In his book “The Alphabet Versus the Goddess”, Leonard Schlain considers the role of language in human development. Among his insights is that the left-brain emphasis of linear language – as opposed to a more global image-and-context awareness – has limited us products-of-evolution to a style of awareness in which we are very insecure when we stray from the path of orderly subjects and predicates, actions and objects.
One of my core concepts for Spiritual Direction is a practiced focus on setting aside this rigid structure, if only for a short time, in order to listen more comprehensively. Consider, for a moment, just how limited is an idea bounded by a subject, an action and an object – maybe a few indirect objects as well. No matter how you expand it, it avoids virtually the entire universe of coexisting subjects and collateral energies, not to mention the infinite unimagined consequences.
The alternative is an awareness sought through meditation, contemplative prayer, and spiritual practice. Listening deeply.
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