Gaia: DIVING DEEPER: A Writing Workshop - The Tree House - Sacred Words

Re: Sacred Words

http://pz.gaia.com — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 06:53:35 GMT

Just loved loved loved that you brought this thread up again Tom darlin'! This is some magnifico thread and it deserves to be up here all the time, actually alongside with the hai thread I thinks.

xo

Re: Sacred Words

http://maletbon.gaia.com — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 22:41:19 GMT

Critical Mass

That which is reached when critics and writers come together at high speeds.

Re: Sacred Words

http://maletbon.gaia.com — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 03:19:37 GMT

Thanks, Jim, now I know! Is that a neologism, by the way? Something made up as kind of a gag by some shifty writer? Because it seems too good to be true. I feel my adverb transforming into an adjective.

Re: Sacred Words

http://jimfarnham.gaia.com — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 20:10:44 GMT

Tom,

I found this:

metaphormosis n. metaformosis [< metaphor + metamorphosis + form.] The process of something turning into a metaphor for itself; e.g., a sly person turning into a fox.

So, this is what happens when one doesn't have an Academy keeping the language pure. People just up and make up words -- how revolting. I might have to turn into a female dog if this keeps up. ;-{

Re: Sacred Words

http://maletbon.gaia.com — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 15:21:36 GMT

Metaphormoses

The genesis of this word is uncertain, as is its meaning. Has to do with metaphors, meta-forms, transformation, and Moses. Anybody who knows for sure, please contact me.

Tom

Re: more on mu

http://maletbon.gaia.com — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 23:13:31 GMT

Re: more on mu

http://singerseeker.gaia.com — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 02:21:19 GMT

delightful! i find rather enlightened on mu now, never really had a handle on it at all before.

love to you, davie,

nicole

more on mu

http://axiom.gaia.com — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 19:28:55 GMT

i cannot not help my non-self, i just had to not not write something about something other than what i wasnt thinking.

other interesting notes, the character in japanese which stands for the word "mu" is taken from the chinese word "wu". the characters are identical and the meaning is the same with perhaps the exception of cultucal context. the origin of the character "wu" and "mu" has a long history as most chinese characters do.

originally, it is believed that the character depicted trees above men. the story goes, there were trees and then the men came. wu is what was left of the trees after they were cut down. this is interesting: the word wu is not the word "no" or "nothing" or "not"... it is closer to the word "void" or "emptiness remaining". in fact, the other words mentioned all have their own distinct characters and words.

another interesting note along those lines: the tao te ching, classic taoist text alleged to lao-tzu, begins with the lines:

way becomes way
not immortal way
name becomes name
not immortal name
void name is mother heaven and earth.

there are lots of ways to translate it- this is my own lousy example. here, though, the word used in the last phrase, "void", is wu or mu. given that the author(s) did not use one of the other words for "not" or "no", we can guess that they likely did not mean the unnamed or without name... but rather.. something like kant meant in the beginning of his critique of reason when he described how an object when removed leaves a void of that object that is as much part of its being as is its manifestation.

so mu (wu) has a pretty significant background...

another interesting koan for enjoyment which is, in a way to speak, the compliment of mu and not it:

Mark-san turned to DaiJu and said, "you realize, of course, that you aren't REALLY sweeping that sidewalk."
DaiJu swatted him with the broom and went back to sweeping.
Mark-san came back the next day as DaiJu was again doing his chores and said, "You're still not sweeping!" And DaiJu again wopped him with the broom.
Again, the third day, the same thing happened but this time DaiJu grabbed Mark-san by the shirt and said, "tell me, then. what am i doing?"
Mark-san hollered, "MU!"
DaiJu said, "wrong! try again!"
Mark-san was stunned. Surely that was the answer! He remained dangling by his shirt and goggling as the monk stared into his face.
DaiJu suddenly relaxed, patted Mark-san on the shoulder, smiled and went back to sweeping.
Years later, Mark-san was sweeping the floor when DaiJu, now very old, approached him and said, "you realize that you're not sweeping, eh?" Mark-san swatted him with the broom, laughing, "I sure as hell am!"

giggles,
darvich

Re: Sacred Words

http://axiom.gaia.com — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 05:44:15 GMT

meme, meme
the wonderful fruit,
the more we eat
the more we...

... make archetypal connections to mythological ideologies and poetical expressions?

... or poot. (giggle)

how nice to feel at home- i must be feeling old cause either senility is slippin in or im beginning a thirty-second childhood with bridgette's feast, wot. Which brings me to a story for my good friend Tom.

