Beyond the shadows of “thought/thinking” exists a sweet openness wherein what most people would call “the sacred” can come pouring through for a visit (if you are very lucky). Thought/thinking is incapable of describing or inviting that eternal sacredness. That immensity is too ineffable, too extraordinarily and profoundly beyond what limited, fragmentary words are capable of. Words — all words — are only about energy; they are never the actual eternal energy. Yet we human beings exist in (and “as”) transitory words… and what we see is dictated by a screen of potty-little words and learned mental accumulations. Words are intrinsically like empty shadows. Words are concocted, representative symbols that are essentially empty and void of real life. (Words are often necessary but many times words need not exist.) Merely existing in (and “as”) words is a kind of death… a mental death/decay situation that isn’t good. Most people, unfortunately, are stuck in that little, psychological hole (habitually) and are extremely uncomfortable about going beyond it.
Note: (Below is a short excerpt from one of my earlier blogs about Socrates’ Cave. It may shed some light on our current dark situation… if you are perceptive.)
In Socrates’ parable of the Cave — within Plato’s Republic — people were born in a cave, and they were fettered with chains… and forced to merely see and learn the details about shadows cast on the cave walls from puppets and a fire that they didn’t see behind them. One of them was taken — at one point, by force — first to see the fire… and then out of the cave into the true light of day… into a more genuine reality; then he came back down into the cave with the others. When he — the man who returned back — pleaded with them to look beyond the shadows, they called him a fool and continued giving prizes to those who could best guess which shadows came before or after.
Tom's Nature-up-close Photography and Mindfulness Blog 
In the beginning was the word, the sound, the vibration, the primordial om, the Big Bang, the name that cannot be named.
Many words are phonaesthetic and replicate the nature of what is being observed. Although I agree and appreciate greatly your insights here, without words how would you teach that words are simple representations of the real? Nothing can be excluded but a proper perspective is certainly needed it one has an inkling to go beyond the illusion.
“In the beginning was the word”… that is ludicrous as far as i am concerned. It comes from the Gospel of John, and the Romans and high priests wrote that gospel as a rebuttal against the Gospel of Thomas; they were against the G.ofT. because they hated someone who was for independent reflection and who was not condoning caring what the temple high priests (i.e., orthodox Pharisees) were about.
And “the name that cannot be named”… what the hell is that?!! Taoist stuff? If it cannot be named, then it isn’t a name.
In my post, i stated that words are often necessary.
The point is the vibrations are integral parts of matter and existence and all religions traditions have a similar reference. The name that cannot be named is because of the complexity of the creative force vibration cannot be duplicated. Take a chill Tom. So much for civil discourse.
Well, i do not think that all religious traditions — or all religions traditions, as you say — have a similar reference; they are very different in their views and with regard to the sources of such views. And why, if you go by the blog name of TheCommonAtheist, are you saying that all religious traditions have a similar reference… and saying “In the beginning was the word”?
“The name that cannot be named is because of the complexity of the creative force vibration cannot be duplicated.” Sorry, but it sounds like definite mumbo jumbo to me. And if you are not a Quantum Physicist — and you probably are not — then how can you be sure about it? (Besides, it seems to violate the Quantum law of Conservation of Information… just sayin’.)
Where was the breach of civil discourse that you referred to?
A simple Chladni plate demonstration might change your perspective.
Not a tinkle. 😉
How interesting about Socrates’ parable of the Cave Tom. The fear of venturing beyond the seen, limited by the desire for quenching our curiosity to step out of the shadows to seek the new, the real deal, not some make believe fairy tale.
Conditioning is certainly dangerous isn’t it? Oh how blind we allow ourselves to become, twisted in such crazy rhetoric that leads us on a path headed over a cliff. Thanks so much for reminding us to be mindful of our surroundings, and step outside of the shadows of manipulation. Good post my friend. 🥰💖😊🙏🏼🤩
Yes, Kym, i have been very appreciative of the Cave parable for a long time. Yes, conditioning and concentrating on what society mentally feeds us is a sad form of limitation and confinement. It makes for narrow, stifled minds, which is tragic. We need to wake up, question, and deeply investigate for ourselves… but most people are too lackadaisical to do that. And, yes, conditioning is extremely dangerous! 🤨😉
Dzień dobry, Tom. I’m not sure what the word “word” signifies to most people, but like you I’ve come to think of words as static, imperfect representations of a dynamic universe. The sad thing is that we are so easily programmed to regard our linguistic abstractions as equivalent to real experiences. Why else would there be so many of us enthralled by the mumbo-jumbo of religion, the nonsense of political babble, the lures of commercial advertising, etc.? Why else would so many of us be so tragically alienated from the natural world?
Excellent points, pstachowski! Yes, too many of us regard our linguistic abstractions as equivalent to reality. Yes, we take mere shadows to be what constitutes reality. That is ludicrous. We cling to the apron strings of limitation (i.e., mere symbols), which is so narrow-minded and shallow. And then, yes, we become tragically alienated from the natural world. Good points!
The photo is quite, at that level it’s representative, shows not only nature but things behind her. As a learning photographer, my hats off to you. Now let me get behind my own podium and speak. Your philosophy is sound, and you’re right about language. It’s representative but doesn’t give us the thing it represents, and the Allegory of the Cave brings that to our reality itself, and it’s a good jump you make to that from language. And I apologize for doing this so human thing of patting myself on the back as I talk of what you’ve written, as if I know it all.
And pardon me again for being so forward as to suggest you keep going with that quiet in your mind, that place you’re not using words to think. I can’t possibly describe in a comment, or anywhere else, the state of spiritual enlightenment, but you’re on the way to turning that on. You might think you’ve been there, visited it for some moments or hours, and I don’t think you think you’re there now, or I hope not, but from your language regarding that quiet place, the sounding of its representation, it doesn’t sound like you’ve visited there yet. It your closeness to it that’s bringing all this philosophy and photography, its close up.
As for the cave story, maybe it’s a way to try and show that our reality is a representative one, and, underneath the story, it’s an actual description of leaving the representation and entering the thing-in-itself, not just waking up in this reality to its this or that. To see that, we have to see that there is so much more to see than we ourselves see, and that’s hard for any of us when it’s not talking about the mere seeing of this and that far thing or small thing but our soundness in nature itself.