The Weight of Words
In my Arrival Day blog yesterday, I wrote "I like to think that we are piece of the whole, playing an integral part in some grand play and that how we act and speak moves the play of life forward in harmony or chaos. We leave an indelible mark on the landscape of time."
The words we speak and the intent they carry matter significantly. One could say that they lend balance to the reactionary man. In this light, rhetoric is dangerous if reason is not allowed to season it. Ideology is likewise dangerous if intellect is eliminated. About the words we speak, Jesus taught that it is not what we eat that defiles us, but what comes out of our mouth that defiles us.
Deepak Chopra, in his book How to Know God, observed that our level of spirituality is really determined by the intentions in which we do things. He writes that "if someone uses kind words but intends to snub you, the intention cuts through. The most expensive gift cannot make up for lack of love. We know instinctively when intentions come from an honest place or a place of deception."
Chopra's words bring to mind the story of a German Jew, Victor Klemperer, who was living in Dresdon when he wrote his diary I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years. He had the opportunity one day while taking a walk to overhear Hitler's speech at Konigsberg. Victor explains that he knew when hearing the rhetoric and ideology pouring out of Hitler on January 30th, the tone of his speech and the "unctuous bawling, as if a priest," that something was not right? "I called terror," he wrote. Hitler's words were like "mass suggestion to the point of intoxication."
Words from a wise heart can inspire one to greatness. I love movies. And one of my favorite characters in film the past two years has been the character of Gandolf from The Lord of the Rings trilogy. His words are always thoughtful and wise, said with great heart.
Consider Gandolf’s words to Frodo in the caves of Moria. Frodo had just remarked that it was a pity that Bilbo didn’t kill Gollum when he had the chance. Gandolf, like a wise Rabbi, quickly corrected him, saying:
Pity? It is pity that stayed Bilbo’s hand. Many that live deserve death. Some that died deserved to live. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be two eager to deal out death and judgement. Even the wise cannot see the end. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part yet to play in life for good or ill before it is all over. The pity of Bilbo may yet rule the fate of men.
Frodo responds distressingly: "I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish that none of this had happened."
"So have all who have lived to see such times," replies Gandolf. "But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world. Bilbo was meant to find the ring; which case you were also meant to have it; and that is an encouraging thought."
In closing, I want to relate a quote from one of my favorite Kabbalist Rabbis, the Baal Shem Tov. This quote about the mystical aspect of the words we speak is from September 15, 1746:
With every word and expression that leaves your lips, have in mind to bring about a unification. Every single letter contains universes, souls and godliness, and as they ascend, one becomes bound to the other and they become unified. The letters then become unified and attached to for a word. They are then actually unified with the divine essence, and in all these aspects, your soul is included with them. All universes are then unified as one, and immeasurable joy and delight results. 'Give wisdom to the wise, and he will become still wiser!'
With this in mind, it's hard not to understand the weight of your words.
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