Present
Interests
As
in the past, I enjoy being in nature, being natural. I also
enjoy and appreciate culture, art, music, science (especially
holistic science), and philosophy in its original meaning as
the love of wisdom. And I enjoy and appreciate silence – the
source out of which everything arises.
Process Language
- I have become very interested
in language, especially language structure and
logic because
they fundamentally influence our perception of the world,
and our perception in turn influences our actions. Most
modern languages have a noun-verb structure. Nouns (and
pronouns) refer to things, entities, and verbs to
processes. Things are primary, processes that occur within
or between them secondary. Thus, this kind of language
structure reflects and reinforces a worldview according to
which the world consists of separate things, entities,
objects: you and I are separate, the trees are separate
from one another and us, the good is separate from evil,
etc. Hence, this language structure reinforces a worldview
and experience of alienation. However, modern and
postmodern science as well as personal experience such as
mystical experience of oneness shows that the world is
basically whole and one. David Bohm referred to
undivided wholeness. Since this undivided wholeness is
dynamic, Bohm referred to holomovement,
Heraclitus to pantha rei, which means that everything is
dynamic, everything is process. On this view, process is
primary, and entities are abstractions from the process. The
question then is: can we develop a language that reflects the
fluidity of manifest reality, and if so, what kind of
language would it have to be? I think it would have to be
a process
language, and since
process is represented by the verb, it would have to be
language in which the verb, not the noun or pronoun, plays
the primary role. In his book Fragmentation and Wholeness
(1976), David Bohm (see
Quotes from
Holistic Scientists # 9-15) made an attempt to construct
rudiments of such a language, which he called the
rheomode. I am not aware of further developments in this
respect, and so far I have not been able to construct a
purely verb-based language that satisfies the linguists I
consulted. Any suggestions would
be greatly appreciated!
However, I know
that at least some Amerindian languages are much more
verb-based than English (see, e.g., Dan Moonhawk Alford, and J.B. Carroll: Language, Thought, and Reality.
Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf.
Technology Press of MIT and
Wiley, New York). I have also learned that instead of
saying “I love you” (subject-verb-object), a Japanese
would simply say “Aishiteru”, which means “loving”: the
activity, the process of loving in which lover and beloved
are one. Thus, lover and beloved, subject and object, are
abstractions from this process ( J.-E. Berendt:
The World is Sound. Nada
Brahma. Destiny
Books, Rochester, Vermont, 1991, p. 46). I think that if
we begin with such changes in language structure and then
extend them to more and more situations, we might be able
to overcome much alienation, which would lead to a much
more harmonious and peaceful world.
Korzybski -
I am
also profoundly interested in Korzybski’s ideas that he
presented in his book Science and
Sanity (see
Wisdom Quotes and
Healing
Thinking through Non-Identity
(Korzybski)).
He
pointed out the inadequacy and often negative psycho-logical
consequences of ‘is’-statements that imply identity (A is B).
We make such statements all the time, which distorts our
perception and leads to more or less troublesome or insane
reactions. For example, saying that Fred is
dishonest identifies Fred
with dishonesty. Fred is, however, also honest (if only at
times), insecure, fearful, handsome, talkative, charming,
etc, etc. Furthermore, Fred changes. Hence, it is important
to refer to Fred, for example, on October 22, 2009 and to the
context in which he found himself at that time. Referring
simply to Fred is an enormous oversimplification that can
have disastrous consequences because it may omit highly
relevant contextual information. For example, it may omit the
fact that he was sick at the time when he behaved
inappropriately. Finally, Fred does not exist in isolation
but is an integral part of the universe. Thus, instead of
saying Fred is
dishonest, it would be
more appropriate to say Fred-October
22, 2009-universe was dishonest, etc. This
formulation, although more cumbersome, if not awkward,
conveys much better what was going on and leads to a saner
psycho-logical reaction.
Using Korzybski’s more appropriate language, or at least
keeping in mind this language while using more ordinary
language, requires intensive training because we have been
deeply conditioned by ordinary language and its metaphysical
implications that lead to a distorted worldview and more or
less insane behavior. Part of this training is learning to
pause before we speak. Instead of immediately verbalizing
when we encounter a situation, Korzybski suggests to first
see, pause, sense, intuit, visualize, and only then verbalize
because through immediate verbalization we miss much of the
situation. “Whatever
you might
say
the object “is”, well
it is not” (Korzybski, A.
1958. Science and Sanity, p. 35). The word is not the thing
and the map is not the territory. Hence, to come closer to
reality, we have to be silent. However, when we have to or
want to speak, it would be highly desirable to use a language
and logic that does not lead to or reinforce insanity.
Healthy Thinking, Healing
Thinking - This brings
me to a related topic that has become very important to me:
healing at individual, social, and global levels. In Chapter
2 (Either/Or Thinking and
Beyond) of my
book Wilber’s
AQAL Map and Beyond, I pointed out already how Aristotelian
either/or logic, the logic we usually use, can create deep
wounds, conflicts, and wars that could be healed or
prevented if we used other kinds of logic such as both/and
logic and fuzzy logic. I just published a new
book manuscript entitled Healing Thinking and
Being,
in which I explore in more depth and detail healing kinds
of logic such as fuzzy
logic,
both/and logic, Yin-Yang thinking, Buddhist logic and Jain
logic, and I point
out their importance for the healing of our planet, society,
and us. My new book ms also relates to the
AQAL map by
Ken Wilber and
his integral vision.
Although healing kinds of logic are of much greater
importance than commonly envisaged, ultimately logic and
thinking cannot reveal the unnamable mystery
of Being. Various
kinds of meditation, including Qigong (Chi-kung), Taiji
(Tai Chi), dancing and laughing meditation such as
laughter
yoga,
and a general awareness
of the unnamable mystery can help us transcend the limitations of
the thinking mind (see also Mystic Quotes and Beyond
Thinking, Writing, and Speaking - the
Unnamable).