One of the teachings of Sri Bhagavan (the founder of the Oneness University in India) was, “The other is not outside you but living within you.” In this teaching he explains, “Whatever we experience outside is only an image of our self within. For example, if you do not know Russian, you cannot think in Russian. You can only think in the language you know. In other words, the world you perceive is what you have heard, thought or seen. Similarly, if you feel that a person is dominating, it is your own dominating quality which you are seeing in the other person. His or her behavior is only triggering your dominating quality. How can you not like the other person’s dominating quality. You really do not know if he/she is dominating or shouting. Shouting does not necessarily mean domination. Again, it all depends on what you perceive at the moment. So you are only seeing yourself in the other person, but the brain processes the data in such a way that you feel as if the other person is outside.”
There are so many aspects of this teaching I could talk about. For now I would like to share insights that came through regarding the part of the teaching where he talked about language.
We speak and understand the language we were taught in. If we speak English, we will communicate in English. If we learned to speak with manners and gratitude, we will speak with those words. If we learned to speak with words like alcoholic, abuse or controlling, we will speak in that language.
Playing with the word ‘alcoholism,’ if we associate behaviors with alcoholism, when someone acts out those behaviors, whether they are an alcoholic or not, we will right away judge that person as being like an alcoholic. If we have any charges or bothers related to alcoholism in any way…we will react. The word alcoholic can cause someone to be bothered, where as saying a person has a drinking problem, those words may not cause that same person to be bothered. Hearing that, is there energy in words? Is there energy in the association? You bet there is! When different words bring up an association of some kind, there are feelings attached to whatever we experienced in life. We could hear the word alcoholic and right away we have an association to what is for us, bringing up the different feelings. In those feelings we will find the reactions and the charges. Being aware of what this may be for you can assist you on your journey. Remember reactions are only signals to go inside and see what is unresolved for our self.
I personally can relate to the teaching here…someone in my life yelled a lot. Growing up I grew to not like anyone yelling. Energetically the word ‘yelling’ would have bothered me more than the word shouting. When I hear the word ‘shouting’ or someone talking about a person who is shouting that isn’t a big deal to me. It just comes across as someone raising their voice. My bothers and charges had to do with the association around the language of yelling.
For you, you may not be in the least bit bothered about yelling or shouting. Yelling and shouting may not be something you are here on earth to move through. You will be moving through something else.
Think of words that may apply to you. Were you raised hearing about how ‘tight’ people are with their money; how stingy people are with their belongings? You may have been raised hearing words like, ‘people are useless and lazy…can’t get them to do anything.’ You may have been raised hearing the language of how ‘caring and generous people are; how they would do anything to help their family and neighbors out.’
What have you grown up to speak and understand when it comes to your language? Are there any ‘reactions’ or ‘charges’ around any associations? As you become aware of the language you use, you will open doors to some very deep inner healing.
Sheila
