Dumb Dharma

Retreat to a cave

I am beginning to realise what sages mean when they say that reality is unspeakable.  Mere words cannot do it justice. Dharma is dumb.

Language evolved to deal with practical matters like relationships, social status and the brainwashing of children. Language did not evolve to deal with those aspects of experience that are meta-cognitive, other-worldly and ‘spiritual’.

But truth/ reality/ the dharma can be known and experienced non-verbally by people who clarify their minds by stilling their mental chatter.

Language began to evolve about 100,000 years ago and it expanded to include an ever increasing range of worldly things - from stone axes to mobile phones.

Then, in the Axial Age (800-200BC), there were dramatic developments. Mystics and shamans became numerous and influential.  New ways of thinking led to new ways of organising people and controlling them. But, in most cases, ‘religion’ chummed up with politics and together they justified exploitation and war. The rich got richer and the poor got poorer. But all systems declined and fell and there was competition to take over the empty spaces.

But there were always a few mystics contemplating the infinite. They sat in remote caves and stilled their mental proliferations. They disciplined their minds and liberated themselves from their geo-historical happenstances. By giving up their culturally conditioned viewpoints and worldviews they became free souls in tune with the inbuilt but unspeakable dharma.

Our backyard

No matter where or when they were active they knew the peace that passes all understanding. From their various starting points they climbed the mystic’s singular mountain. At the summit, they invariably advocated for peace and happiness and for the practice of meditation. Meditation is the sure way for people to turn their minds around and thus to be liberated, enlightened and born again.

Each person born again as an enlightened being is a manifestation of the Cosmos being conscious of its consciousness.

We live in exciting times. This is the beginning of the 21st century on planet earth. There is a synergistic meeting of Eastern and Western viewpoints and worldviews. Is this a new axial age?

•    We are now potentially capable of guiding the direction of cultural evolution.
•    We are now potentially capable of developing new vocabulary and viewpoints.
•    Ultimate reality might soon be speakable.
•    Are we witnessing the end of dumb dharma?