Friday

Casting Spells: the Magic of Letters

COLUMN: Dharma Teachings

by Russell Rodgers, Nelson, B.C.

Consider for a moment the letters on this page. On one level, letters have been familiar since we were four years old. You might feel impatient: “no big deal, let’s move on. I know all about letters.”

However, as a meditator, you could do better. Meditate on the letter “A” below. Meditate on it for at least a minute. On one level, it is only a set of black marks on white background. That’s all it is. Just black marks. On the other hand, it has a sound. It comes alive in your mind.

A

Now, pick out a word in this sentence and stare at it for a minute, noticing how the letters announce a sound. Not only that, but collectively, the letters create an image, a meaning. It does that even though it’s only a collection a collection of black squiggles on a page or on a screen.

Now look at a whole sentence. You are now experiencing someone else’s thoughts. You might have some sense of objective separation, having awareness of what is happening to you. But if you reflect back on your experience of reading things in the past, you will likely recall that often this self awareness fades and you come under the spell of language. I would call this a “spell” because it alters your reality.

If you think back to the meaning of the word “spell”, it could mean “to spell something out with letters”. But in this case we are talking about something closer to a “magical” spell, like the ones created by secret rituals to produce a desired effect. Here, the ritual of the “spell” is produced by making black marks on a page.

Sometimes the spell is cast by words on a page. Sometimes it comes from what you hear rather than what you see. After all, spoken words are just sound vibrations, like the markings on a page. In themselves, they have no meaning. Even so, they create an alternate reality.

One such alternate reality is samsara. It’s a social spell, involving many people and re-enforced by our mutual agreement that it’s the real reality. However, the power of the black marks is changed if you are aware of what is happening, as it’s happening. Maybe you experienced an alternation when you looked at the marks: the mental sound coming into existence and then fading back into non-existence. It is like a thought recognized in meditation: transparent, like ripples on the water of mind. In a certain way, the power of the letter is even more vivid when we hold it in pure awareness.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” or so the Bible says in the Book of John. When we do vajrayana practice, out of emptiness arises a seed syllable, and from that syllable, a deity and a pure land. While we are doing the practice, the deity dwells in emptiness. When we are finished, it dissolves into the seed syllable and then again into emptiness.

Interesting, isn’t it?

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Russell Rodgers has been wondering about this kind of topic for the 37 years that he has been practicing. He resides in the Kootenay mountains of British Columbia, in the town of Nelson, and is supporting the Dharma Teachings column on the Shambhala Times with occasional articles.