Mind,

 

Due to our Disembodied Language (DL) – which we have never talked about in a clear manner, that is, with Embodied Language (EL) – we are unknowingly, completely and inevitably, in the dark about who we really are. In what is known as the philosophy of mind, people attempt to identify the nature of the mind and its relationship with the body. Since we can’t help, but start our reasoning from DL – our usual way of talking – everything that follows, gets us more and more in trouble. We ask ourselves all sorts of, supposedly, deep, profound, philosophical or spiritual questions and come up with all sorts of answers, but the reality of every human beings is, that they are going around in circles, as long as the distinction between DL and EL hasn’t been made.

 

You will never hear me speak about the so-called mind-body problem, because I don’t have such an imaginary problem. Although it sounds unbelievable to those, who only know how to have DL, anyone with EL doesn’t have any problem. Moreover, for someone like me, who knows how to have ongoing EL, being without problems, is not a state of mind, as it simply describes my Language Enlightenment (LE). I don’t belong to any school of thought, since thought itself has absolutely no meaning for me. To me or to anyone, who is capable of having ongoing EL, it is joyfully, sensitively, but also, intellectually,  apparent, that our language – instead of a product of our language – is the source of our experiences, we call consciousness, thoughts, feelings or desires.    

 

If the nature of our language would be conceived as EL – rather than the DL, we mechanically engage in each day – we would be able to view our existing language, rather than, our non-existing mind, a true marvel. Interestingly, today, I write in English, but yesterday, I wrote in Dutch. At any given moment, I still have the urge to speak with myself in my native language, although I have lived in the United States since 1999 and have never been back to Holland, the country in which I grew up. With my English, I have literally distanced myself from everything I was  or believed to be, in Dutch. It has been so useful for me to be bilingual, as speaking and writing in two languages, has resulted in and greatly contributed to, my discovery and exploration of DL as well as EL.

 

There was a time, I still believed in having a mind, when my focus on language, began to emerge and sometimes just burst out, as it had not yet been fully articulated. It was a turbulent period of writing and reciting my poems, which, like the songs I sing today, were all about my love for language and my relationship. My wife Bonnie, is Chinese-American. She knows Dutch and has lived in the Netherlands for 13 years, but we have always mainly spoken in English with each other. At first, I had written some  poems in Dutch, but I wasn’t quite satisfied with them. When I tried to translate them in English, I instantly felt very pleased with the results. It was, as if, all of a sudden, my language made more sense.  

 

I was intrigued that I appreciated my English poems more than my Dutch poems and can still remember them, as they turned out to be the blue print of my life. What I used to consider as my inner voice, was actually my real voice, which I could speak and hear. Later, as I became capable of having ongoing EL, my LE was revealed to me. I have often heard people talk about the need to find your voice, but you don’t need to search. Just listen and hear yourself speak.

 

If you don’t say anything, there is nothing to hear. It is, of course, entirely different, to not say and not hear anything, after you have had DL or EL. Silence after DL is troublesome and uncomfortable. This is why people generally speaking – which is DL – can’t stand silence and try to do what they can, to escape from it, either with more DL or with other neurotic behavior. People believe, they are in their mind, but what they are saying is, they couldn’t say what they had actually wanted to say. Their so-called mind, is their defense against acknowledging, to themselves, they don’t even know what they had wanted to say.  

 

Everywhere we go, we engage in DL, because we are ill at ease.  Our stress, anxiety, fear, tension, worries and chaos never resolves with DL and so, it is always felt after the so-called talking is done. After we have had EL, by contrast, there is only wellbeing and this is making the silence – after we have spoken aloud with ourselves – very enjoyable. Moreover, once we are more familiar with EL, there is no need to speak, as we can move into our silence easily, instantly and effortlessly, even without saying a word. Silence is the result, the outcome, the consequence of having EL, but after we’ve had DL, we are restless, ruthless and reckless. You feel awful, whenever your DL has stopped, but it is relaxing, natural and spacious, to let go of everything, in the wordless experience of pure delight, after you’ve had a few moments of EL.

 

With EL it is like this: you can simply wait and there it is: you are full of bliss. As long as we still believe in having a mind, we continue to talk about what we,  supposedly, are thinking. When we say of someone, that he or she is out of his or her mind, this is not a good thing, because they are, presumably, losing their mind, while, obviously, in this case, being in your mind – presumably in the right state of mind – means being in control, which is the opposite of being crazy. Yet, those who believe to be on some spiritual path of supposedly becoming conscious of themselves, would probably say, that being in your mind and, presumably, having control, is a negative thing, as getting out of your mind or going beyond your mind, is their goal, because they experience being in their mind, as being imprisoned by words.

 

Someone with EL doesn’t believe in having thoughts anymore and, therefore, this whole issue of being in control of ourselves dissolves and being in or out of our mind is totally irrelevant. LE is unusual, because it isn’t anything like the enlightened gurus from East Asia for centuries have been talking about. Surely, LE and EL go hand in hand and you recognize your own enlightenment immediately, the moment you engage in EL. English language has made this clearer to me than my Dutch language, as it rationally and logically follows through on who I have always been.