In His Holiness the Dalai Lama's recent book, The Universe In a Single Atom: the Convergence of Science and Spirituality, he says, "How can something like life emerge from non-life?" In this careful discussion of the current confluence of these "two investigative traditions""Buddhism and modern science"the question elicits so many others, and His Holiness dives into the inquiry with such diligence and focus that reading question after question, layer upon layer of interdependent thought between the two, a reader quickly becomes absorbed in what can fairly be called a state of meditation. I have spent most of my life engaged in reading and in developing text as a writer and editor, and yet this aspect of the word still brings me extreme joy whenever I encounter it. The word, the spoken or written or signed or sighted word, has in its essence something living"something entirely pure and unassailable. This quality of a word or phrase is unfettered even by its own meaning! The philosopher's observation that "the word is not the thing" is only the beginning, though. We are awash in a flurry of consciousness that is forming itself in our minds and memories, from what? From words, which are in themselves merely inert shapes. And yet they live. "How can something like life emerge from non-life?" It's a compelling question, but one which, His Holiness the Dalai Lama writes, is not of great concern to Buddhists who, seeing that sentient beings arise from an "essentially non-sentient basis" simply appreciate the fact. I think it's a beautiful fact. And how wonderful to realize that one couldn't express this wonder without having collected one's thoughts into words (which "emerge from non-life"). As I have learned to approach writing and editing as an act of seva, or selfless service, I have observed two things: One is that I never really know what is being written while it's happening. After the work is finished, I read the results with great curiosity! The second surprise is how much more thoroughly I enjoy the (often hard) work of writing and editing. Ideas stream forth unimpeded by agendas, and the aura of freedom then shines all around. And so I've experienced again and again that the word is not, in fact, the thing it represents, but rather the energetic product of the mind and heart that made it--and even more wonderful, the product of the One who makes all things. Now when I glance over a sea of sentences, I do so lovingly and with greater respect. So much that goes on inside and outside us is extraordinary--Divinity's constantly making and remaking all that is. What a wonder that we also have language, which allows us a still moment to hold that creation and to marvel at its diverse appearances. |
