“Being awake is being mindful of the effect of our words before we speak and of the consequences of our actions before we take them. There is no such thing as casual speech, only words of power. Every utterance can be constructive; every word can bless.”
~Yogacharya O’Brian
I have always been fascinated by languages, both living and forgotten. As a young child I would mimic the sounds of various languages I had heard. When I was 12 years old, I had the opportunity to become fully immersed in a language foreign to me when my parents moved our family to Mexico. I attended school there for the next 4 years and learned Spanish as I spent most of my days hearing only Spanish spoken around me and learning to read it in my textbooks. As time passed, I began to think and dream in Spanish.
My view of the world changed, broadened, as I began to think in Spanish. When asked to translate something from Spanish to English, I found it difficult. The words to describe the intent, the feeling invoked, were not found in literal word by word translation.
How we experience reality – how we look at the world – is colored by our language. Our reality is formed by the words we use and how we put those words together. As an example, in Spanish, instead of saying “you dropped something”, you would say the English equivalent of “it fell”. Even more revealing to me was discovering a different way to look at “I am”. In Spanish there are two words for “I am”. “Soy” is used to describe something intrinsic, that will usually not change. “Estoy” is used for describing something that changes. You would use “soy” to say I am a woman, but “estoy” to say I am in Los Osos. Another example of distinguishing a permanent state from a transient one is that in Spanish instead of saying “I am hungry or sad”, you say “I have hunger or sadness” indicating that your identity is not defined by your current state of hunger or sadness.
Language matters. What words we use, and how we put those words together, shape our thoughts and thus our perception of ourselves and the world around us. As we meditate and study spiritual and natural laws, including our own nature, we become aware of the creative power of the words we speak in our thoughts and aloud. We realize the need to be attentive to our language. As Yogacharya tells us above, there is no such thing as casual speech.
We are cautioned in the quote attributed to various authors to:
Watch your thoughts, they become words;
Watch your words, they become actions;
Watch your actions, they become habits;
Watch your habits, they become character;
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.
May our words be a blessing to ourselves and others.
Rev. Nita Shankari Kenyon