Once upon two times there was a young feller by the name Aiden and an old feller by the same name. It came to pass two late evenings that Aiden found themselves merely by accident staring into the calm, clear reflection of pond down under Greyson's old and older sycamore. This tree had been alive here at this very spot for as long as they could remember- and had heard it mentioned in stories as old as their grandfather's grandfather. There, under the evening shade of that sycamore and to the tune of frogs getting ready for a night on the towne, stood Aiden doubly looking down upon the cool water.

Looking down, down and deeply down into that dim water, they saw shapes there moving. These shapes were vague and unidentifiable at first but after awhile they began to see in them the features of many friends and family that were long and longer departed- and among them they saw himself. They saw himself as they saw the others- as they all appeared as children. There, in the glossy unlight of early night, they saw the shapes talking as old friends might.

"Well, the trees were here when we came and they'll be back before we've aleft," declared one thin-set boy with brown, tousled hair to another larger boy with a lopsided smile....

to be continued some other time and maybe by someone else...

hugs,
dave

Re: Sacred Words

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 01:56:50 GMT

Meme....Hundredth Monkey effect..yes? I'll admit, I haven't read this thread entirely from beginning to end. My first motivation for writing was the the first word; Liminality. I always love bringing these type of words down to the most common denominator -- egotistically that applies in my life as empty nest. Meme, again simply said is those darn monkeys washing sweet potatoes off in the sea-- wonder how I'd do in a Rorschach Test? (smile) So, for right now dear fellow writers please put up with the simplicity of my thoughts this evening, but somehow I don't think I'm too far off the mark. Of course the word 'mark' could be another of those sacred words..... Love Sea

Re: Sacred Words

http://maletbon.gaia.com — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 05:43:59 GMT

Meme

A meme is any unit of cultural information, such as a practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another. Examples include thoughts, ideas, theories, practices, habits, songs, dances and moods and terms such as race, culture, and ethnicity. A meme is self-propagating and can move through a "culture" in a manner similar to a virus. A meme is a unit of cultural evolution having a resemblance to the gene. Richard Dawkins, in his book, "The Selfish Gene", is credited with coining the term meme to describe how Darwinian principles might be extended to explain the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena. He gave as examples tunes, catch-phrases, beliefs, clothing fashions, ways of making pots, and the technology of building arches.

Meme-theorists contend that memes evolve by natural selection (similarly to Darwinian biological evolution) through the processes of variation, mutation, competition, and inheritance influencing an individual entity's reproductive success. So with memes, some ideas will propagate less successfully and become extinct, while others will survive, spread, and, for better or for worse, mutate. "Memeticists argue that the memes most beneficial to their hosts will not necessarily survive; rather, those memes that replicate the most effectively spread best, which allows for the possibility that successful memes may prove detrimental to their hosts."

...from Wikipedia

Re: Sacred Words

http://singerseeker.gaia.com — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 00:35:35 GMT

very cleverly done, phil! :)

Re: Sacred Words

http://sundovt.gaia.com — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 21:27:52 GMT

Here's another nutter butter peanut butter sandwich cookie.

Gnosis: noun, knowledge of spiritual mysteries. (Oxford)

Not to be confused with Halit-gnosis which loosly translated means it's a mystery to me why my breath stinks.

Re: Sacred Words

http://maletbon.gaia.com — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 07:29:03 GMT

Wow you guys, what a wonderful word-fest you have going on in here! Glad I didn't miss it. And "before" is definitely a sacred word in my book, since it's just shorthand for "Once upon a time..."

The great thing about sacred words is that they make stories. Maybe that's what makes them sacred.

Tell me a story,

Tom

Re: Sacred Words

http://jimfarnham.gaia.com — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 01:09:35 GMT

I say, if it works for Winnie the Pooh, it can work for me.

Re: Sacred Words

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 00:30:25 GMT

Michele, surely you've heard about the insomniac dyslexic agnostic who lays awake at night

.......wondering if there is a Dog.

Re: Sacred Words

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 17:15:45 GMT

LOVE it! The path to enlightenment through memory loss. LOL!

Re: Sacred Words

http://jimfarnham.gaia.com — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 16:27:52 GMT

Michele,
I forget what I was saying 'before'. That's the beauty of 'parts-heimer's disease' -- when I say 'before' my mind goes blank -- can't remember a thing. Pretty cool, huh?

Re: Sacred Words

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:17:02 GMT

oops. Sorry, Rumi. What were you saying before?

Re: Sacred Words

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:14:55 GMT

What a delightful twist! Thanks Sparrow!

Here's an offer.

In mimicry, my precocious 7 yo walks around the house, eyes half-closed, fingers in a mudra position, (like me sitting in meditation,) chanting:

"Waaaaaaaaah

Dahhhhhhhhh

Goooooooooo

Siiiiiiiiiiiam"

(Apparantly, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.)

She learned this little funny from Daddy.