I have these thoughts still on my mind about what we talked about in Et Cetera Vel Quispiam, Kayla’s illustration and stuff, which got me thinking about human language and it’s effect it has on how we mentally “see” the world.
The English language is great I believe. I personally think the world should just give up and make it the Earth’s Auxiliary language. But that’s just me. Most opponents to the idea of English as the World Language will say things like: But it will undermine and destroy native culture and identity. Shut up!
There’s 300 million citizens in America; maybe a good half or so have their own native culture and exo-English identity – like me. Most of these people speak English; sometimes as a first language, other times as a second. But you don’t see any of them brainwashed by English into a cultureless American drone. English actually adds to their identity; as well as give them a DIFFERENT method of expressing that cultural identity.
The only problem is, to me, the English language comes with a major flaw which disturbs our eyes and how we interpret the world. The Flaw is the word: To Be – Is, Am, Are.
We learn in basic math that the word “IS” means Equal To or the SAME as: Two plus two IS four. Which means (2+2) IS EQUAL or the SAME THING as the number (4) and implies that there is no difference between (2+2) and (4). Even though we can visually see that they are completely different sets of numerical characters which look nothing like each other. This causes a major problem when we use the word “IS” with our own selves as living beings.
For instance, if I were to say: I AM a doctor. In the mind this comes to mean that the living causal being which is Me, IS EQUAL to or the SAME thing as a Doctor. When you are raised inside the English language – when your brain has been wired and programmed to translate English into conscious bits of pictures and things, it causes the individual to automatically bind it’s self identity with what it does – and confusion sets in.
Fortunately for me, I was raised bi-lingual. I was raised with my brain wired to interpret both English and Khmer (Cambodian).
“I am a doctor” in Khmer doesn’t exist as a statement. It’s impossible to use the Khmer language to render that simple statement, because the Khmer language doesn’t have a word for “IS.” In Khmer, it would be like this [I'll use the Francophone spelling, since French has more sounds in common with Khmer]:
“Kgnome [formal I] Twer [do] Kar [work] Doctor.” The word “Kgnome” actually means “slave/servant” but it’s a “formal way” for peasants to refer to their person. Khmer by the way also is devoid of real personal pronouns. In our culture, you can tell what strata of society you come from by what words you use, especially what you use as personal pronouns. This sentense in Khmer literally means: “The Servant Does Work As a Doctor.” The way this statement is structured makes it impossible for the individual to psychologically merge it’s self identity with what it does for work. The two phenomena remains separate phenomena: the living being (Kgnome) and what it does for work (Doctor). Whereas in English, there exists the illusion of these two phenomenons being the same thing: I = Doctor. Actually, instead of altering the person’s identity, the statement – neurolinguatic program – in Khmer KEEPS the person’s identity in order – just because you work as a doctor, doesn’t mean you are not a Kgnome/Servant-peasant.
It happens also when we express our religious affiliation. In English it would be for example: I AM a Christian or I AM Buddhist. This creates the illusion that the “I” (the self) is the same thing as Christianity or Buddhism. It implies that the Christianity or Buddhism is somehow a part of the I. As this will demonstrate: I am Buddhist – Buddhist am I. In both cases the statement makes “sense” to the English mind painting an illusion that the “I” = Buddhism, and the Buddhism = “I.” There is a clear merger of Identity/Self with the set of abstract convictions/Buddhism.
In Khmer, it’s different. If my grandpa were to ask me what my religion was I would have only two real ways to express my religious affiliation: 1) Chloe Juer [believes] Sasna [religion] Christianity or 2) Chloe Jol [go into] Sasna [religion] Pribudh [Buddha]. In Khmer, I don’t become my religion, nor am I my religion. I either believe what the religion teaches, or I go into it like I would a house. In both cases, what I am as a living being, and what I believe are two very different and separate things. I am still me, regardless of what I believe or go into, which has nothing to do with who/what I am as a living being. There’s actually no real single word for “religion” in Khmer. Sas in Khmer means race/ethnicity. Sasna means something like “tradition,” “culture,” or a collection of wise teaching of a Sas. Sasna in Sanskrit means “wisdom” or teaching of a race of people. It has it’s Semetic/Kemetic cognatives as in the Wise Pharoah Shoshenq, or Sheshonq, aka Shishaq (from the Bible).
