Musing: How Language Shapes Reality

Another "on the road" musing on how language shapes our reality
About the Host:
Shiv Sengupta is the author of the Advaitaholics Anonymous trilogy (published by New Sarum Press):
Book 1: Sobering Insights for Spiritual Addicts
Book 2: A Manifesto for Spiritual Anarchy
Book 3: An Antidote to Spiritual Enlightenment
Free chapters of all three books can be read here:
www.newsarumpress.com/advaita...
www.newsarumpress.com/advaita...
www.newsarumpress.com/advaita...
All books are available for purchase on Amazon:
www.amazon.com/dp/1916290361
www.amazon.com/dp/1916290345
www.amazon.com/dp/1739724933

[@JohnSmith190377]

That video is worth watching several times as a reminder that your own mind can be lying to you, or rather not giving you a factual representation of data it has received.

[@zenpig6605]

Most "modern" first world folks don't know about this but there is a subset of ranch workers whose job is to drop off salt blocks on the larger ranches in the western states. These cowboys are usually young to middle age, with some of them being a bit ripe in years. They don't use side-by-sides because they have to cover territory that only horses can get to. They pack their horses with salt blocks and are gone for most of the late spring, summer and early fall, way up in the far reaches of thousand acre ranches, only coming back every few weeks to pack more salt blocks and then leaving the next morning. Their only companions are horses and a dog or two. When you talk to them when they come back to the ranch they seem foreign in many ways. It would be like Mongolian reindeer herders popping into New York and sitting up a Yurt. .While the vast majority of these cowboys have a calm, focused, relaxed way about themselves, they just don't click into what we call normal society . Many who live in more metropolitan areas, might think that these folks were dim witted or slow, or even a bit retarted. But when they are up in the hills working, their minds are much less full of internal dialog. They have to be present at every moment, watching where their horses are going, watching the weather and the surrounding environment, and always looking where the ranches' cattle are at, and the health of the herd. When you get occasion to actually sit down and have a beer or cup of coffee with them, you see that their "rational western mind" is fine and dandy. It's just kind of secondary to that intuitive moment to moment part that our culture has lost or ignored.

[@spirituallyincorrect]

Thanks for sharing that Bob. I imagine for these cowboys returning to the madness of city life is like being on a healthy natural food based diet and then suddenly having to consume loads of sugar and salty snacks. Our societies are so stimulation focused that anytime life hits a slow and easy pace people immediately sink into depression. For these cowboys its probably the opposite. We likely look insane to them.....

[@skoog5600]

That’s the title of one of my book chapters, “I am I. Or am I? Watashi No!”