The Language Paradox, preview of the Podcast

So there is the Koan about a finger pointing at the moon.   And I suppose the teaching with that Koan is about the limitations of language.  The moon is out there.    And language, or teaching about Buddhism is at most a finger pointing at the moon.  It is not the moon itself.  Don't confuse the finger with the moon.  Language about Buddhism is only a finger, it is not the essence of Buddhism itself.  It only points the way.  You still experience the moon itself. 

But its not that simple and there is more to the ecosystem.  

To begin with, the intention of the person pointing determines what is pointed at.  What are you intending to see?  Or perhaps, what are you imagining seeing or pointing at?  And even more paradoxically, the moon in some ways shapes the intention of the person pointing at the moon.  I'm talking lunar cycles, astrology, gravity, or however else you want to define it--there is an interaction.

In this way, what we have going on here is a system.  A Klein bottle, a Mobius strip.

And my criticism of Buddhism is (at least for me) is it separates you from the system.  It has the Buddha and Mara the demon interact and the Buddha tries to avoid the illusion of Mara.  He points to the ground.  But the illusion and the ground are part of the same ecosystem--each influences the other.  To reject the "unreal" or imaginal world in the pursuit of something else is the substitution of one imaginal world for another.

Here is what a find more interesting.  There are supposedly seven vowels to the original Greek alphabet.  Just like there are seven celestial spheres.  Some coincidence huh?  Vowels evoke spirit.  Consonants, on the other hand, evoke matter or the body.  Say consonants out loud.   See how they are connected to the body.  Say vowels and feel and feel something entirely different.  But back to the spirit thing, vowels/consonants
/words represent the marriage of matter and spirit.  And words embody creation.  In the beginning was the word, and it created the moon by pointing at it.  Or something like that.  Words are alive baby, just like a mantra.  Because we are vibrating just like they do.   Its vibrations all the way down baby.   And of course, all of this is way above my paygrade, but I'm starting to experience it.   Strap yourself in.