The subject is the power of the word. It isn’t the word of any doctrine or belief, but that factor of belief is a part of it. It is the creative power of speech, of articulating thought in words. Many traditions use chant in one form or another, but modern cultures seem to have lost a sense of why they ever did. There was and is a reason. They chanted in a language they already spoke for one, and often the chant was a litany in a faith they already openly embraced.
Words can form a pattern of intent and it is interesting how often people will say something and then declare that they didn’t mean to say it. Often times that unintended speech is just the manifestation of self defeating intent. A popular idea is that it’s ‘just words’ and that it doesn’t matter compared to action. But practices like hypnotism and neuro-linguisitic programming use those supposedly powerless words to create very powerful effects. You can always tell somebody who is or feels stuck in their life. There patterns of speech become repetitive.
Do words have great power because we give them power? Words have power because to articulate an idea is to give it perhaps it’s first form. The power of word is the power of thought and all action stems from thought. You can’t say a thing and not be thinking about it, and you don’t have to think hard for thought to have an effect. If anything, thinking hard makes thought weaker. Our most powerful thoughts we call habits, and it wasn’t effort that built the habit.
Words understood have emotional impact even if you aren’t taking them to heart. Even words in another language have the universal meaning of emotion behind them. Even if you don’t speak Japanese, anger in Japanese isn’t the same as anger in English, but it’s the same act of will to express that has the impact.
Language does seem to impact quality of thought. You share the thinking, at least in passing, of the culture you choose to speak the language of. Thus in my studies of the spiritual and philosophical I have picked up smatterings of a lot of world languages.
Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.
Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~