I would like to talk a little about the voice today.

You might say that's all I ever talk about here.

You might be right; then again, you might not.

But, I have talked about it here: Looming Mountain, Your Voice Carries Well. Just to pick a couple jelly beans from the jar.

And, elsewhere, in a University Essay perhaps less nauseating than this one, I quoted from Sufi Inayat Khan's Music:

"The voice is not only indicative of man's character, but it is the expression of his spirit. The voice is not only audible, but also visible, to those who can see it... The most wonderful thing in the study of the voice is that from the voice you can find out a man's particular evolution, the stage of his evolution. You do not need to see him; just his voice will tell you how far he has evolved... As with everything else in a person's life, there comes also a change in the voice with every step forward in spiritual evolution."

I think that's correct.

That's a good starting point, though, as I also said, yet elsewhere, I'm just about done making my arguments by way of citation, at least in the academic sense.

Rumi, I remind you, quotes scripture and poetry among his own divine words.

Before I go on, I would like to say a little something about that less-nauseating University Essay -- just a fleeting image for your imagination -- an aperitif, let's call it.

When I handed that paper, which I won't share with you, to that Professor, he said something like, "This is even more inscrutable than your last one, if that's possible. I think I got most of the references, but I wouldn't recommend you apply for a Ph.D with this."

I laughed and said I had no intention of stepping into that bog.

Let Gollum wander the Dead Marshes; a real gentlehobbit is Mister Jian, and only great need would drive him through those ways.

I did want to talk about the voice a little, though.

I'll admit, when I went for a silent walk last weekend, I tripped over some real gold. I filled my pockets with it, but by the time I clambered over the hills and out of the valleys, I found that all I had left was the memory of the weight and the echo of its shine.

Don't get me wrong; like Bilbo, the walls of my hobbit-hole are filled with dwarven gold, I'm sure, but no need for a pickaxe -- I'm setting it all out for you, gleaming in the light of day, to put in your assuredly not-nassty little pocketses before you trot off on your merry way.

These days, I don't like to take a half-remembered line, or image, and try to recreate it according to my imperfect mind, a work of will; Satan, they say, makes in mockery of God.

So -- let us rather say, I've begun to hum the tune as I remember it, and will let the spirit of improvisation carry me from there, wherever it lists.

But maybe I've already made the point?

If you've been perceptive, you'd say I have. Pat yourself on the back -- A+. Put another golden coin in your pocketses.

Sufi Inayat Khan was right -- the voice shows forth the spirit.

I'd take him one further, speaking from the Taoist perspective -- everything shows forth the spirit.

How you stand. How you walk. What you wear. Your handwriting.

And I'm just talking people; all of nature is like this.

I keep hearing it said, the different peoples of the Amazon learned what plant is good for what because the plants talked to them.

Well, everything has a voice, and everything has its own way of talking.

But of course, I'm talking in a more rarefied and abstracted way; when I say voice, I mean your creative voice, your manner of expressing your being in this life, or even how you write, if like me you write.

And, while again I'll say Sufi Inayat Khan is right, in a sense, he's also not right.

It's a bit of the ol' Polish Your Mirror vs. How Can Dust Ever Settle on This Mirror vs. No Dust, No Mirror.

Knowhutahmean?

As Gurdjieff said, there is no mechanical evolution. The only evolution that exists is spiritual, and that can only ever be done willingly, with conscience, with conscious labor and voluntary suffering.

As such -- well, OK, yeah, how a person expresses himself, the kind of life he leads, and what in turn accrues in orbit, like a pearl, around the germ of his inner essence, says something about his "evolution."

But please don't understand that to mean, you need to change your voice.

In another tradition, some have said, In the beginning was Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God.

Logos means "word," but it really means a lot of other things.

Like, order, reason, rationality, purpose.

The point is -- in this universe, there is a creative intelligence that is the source of all being and all non-being, it is fundamentally purposeful, intelligible (to some extent), and its creation is an expression of that purpose, intelligence, and so on.

OK?

I'm not a philosopher, so please don't argue with me. I just say things that sound nice to make a point. As someone said, maybe me -- I never let facts get in the way of truth.

It's called poetry.

What I'm saying -- one little gold nugget from my walk of which I retain more than the memory of its impression in my hand -- is, if that creative intelligence and order knows and intends everything... and its fundamental nature is to speak things into being... and it spoke us into being... and we, perhaps above all, are characterized as speaking beings that partake of that same consciousness...

Don't you think your voice is important?

How many billions of us are there?

If you're science-minded -- did you know, you could record 8 billion different voices, run them through a computer, convert the vibratory signature of each voice into an image... and each image would be different?

I'm not science-minded, but I'm just sayin, and it's true.

So, what I'm saying is -- that didn't happen by accident.

God WANTED you to have your voice -- your unique voice.

And, please remember, when I say voice, I don't just mean the sounds and tones your vibrating vocal cords make -- I mean, how you feel, how you see things, what you love most, what you feel your calling is, what brings you the most joy.

That is unique, and it comes from God.

If you don't like the word "God," then call it the infinite creative intelligence of the universe -- whatever floats your boat.

I'm just using my voice here.

And my point is -- if, like me, you understand and believe that... I'll say this circumspectly... perhaps you should wonder whether it's the best decision not to let your voice sound clearly.

Perhaps you should wonder whether those who tell you not to use your voice are really your friends.

Perhaps, as Rumi said when he noticed that, desiring to go right, he went left, and desiring to go left, he went right -- perhaps you should be suspicious of your desires.

Elsewhere, I wrote that I had a knack for putting myself in difficult situations, such that I had to choose between two very starkly contrasted alternatives.

Again and again in my life, I've been told, "That doesn't make sense," or "Nobody thinks like that," or, "How do you expect X will lead to Y" -- on and on, this sort of thing.

And, you know what?

I could never muster the force or cogency of argument, certainly not the logic, to gainsay the nay-sayers.

Yet, I knew I was right, and they were wrong; but since I didn't have the words, or the experience, I did what they said, more or less -- and that was the worst time of my life.

I felt the worst, and nothing went right for me.

I was suspicious of my desires, but not in the right way.

Well, sometimes we turn to those who came before us to hear what they said, before speaking ourselves.

Like I said, I have always tended to do things backwards; but please don't tell me I didn't do them right.

Having gone right and left when meaning left and right and fallen in many pits, I can tell you -- like the picture of Lao Tzu, the Buddha, and Confucius sipping a ladleful from the same vat said -- I've nipped from the same naggin as this fellow, and it houses pure, distilled spirit:

"No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other ...

"Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? ... for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."

Elsewhere, he said the kingdom of God is within.

Elsewhere, I noted God was the word, and so you might say the voice, which itself is the expression of perfect knowing and perfect order.

So.

Go in. Find your voice. Bring it out. Don't worry. The rest will take care of itself.

12 April 2022