past has been resolved with my language. I know that my  emphasis has shifted from being focused on EL to my Language Enlightenment (LE). It's amazing how that started to manifest itself. The realization that it was always my LE that made me want to have EL, is unimaginable.

 

LE is beyond our imagination, because it implies the end of language. So beautiful that, like everything else in life, we only borrow our language for a while and then, when we die, we give it back to those who live with it. Also that whole learning process of being born without language, experiencing EL, in the form of love, attention and care, but also the harsh reality, that soulful, innocent, felt, sincere, living language was just a childhood memory, which became more and more painful with adulthood, because the major difference between EL and DL was not yet clear. It was only when DL came to an end that EL could continue and that impermanence, did not come into the picture, but – inevitably – into my ears. It is because of DL, that we focus more on written than on spoken language and thus give more attention to visual than auditory stimuli.

 

During DL we are not only obsessed with, fixated on and seemingly imprisoned by the verbal aspect of our language, but we have also hung almost all of our belongings on what we can see. The old adage, seeing is believing, has taken us by the nose, as the real meaning of language cannot be written, read, and seen, since it can only be spoken and heard.

 

When we finally hear what we say and by listening to ourselves can begin to say what could not have come to our attention before, it turns out, there is nothing to say about death than that disembodying has already taken place during EL. This is EL's most amazing conclusion: although DL's suffering has lost its grip and we were happily able to continue with EL, what we were, before we acquired language and what we will have disappeared into, after we die, has come above the table because of our LE. It is so wonderful to be able to say this and to say goodbye to language as such. Only now my LE fully reveals itself, now that I have said and heard it.

 

Afscheid,

 

Belichaamde Taal (BT) is het jezelf hoorbaar maken – aan jezelf – in je eigen taal. Je kunt precies horen of je je positief of negatief voelt. In beide gevallen laat je het gewoon toe. Als je je positief voelt, klink je zo en als je je negatief voelt, dan klink je anders. Vanwege onze gebruikelijke omgang met taal, die ik daarom dus Ontlichaamde Taal (OT) noem, zeggen we, dat we niet echt onszelf zijn, zolang als wij ons nog negatief voelen en alleen onszelf zijn, als wij ons positief voelen. Uiteraard zijn wij onszelf zowel in OT als in BT, maar het grote verschil is, dat wij hierover alleen met BT kunnen praten en in OT dus vast blijven zitten met een totaal verkeerd zelf-beeld.

 

Of we het nou kunnen verwoorden, toegeven en  weten of niet, iedereen doet onbewust pogingen om positief te zijn en te blijven, terwijl we eigenlijk negativiteit ervaren. Dit is een karakteristiek van OT. Vanuit Belichaamde Taal (BT), zijn wij echter in staat om onze emotionele ervaring, onze gevoelens, op een oprechte en dus correcte wijze weer te geven. Als je je dus negatief voelt, dan zeg je dat gewoon aan jezelf en dan hoor je dat ook echt en dan is daar in principe helemaal niks mis mee, omdat je je nou eenmaal zo voelt. Je verandert het niet, terwijl je er met jezelf over praat en je laat het gewoon zo zijn. Je weet vanwege je BT wel wanneer het verandert. Het is niet vanwege een besluit, maar omdat je je bewust bent van wat je nou eigenlijk echt ervaart.  

 

Jou vermogen, om te beseffen of je ervaring positief of negatief is, heeft absoluut niets te maken met positief willen zijn of proberen om niet negatief te zijn. Je bent wie je bent en je klinkt zoals je klinkt. Je doet niets, om anders te klinken dan je klinkt en daarom kun je je echt voelen zoals je je voelt. In BT weet je, of je je nou positief of negatief voelt, dat je echt jezelf bent. Omdat je al je gevoelens toe kunt laten, transformeert alles en wordt alles positief.

 

Ook ik was bezig met van alles en nog wat. Ik geef toe, dat ondanks al mijn goedbedoelde pogingen is er helemaal niets terecht gekomen van wat ik had gewild en heb nagestreefd. Toch voel ik me positief, omdat dit alles nu achter me ligt en ik me er nooit meer mee bezig hoef te houden. Ik hoor dat er iets is veranderd, maar kan nog niet precies zeggen wat het is. Ben ik ineens ouder en wijzer geworden? Is het omdat ik met OT ben opgehouden? Het maakt me niet uit, wat voor een uitleg ik geef en dat voelt heel aangenaam. Mijn connectie met Nederlandse taal is natuurlijk, vanwege mijn emigratie naar de Amerika in 1999, hoofdzakelijk een steeds vager wordende herinnering, omdat ik hier in het Engels spreek, lees, hoor en schrijf. Deze woorden zijn een dankbaar afscheid van de Nederlandse taal, die nog niet eerder met mijn BT had kunnen plaatsvinden.

