I have a habit of learning about a variety of things all at once, which I then begin to notice throughout my daily life. Lately, this has been the case with evolutionary psychology, Zen Buddhism, Taoism, and martial arts. I pick up on patterns that I previously never even noticed. Through this habit, I've noticed recently that the world has gone about everything all wrong. We believe that by systematizing everything, by codifying all the unspoken into written rules, that we may somehow improve our society. Through Zen, however, I'm beginning to think that this is entirely incorrect. By creating such systems, we actually place constraints on ourselves that greatly and severely limit our ability to comprehend. This even extends into language itself, where by even putting these words down at this moment they lose their original meaning. The thoughts that I held in my mind are replaced by a completely systematic form of conveying them. In the case of language I'll concede that it simply can't be helped. Language allows us to communicate with one another in ways that we might never be able to without it. What about everything else though? I was pondering this idea earlier today, that our modern systems of laws and rules and regulations actually hinder us, or perhaps even prevent us, from achieving what it is we truly have in mind. By codifying previous cultural practices, those practices become undeniable and unchangeable law, and we begin to forget why those practices even popped up in the first place. For example, many historians agree that the prophet Muhammad did not directly create the ideas of the Qu'ran, he only codified existing sentiments into a way that could be easily conveyed to others. I'd imagine the practice of drinking blood was culturally frowned upon before the rise of Islam simply because it made people sick. Though after the codification of such a rule, it went from "You shouldn't drink blood because of past experiences we've learned from" to "You cannot drink blood because it is haram". Although spreading knowledge this way is undoubtedly helpful in easing the suffering in people's lives, they then do not understand why they do what they do. And the day an intellectual comes along and begins to question why these rules are here, and test them for himself, he will have to relearn the same lessons that his ancient ancestors had already discovered, or in other words, when someone comes along and wonders "why can't we drink blood?" Islam will provide him with no reason other than that it is haram, and when he tries it for himself he will then discover firsthand why we don't. He will get sick and possibly die from his illness.

To relate this back to Zen, as I always try to do now, by putting something into words, it loses its meaning. As I've said before, words themselves are limits that we impose on ourselves. A sacrifice that we make to be able to speak with one another. It is truly a shame that such a simple concept is not even taught in schools, not even understood by the teachers raising the future generations! How can we expect society to make responsible and rational decisions if we haven't even unconvered the true reason for which we speak? Of course my saying "we speak to communicate with each other" seems painfully obvious, and I surely sound like a fool for pointing out such a fact, but this perfectly represents my point! In my mind, within my thoughts, all I can truly say is "we speak to communicate" but in saying so, my true meaning is lost. It'd be more accurate to say "we speak ONLY because we MUST communicate", but even then this is not what I'm truly thinking. The only true way that you can understand the world is to give up words entirely, and after that, give up your thoughts. Once you're able to stop thinking at ALL times, only then will you really understand what it is I'm trying to say, and you too will struggle to find the words to explain it.