________________
SUTRAS
THE KEY TO THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE
Most people are not aware that during communication they not only exchange physically expressed words, descriptions and explanations, but that they also transmit content on an emotional level. Whatever meaning we express in speech we also convey on the level of feeling. This level of feeling automatically reverberates with every word we use.
Our communication can be compared to an iceberg. The visible peak above the water corresponds to the words we exchange on the physical level. Yet the contents we really transmit equals the far greater part beneath the surface that is invisible to the eye.
The questions and answers we use in our communication inform us to what degree the emotional invisible) meaning we transmitted beyond words and sentences reached its destination intact. We employ our spoken words mainly to correct the differences that exist on the level of that deeper, emotional understanding. Yet we also encounter situations - often with intense frustration - where our words are totally inadequate to convey all the meaning we want to communicate, or far too crude to express more complex matters.
Terms and expressions used on the plane of names can be quite unrelated to their real meaning. Modern advertisement for example likes to use the expression 'You save ... dollars' in an attempt to motivate us to buy a certain object. Yet when we accept this offer, we primarily experience a loss of money and not an increase in our savings account as the word 'save' really denotes. - The plane of selection (sthapana). Here we establish what part of our environment we want to be aware of. Here we choose from the constant barrage of billions of inner and outer stimuli those few impulses we permit to get through to our awareness. Here we build and maintain the ideas and concepts that stem the relentless deluge of impulses we continuously perceive. Here our selection-process takes place that filters our individual reality from a multitude of impressions.
Jain Education International
For Personal & Private Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org