 

Het is mooi geweest, maar waarschijnlijk ga ik, vanaf nu, verder in het Engels, omdat er geen aanleiding meer is om nog iets in het Nederlands te zeggen. Er is niemand meer in Nederland, waarmee ik nog in contact ben. Nu ik dat zo schrijf, besef ik eveneens, dat behalve mijn vrouw Bonnie, er hier niemand is waarmee ik kan praten over BT. Het is niet droevig of jammer, want het is zoals het is. Ik voel me heel opgewekt over wat er gaat komen, nu het verleden met mijn taal is opgelost. Ik weet, dat het accent is verschoven, van het bezig zijn met BT, naar mijn Taal Verlichting (TV). Het is wonderlijk, hoe zich dat aan  begon te dienen. Het besef dat het dus altijd mijn TV was, die mij BT deed hebben, is onvoorstelbaar.

 

TV gaat echt ons voorstellingsvermogen te boven,  omdat het het einde van taal impliceert. Zo mooi, dat we, net als alle andere dingen in het leven, ook onze taal slechts enige tijd in bruikleen hebben en daarna, als wij doodgaan, teruggeven aan hen, die ermee verder leven. Ook dat hele leer-process van het geboren worden, zonder taal, het ervaren van BT in de vorm van liefde, aandacht en zorg, maar ook de harde realiteit, dat bezielde, onschuldige, gevoelde, oprechte, levende taal slechts een jeugdherinnering was, die met het volwassen worden steeds pijnlijker werd, omdat het grote verschil tussen BT en OT nog niet duidelijk was. Pas toen mijn OT eindelijk tot een einde kwam, kon mijn BT voortduren en kwam de vergankelijkheid, niet in beeld, maar – onvermijdelijk – in het gehoor. Het is natuurlijk vanwege OT, dat we meer gericht zijn op  geschreven taal dan gesproken taal en dus meer aandacht geven aan visuele dan auditieve stimuli.

 

Gedurende OT zijn we niet alleen geobsedeerd door en gefixeerd op het verbale aspect van taal, maar we hebben eveneens zo’n beetje ons hele hebben en houden opgehangen aan wat we kunnen zien. Het oude gezegde: zien is geloven, heeft ons bij de neus genomen, omdat de echte betekenis van onze taal niet geschreven, gelezen en gezien kan worden en dus alleen kan worden gesproken en gehoord.

 

Als wij dan eindelijk horen wat we zeggen en in het luisteren naar onszelf kunnen gaan zeggen, wat nog niet eerder in onze aandacht kon komen, dan blijkt, dat er over de dood niets anders te zeggen valt, dan dat die ontlichaaming al in BT heeft plaatsgevonden. Dit is de conclusive van BT: ook al heeft het leed van OT zijn grip verloren en konden we gelukkig verder gaan met BT, toch kwam, wat wij al waren, voordat we taal hadden en waarin we zullen zijn verdwenen als wij doodgaan, vanwege onze TV boven de tafel. Het is prachtig dit te kunnen zeggen en om afscheid te nemen van de taal als zodanig. Het lijkt wel alsof mijn TV, nu pas volledig tot mij is doorgedrongen, nu ik het zo heb gezegd en gehoord.       

 

Sounding Board,

 

In Disembodied Language (DL), we want others to agree with our opinions. We, so to speak, test the waters, by offering our views, to see if what we say is liked. If the other person is considered to be a good listener, he or she offers so-called feedback, by confirming our ideas or by letting us know, we are off key. This is as far as we usually go with listening. In Embodied Language (EL), on the other hand, we listen to ourselves and decide for ourselves, if we enjoy what we say or not. Stated differently, in DL, we deal with our language very differently, than in EL, as in DL, the other is more important than us,  but in EL, we are more important than anyone else.

 

The profoundly significant difference between DL and EL is the quintessential issue of our time, yet nobody is interested. There is a real reason for this: we simply don’t want others to disagree with us or  dislike us and that is why we continue with our DL. In other words, only if we allow others to reject us, that is, only if we fully accept, that anyone with DL will always disagree with EL, only then, will we be able to step out of our history of conditioning with DL and are we able to have EL, because, only then, our DL has been stopped. Another, more common way of saying this, is that by talking out loud alone with ourselves and by listening to ourselves, we can hear, that we engage in DL and speak from our head  or we engage in EL and we speak from our heart.

 

Speaking your so-called mind, is really saying what you want to say, in the way that you want to say it, but when does that ever happen? When we speak with ourselves alone, we find ourselves capable of saying many things, we couldn’t say to others. More importantly, if we take the time, to check in with ourselves – to listen to ourselves and let ourselves know, not what we are thinking, but what we could only say, if we gave ourselves the permission, to say whatever we wanted to say – we can say things, we should keep to ourselves, because each time we say them to others, it doesn’t seem to matter. While speaking aloud, alone with ourselves and while listening to and enjoying the sound of our natural effortless voice, we finally can say precisely what we wanted to say, without any interference from others and stay with ourselves. This is how we discover our EL and find out, that we can only continue with EL, to the extent that we keep talking with ourselves.

 

There is no mind in EL and we neither express our thoughts, our feelings or our experiences, as we can say whatever we are capable of saying, because we give ourselves the opportunity to say it and to come to know it. Thus, in EL, we acquire self-knowledge in which the distinction between thoughts, feelings, memories, ideas, beliefs, impressions, associations or experiences is irrelevant, because whatever we say consists merely of words or verbal constructs.