It’s hard to see the illusion – the blur between the Self and it’s accessories – not until the individual is Questioned, does the illusion/psychosis become apparent. To illustrate, if my grampa were to question my religious affiliation in Khmer, he would asked me: Haet-Ey [why/what for] Chloe Jol [go into] Sasna [religion] Christianity? In a way he is asking me why I ventured INTO the religion, as if to suggest that there must be something inside which I see which I wanted to see closer out of curiosity. This question also suggest him asking me how long I will stay inside, and if I will be leaving soon. It would be the same question a brother would ask you if you went inside his room. Notice in noway is my grampa attacking me as a person. Knowing that he is not attacking as a person, I do not have a need to validate my Self/Existence to him. The answer would be to give the reasoning behind why I went into it, or to name an “object” that caught my interest: To learn; because it’s teachings interest me.
Now, the interesting part – if I were to question your religious affiliation in English, it is a completely different mater: Why ARE-YOU Christian? This question in English has the same essence as the question “Who are you,” “Why are you; ” “What are you?” (The very same questions the caterpillar was asking Alice in Wonderland). Chances are, when you are asked this question, you aren’t going to answer at the top of your head: Oh, I see something interested in it, I won’t be long. I’m just having a look around that all, maybe learn something. This question becomes a direct attack on you and your existence as a living being. The answer you will give is a resume or list of factors which VALIDATES your own BEING/nature: Because I am a sinner. The mind has confused it’s very being/nature with a pile of arbitrary memeplexes or abstract beliefs. Do a thought experiment with yourself – ask yourself: Why am I a Satanist? Then observe your feelings. Are you questioning your beliefs or your very being? What kind of answers do you give yourself to validate your “Satanicness?”
So when we hear statements like Myatt IS a Nazi; he IS a Satanist, and has BECOME a Muslim; something weird goes on in our Englishified minds. We SEE some person named “Myatt” changing, malting, transforming into one thing and another, and it makes it seem as though this person is either “searching” for an identity or unsure of what it is or wants to be as a living being. When it simply is not the case. Actually the first statement in Khmer would make more sense: Myatt Juer [believes] Dotch [like] Pug [those people] Nazi. In this case, Myatt, the act of him believing, and “those Nazi people” are kept distant and separated from each other as three separate factors. In other words: the Self or living being is independent of what it does or believes in. Myatt doesn’t ‘become’ a Nazi. He isn’t a Nazi. He chooses to believe like “those nazi peole.”
If you were actually to say all three statements about Myatt up there in Khmer: Lok [sir] Myatt Juer [believe] Dotch [like] Pug [those people] Nazi; Hai [and/and then] Lok [the sir] Twer [do] Satanist; hai [and/and then] Jol [goes into] Islam, Tiad [again/also/one more time] – he could actually “be” all three at the same time without any confusion; or it makes it sound like Myatt is just going shopping for things, or that he’s a busy multi-tasked man.
English is a great language, but it does have problems. These problems isn’t just about a simple word “IS,’ and the etymological or linguistic meaning of “IS.” It’s a major causal problem.
Language – that is the lexicon of words we use and think in – is like HTML to our “neurological computer.” It programs in our minds templates of thoughts. These thoughts in turn manifest emotions. And those emotions in turn influence our actions – which, of course produces results.
“IS” just isn’t a two letter word then. It is a major cause of psychosis and other mental disorders. Just do some research on countries or cultures whose language has “IS” in it and tally up the cases of mental disease, with cultures that lack “IS,” and you will begin to see something very scary.
“IS” makes the neurological system which is wired to use it BELIEVE that IT (it’s self identity) IS the same thing as the label, job, work, religion that IT believes or does. “IS” makes the Self believe that IT is not whole without what it believes in or does.
How many people in America can’t seem to differentiate themselves from what they do for a living? Cops, politicians, whatever; who become lost in the illusion of losing themselves in arbitrary functions and abstract ideologies. Who suffer from mental disorders. How many people suffer from failed marriages, high divorce rates, self loathing, and suicide who can’t separate themselves from their Christianity, Mormonism, Homosexuality, or whatever?
This little essay may at face value seem to have nothing to do with the ONA, when in fact it does. Because you really cannot evolve or progress your Self into a new or higher being if that Self is hopelessly lost inside a twisted maze of arbitrary-abstract labels and beliefs – “old aeonic forms” as Myatt would put it. You must, as Myatt struggled to do, liberate yourself from these old aeonic forms. Only then, when you have dis-covered your true Self, can you begin to the work of Self evolution.
The Self is independent and separate from the labels and beliefs it uses. Labels only help classify things; and beliefs only help to interpret reality into bite sized bits the mind can understand. Beyond it’s objective functions, labels and beliefs have no other purpose or relevance to either the living being itself, or the reality it exists in.
Wait, I just changed my own mind about English being the World Language…
Chloe
WSA
