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Study of Text, C 14: VI. The Light of Communication, P 6. 5-10-17

VI. The Light of Communication, P 6

Journal
In another place in the Course, Jesus says that words are but symbols of symbols and thus twice removed from reality. Now he is talking about this again. He says that we speak in dark and devious symbols and that we don’t understand the language we have made. We call this communication but is it really?

Here is a definition of communication from a dictionary: a technique for expressing ideas effectively. Do we actually express our ideas effectively using the language we made up? Recently, someone asked me for my thoughts on a passage from the Course. I expressed my opinion of its meaning as clearly as I could.

She was very pleased with my answer and started talking about what I had told her. Very quickly, I realized she did not understand what I meant. Now we were in conflict, our thoughts on this passage disagreeing with each other. I could have tried to get her to reach my understanding, to convince her to see things my way, but that would have simply increased the conflict, and conflict is not communication. So I let it go and assumed that she heard what she needed to hear at this time.

This is not the first time I have had this experience. It actually happens all the time. I said something innocuous to a friend and she understood it to be a judgment against her. I was shocked at her reaction and stood there trying to think how she came to that conclusion from what I said. Again, conflict is not communication. Using our dark and devious symbols we had tried but failed to communicate.

I think one of the reasons our language is not adequate for true communication is that we use it to convey ideas, while at the same time, to obscure other thoughts. Suppose I was trying to give you a clear explanation of why relationships go awry. I am sharing some personal examples with you, but I am also being careful to share only my stories that I am willing for you to hear. So I am trying to communicate through not communicating.

How, then, can we actually communicate while we are hampered by language? Jesus says we can do this if its interpreter is not its maker. If I ask the Holy Spirit to speak through me, it will be in a style and with a vocabulary that is mine, but the intent will be His. This is what I try to do when I make these journal entries knowing I am going to share them.

I begin by reading the paragraph and then walking away from it, allowing the Holy Spirit to inform me. This part happens without my active cooperation. Then I come back to the task and start writing. How well I allow the Holy Spirit to interpret for me depends on my willingness to set aside what I think I know.

It takes a good deal of practice to allow my spoken language to be directed by the Holy Spirit. I am still working on that. The ego really likes to be in charge of communication and I can still fall back into that habit when I am not mindful. If we all communicated through mind rather than language, all would know all that is being thought and felt.

Sometimes I shudder at the thought, but really, if I knew everything someone thought and felt, then I would understand why they had these thoughts. I would then have compassion for them rather than judgment. Jesus says that even our twisted language holds enough love to make it meaningful if we leave interpretation to Him. So love is the means of true communication and if we fully understood all the motivating factors in everyone’s words, we would feel only love for them.

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