 

Quite literally, a sounding board is a board or screen placed over or behind a pulpit or stage, to reflect a speaker’s voice forward. Obviously, it is meant to amplify a speaker’s voice, to give distinctness and sonority to his or her sound, so that the audience can hear him or her. In effect, a sounding board  changes the sound of the speaker, due to which he or she comes across more clearly. Of course, this only deals with other-listening, not self-listening. Besides, in common parlance, being someone’s sounding board, is meant metaphorically, that is, we use others as a means of evaluating our own ideas.

 

In EL, we don’t amplify or do anything in particular with our sound, but in DL, we always try to sound friendly,  strong, certain, decisive, knowledgeable, positive or meaningful, that is, in DL we act how we sound. However, in EL, we listen to ourselves while we speak, which means, we are aware about how we sound. Awareness of the sound of our speaking voice, makes us conscious about our language and therefore of ourselves. Moreover, in EL we literally, unapologetically, deliberately and skillfully love to hear ourselves talk, as we continuously produce only the sound, which we like to hear. Indeed, in EL, we can really truly be ourselves. In DL, by contrast, listening always equals listening to someone else, therefore, in DL, we speak, unconsciously, with a voice, which we ourselves don’t even want to hear and this has many negative consequences.

 

With EL, we are coming into our own. Yesterday, I was talking with my lovely wife Bonnie, about how I kept losing my own EL again and again, because I wanted so badly, to be able to have it with others. Of course, it is absolutely possible and beneficial to have EL with others, but since we were conditioned to have DL, we mechanically want to continue with our DL and avoid the challenge of having ongoing EL. I told Bonnie how relieved I feel, I no longer – as I used to – desire to have EL with others. I described this relief as my Language Enlightenment (LE). She said, but isn’t LE the same as being happy with yourself? I said yes and we laughed together.            

 

Categorically,

 

I reject Disembodied Language (DL), because it is against my dignity, my nature and my intelligence, but, most importantly, I am capable of having and enjoying ongoing Embodied Language (EL). Without EL, DL cannot be stopped and unless one has a clear understanding of the big difference between these two, one is bound to continue with DL, by default, and one only pays lip-service to EL, which then, is presented as a way of improving ourselves, our relationships or communicating more effectively.

 

All of the aforementioned lofty goals don’t get to the real issue of EL: our Language Enlightenment (LE). Stated differently, EL is the way of dealing with language, which makes us realize our LE. However, DL has kept us ignorant, unconscious and conflicted. It has to be stopped and whatever needs to happen, to stop it, is worth it. In my case, it meant giving up on being in contact with the family I was raised in, leaving behind my study of human behavior and, yes, abandoning everyone I previously felt rejected by, who all engaged in DL. I don’t have any business with anyone who continues with DL and it has taken me 64 years to fully and simply admit this to myself.

 

I feel perfectly fine without having any followers. I never needed or wanted them, as I stay true to my EL, which only cares about those few individuals, who have the courage and inclination to do what I have done and turn their back on DL. By no means, this implies, anyone with EL has retreated from the world. Quite to the contrary, anyone who comes to acknowledge the difference between DL and EL, can only continue with EL, if he or she has the integrity and clarity, to live as a nobody among others, who believe themselves to be somebody and treat EL with defensiveness, hostility and superficiality.

 

All my efforts to have EL with others have shown, that I don’t need them, that I’m okay on my own, that my EL wants me to stay with myself and that that is my LE. It is odd to realize, I have bothered so many people, who didn’t want to have EL with me, but now to recognize, that with the disappearance of the other, I have disappeared. The silence, I can now experience is love and tells me that it couldn’t be in any other way. For all these years, I was trying to find out, how I could continue my EL and as long as I was still not entirely clear about that, I would again and again fall back into DL, but I also lost track of my LE. Only recently my EL has revealed my LE properly and has the latter become more important  than the former. As long as I was preoccupied with the continuation of my EL, I had things upside down.

 

It is and it always was my LE, which made me want to express my EL. It is so fantastic to realize this. I feel a great release of energy, which was blocked due to how I dealt with my language. Although I had discovered the difference between DL and EL, there was still a misunderstanding about why I wanted to have EL so badly? How was it possible, I wondered, that I could do this beneficial act and that only so very few people wanted to do this with me? This question has been answered, as it is our LE – who we really are – which makes us want to have EL.

 

You can call LE anything you like: your true self, your no-mind, your aloneness, your dissolvement in love, in sensitivity, in language, in silence and in beauty. I  have arrived at this conclusion, not because I was having EL with others, but because I let my EL take me, where it wanted to go. In the past, I have read many useless books about spirituality, philosophy and psychology and I have often come across the description of what has been called the pathless path, but I categorically disagree with all of that nonsense. Each step I have taken has led me to this  realization and each human being – whether they know it or not – is on their way to this. Nothing can be missed and everything can only find its place due to our language. I don’t care what you call it, but that is a fact. That being said, our language – our EL – of course, is more important than any so-called spiritual path or journey, as our LE is already the case.