If I were to create a global marketplace for teaching RP, which is not exactly RP but something like it , appropriated for the purpose of adoption , would you feel irritated or inspired?
If inspired, this article may not be for you , irritated people may continue.
The objective of this article is not to enrage one side, pit it against the other to add to the ongoing chaos on cultural appropriation and relativism. It is intended to yank us out of our arrested development and create empathy for one another.
Whether we like it or not, English has become a default language for global communication. Similarly, the global spiritual supermarket is defaulting to Indic region for its ideological inspiration. While the region offers a rich foundation of knowledge on consciousness, it also comes with 4000 years of inscrutability when studied through the singularity of “what do you people stand for?”.
That is why it is even more important to understand all the complexities that surround any ideological practice from this region before adopting and propagating it.
Words matter
Let us first clarify what we mean when we say consciousness in this region. Modern science classifies the newest part of the brain, pre-frontal-cortex, as the conscious mind, categorising rest of the parts as subconscious and unconscious mind. The problem is, that the part it categorises as unconscious is actually the part that is always conscious. It never sleeps, not even when the so called ‘conscious’ mind does.
Semantics? Perhaps. Critical to clarify? Absolutely. Otherwise we would be using the same words, based on our respective logic, but walk away with a completely different understanding of what transpired in our conversation over consciousness. The words we use to describe things matter.
Joys of rushed adoptions
Existing words already have a baggage of meanings and connotations. Adopting these logically without understanding their subtext and then using them to suggest something slightly different is just bad practice. Recently in a meeting, we were missing a colleague, who is non-binary. After a point, we couldn’t tell anymore when ‘they’ or ‘them’ was being used as pronoun and when as collective noun.
We are also guilty of chaotically adopting “alternative” ancient practices without really marinating in their associative subtexts. While adopting with a twist is fine , we all do that , propagating these twisted adoptions under the same name, using the same words, is where we have crossed a line.
As a result, there is now so much static and white noise surrounding anything spiritual, that it has become difficult for people to articulate the depth of their experiences without sounding like a cliche. The limited English lexicon further suffocates our expression, making it exceptionally hard to find untainted words that also express a spiritual concept accurately.
Let’s revert to inscrutability
Short of creating a new language for global communication, our wisest course of action may be to liberate key spiritual terms of their subcultural addendums, returning them to their former inscrutability. So, people can once again scratch their heads and put in the work to determine their meaning for themselves in their own way.
Namaste.