COVID-19 Creativity – Words

This is an extract from a post on Dew on the Grass, a blog written by a handful of Buddhists practicing within this tradition (Serene Reflection Meditation Tradition, Soto Zen). It’s a hidden gem which deserves a wider audience. This post is from Anna and kicks off a series on creative responses to the Pandemic. This one just fell into my lap this evening. Many thanks, good friends in the Dharma.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” In essence, this is about the power to create”.

As I went to buy groceries today and I was looking around, I had to acknowledge that everything I saw, the streets, the pavement, the buildings, the supermarket, the aisles with food, with products, money, the clothes I was wearing, my house, the tap I use to wash my hands, everything, started as a concept, a word in the mind. The world as we know it started as a concept, started as a word; our world is the result of our innate power to create. We can use this power for self-serving goals or use it to create a world that is inclusive and beneficial to all. Now that we are collectively forced to a halt and forced to reassess our unsustainable way of life, enormous creative energy rises to find alternatives, to consider choices that take into account our interconnectedness.

See the rest of this post at Dew on the Grass, Words by Anna

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

2 thoughts on “COVID-19 Creativity – Words”

  1. And yet, at the same time ‘the whole world is tormented by words’. (From a Buddhist source not sure which.) We only have to think of how hatred is stoked up by the use of emotive, judgmental language. I find I get dragged off the still centre by attaching to words. Words often create a false reality which we take as real. I guess poets try and use words to point to something which is true (beyond words) and hopefully we Buddhists can also use words with care. This applies to our inner conversations as well as our conversations with people.

    1. Yes, indeed Eric. Quite so. And words are what we have to give expression to the most profound of truths and aid us in the most mundane of activities as well. So words themselves are tools, to be used in combination wisely. I know only too well how one can get caught up with them, wrapped up and entangled. I know no other way than to let them arise and let them pass. Sound familiar? You know this anyway.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.