The Word Explained
Extract from my book: Eternal Words
“What is a word?”
It seemed to be a very simple question, but one that I found difficult to find words to answer. Finally, I answered, “Well, a word is a thing spoken that identifies something.”
Elizabeth grabbed a dictionary, opened it and added, “It says here that a word is a sound or combination of sounds that symbolizes and communicates a meaning.”
“Now we’re getting somewhere,” he said. “A word is a sound.” What is a sound?”
“Since I play the piano perhaps I can answer that,” said Elizabeth. “The notes on the piano are sounds and each note has a different frequency or vibration.”
“So a word is a sound, which is, in turn, vibration,” I injected.
“And what does the vibration represent?” he asked.
“Whatever the meaning behind the word is, I suppose.”
“Pick a word,” he commanded.
“How about coin?”
“And when you speak the word coin, isn’t a certain combination of vibrations sent forth to reach the ears of others?”
“Yes.”
“And these vibrations represent an idea?”
“Agreed,” I said, trying to follow his thought.
And, in between the thought and the idea, what force acts as the bridge between the two?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Suppose you are reading a magazine and see a picture of a new car. The idea or concept of a car enters your mind. What has to happen within you before you will act and do what is necessary to get the car?”
“I suppose I would have to want the car enough to spend the money.”
“Very good,” he said. “In other words, you first have the idea of a thing in your mind, which is followed by want or desire, which in thrun is followed by the materialization of the physical object.”
“Makes sense,” I said.
“Now a word, you you generally understand the term, starts with an idea. It is followed with a desire to communicate, which is materialized into a vibration that symbolizes the thing, which is, in this case, a car.”
“But there is a big difference between saying the word car and actually having a new Porsche in my front driveway.”
“You think so,” he said with a knowing look.
““I take it you don’t think so,” I replied.
He pulled out the shiny 1796 quarter again and set it on the table. “This is a coin, is it not?”
“I would think so,” I said.
“Now does the word coin refer only to this coin or to the idea of coins in general?”
“The idea of coins in general.”
“What word then refers to this specific coin?”
“I don’t know,” I said, thinking. “I guess we could call it John’s coin.”
“But there are many who are called John and many coins. What word refers to this coin?”
“How about John the Beloved’s 1796 quarter?” added Elizabeth.
“But I could have two such quarters,” he replied.
“I know you well enough to know you’re leading us to a conclusion that is beyond the obvious,” I said. “You’re not looking for a set of regular words are you?”
“Then what am I looking for?”
“You said you are looking for the word that identifies your coin.”
“Yes.” He noded. “Now what word could it be?”
“Well, I’ve concluded it is not a regular word, but you agree that a word is a vibration that represents a thing. Perhaps the coin’s word is some type of vibration peculiar to itself.”
John smiled and replied, “You’re finally headed the right direction.”
[…]
- 75
“And what is sound again?”
A light began to go off in my head as I replied, “Sound is a vibration and vibration is composed of waves!”
“And what is the word which is this coin?”
“This is getting interesting,” I mused. “I think I see where you are going. This coin is made up of vibrations, and since vibration is sound, then this coin is made of sound. If we could somehow hear the fine vibrations we could hear the word which is this coin.”
“You start off a little slow, but you usually come through,” John smiled.
[…]
- 76
“All creation, which appears complex when divided into its many parts, always evolves toward the greatest of simplicity. The element silver is composed of billions of tiny sounds, but the many tiny voices blend in a great choir to make one master sound. To speak the word which is silver, I merely make the one sound instead of the many.”
“But you said the coin is made of two elements, which is copper as well as silver. Is it composed of two words?”
“No. The sound which is silver blends with the sound which is copper to make one sound just as two voices blend to create harmony.”
- 88
“To ensure that this would be the case I absorbed and sounded the Word which is Elizabeth when I first met her. Just as the shiny new coin has an uncorrupted word, so do we. The image you see of Elizabeth is the result of her Word sounded in a healthy state. Having this image of her in my room gives me power to restore her to health on either a temporary or permanent basis.”
- 89
“And then I demonstrated the truth of this for you in applying it to form. All form is the result of sound, or a word, and all form goes through the process of decay or corruption. But the sounding of the original word on all planes restores the form just as sounding the original phrase in the game restores the meaning.”
- 138
“I think I see what you are getting at,” I said. “The idea of a sandcastle, along with its form, continues to exist even if the elements that represent the form crumble.”
“Yes,” he said. “The sand is not the form of the castle, but represents the form. All form represents an idea and all ideas are founded upon some eternal principle. We have therefore the eternal triangle of form, idea, and principle. An eternal word is a word that conveys the true idea so it will never be lost or destroyed. The first sandcastle is long gone, but the original idea is recreated every day, and can be seen on beaches as long as human thought continues on this planet.”
“Interesting,” I said. “So the first sandcastle still exists amidst all the beaches of the world as it is recreated by fun-loving people. I guess we must learn to differentiate between real form and that which makes up the form.”
“Exactly,” said John. “Even though the first sandcastle was not written with a pen or spoken with the mouth, it was nevertheless an Eternal Word that shall not pass away. There are many other ways to write or speak to the mind of another without the use of pen and ink.”
“Like pictures,” injected Elizabeth.
“Actually, all physical communication boils down to pictures,” he replied. “Even the basic alphabet is composed of pictures of symbols, which, when pieced together, create a bigger picture. The first letter of the alphabet is a picture of a sound, whereas a sandcastle is a picture of many sounds.”
Be careful of your thoughts; they may become words at any moment. – Ira Gassen
Dec 11, 2013
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