relation of enlightenmnet to language

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Stick Man, modified 8 Years ago at 6/26/15 12:33 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 6/26/15 12:33 AM

relation of enlightenmnet to language

Posts: 396 Join Date: 9/23/14 Recent Posts
Many say that words define things, give a sense of being and self to collections of experience - this table, that lawnmower etc.
Is this so ? And is this why somone like Robert Anton Wilson wanted to drop all use of the word "is" ?
How buddhistic is that ?
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Derek, modified 8 Years ago at 6/26/15 7:00 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 6/26/15 7:00 AM

RE: relation of enlightenmnet to language

Posts: 326 Join Date: 7/21/10 Recent Posts
John:
Many say that words define things, give a sense of being and self to collections of experience - this table, that lawnmower etc.
Is this so ?


This is actually two separate developments: object permanence around the age of 4-6 months, and the acquisition of language from 18 months upward.

John:
And is this why somone like Robert Anton Wilson wanted to drop all use of the word "is" ?


I'm not familiar with Robert Anton Wilson.

John:
How buddhistic is that ?


It may not be Buddhist at all. But remember that quaint Briticism, "There's more than one way to skin a cat."
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Dada Kind, modified 8 Years ago at 6/27/15 12:12 PM
Created 8 Years ago at 6/27/15 12:05 PM

RE: relation of enlightenmnet to language

Posts: 633 Join Date: 11/15/13 Recent Posts
RAW studied at the Institute of General Semantics; GS ideas are pervasive in his work. Many have seen GS as compatible with Buddhism, including RAW. It's not considered mere philosophy.

RAW: Language and Reality

GS: Basic Understandings
More can be found at the GS website, or in the notoriously difficult book sourcebook that no one's read, Science and Sanity by Korzybski

...

Verbal Awareness
  • The language that we use can be considered as uniquely-human behavior which allows human to pass knowledge from generation to generation, as well as within generations.
  • However, our language has evolved with structural flaws in that much of the language we use does not properly reflect the structure of the world we experience ‘out there’.
  • Among the flaws or mistakes we perhaps unknowingly commit in our language use:
  • confusing the word itself with what the word stands for;
  • acting as if the meaning of the words we use is contained solely in the word, without considering the significance of the individuals speaking and hearing the word;
  • confusing facts with our inferences, assumptions, beliefs, etc.;
  • not accounting for the many “shades of gray”, simplistically looking at things as if they were black or white, right or wrong, good or bad, etc.;
  • using language to ‘separate’ that which in the actual world cannot be separated, such as “space” from “time”, “mind” from “body”, etc.
  • Korzybski proposed the use of several language habits he called “extensional devices” to help us become more aware of these language flaws in our everyday talking and listening, and thereby behave more responsibly:
  • Indexing — Muslim(1) is not Muslim(2) is not Muslim(3); respect differences
  • Dating — Bob Jones(2004) is not Bob Jones(1994)
  • Quotes — a caution that the term may be used in a peculiar or ‘not normal’ way
  • Etc. — a reminder than more could always be said, our knowledge is incomplete
Sensory Awareness (nonverbal)
  • We actually ‘experience’ our daily living on the silent, non-verbal levels; in other words, on a physiological-neurological level different from our verbal awareness.
  • Our ability to experience the world outside our skins is relative, unique to our own individual organism’s capabilities.
  • Our language habits can affect our organism’s behavior; we can allow what we see, hear, say, etc., to affect our blood pressure, pulse, rate of breathing, etc.
  • As we become more aware of our own non-verbal behaviors, we can practice techniques to achieve greater degrees of relaxation, less stress, greater sense of our environment, etc.



EDIT:
I forgot the most important part. Forgive me Mastah Korzybski:

Etc.
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Stick Man, modified 8 Years ago at 7/7/15 8:32 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 7/7/15 8:27 AM

RE: relation of enlightenmnet to language

Posts: 396 Join Date: 9/23/14 Recent Posts
ooh, iffy start at point 1)

Besides, I think there is a massive prejudice to verbal language. I think nature is full of language - visual, olfactory etc. Red and black stripes mean poisonous. Spewing blood and going into coma are a message from something poisonous you ate that you shouldn't have.

(2) Is a fun one. My five sided triangle here says language can deviate a lot from reality and maintain it's own integrity.

...and yet, if there are infinite and interpenetrating parallel universes, maybe gibberish in one of them is true in another and it's just got stuck in the wrong universe.

So maybe the ability of language to accomodate five sided triangles in this universe is a leakage of the laws of physics of another universe into this one. emoticon

This is undoubtedly the case.
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