Excerpt from “Writing With the Ineffable: Effective and Enlivening Languaging Techniques”
Language is a barrier on the one hand since language is not the supreme… On the other hand language is a fate through which the truth can be glimpsed if the barrier can be overcome and the gate is not mistaken for the truth, for the Goal… The ideology that sets its goal on the Ultimate, while going beyond the boundary of language, has to contend with that which is still trapped by it.
The Zen Master Wu Men (1183-1260)
To express the ineffable, to write the un-writable, to protect the burning flame of material and spiritual experience in the midst of the winds of documentation and communication: these are the new purposes I desire to serve in my adventures of languaging. I wish my languaging to be aligned with that which it is speaking or writing about. There is an innate danger and difficulty in authentically languaging the ineffable. The act provides a paradox: express the unexpressable. The Zen Master Wu Men (1183-1260) explains: Language “is a barrier on the one hand since language is not the supreme… On the other hand language is a fate through which the truth can be glimpsed if the barrier can be overcome and the gate is not mistaken for the truth, for the Goal… The ideology that sets its goal on the Ultimate, while going beyond the boundary of language, has to contend with that which is still trapped by it” (Tseng, 2002, p. 79). There is danger in using the form itself of languaging, the form can trap the life of which one is trying to express, and strip it barren. It is a subject that rejects being clearly defined. However, language can also midwife the living; being a gate of beauty that can highlight the essential livingness held in the ineffable moments and processes. I fear killing the ineffable in the act of expressing it. Therefore, in this written work I am digging for the elements that can fuel languaging in a way that maintains and even increases the presence of the ineffable, rather than taming it. I hold my fear, and desire to risk more to fuel a greater fire of expression for authentic languaging.
First, to fuel the flames of authentic languaging I am feeding the possibility that languaging can be and is a relationship that increases life and the presence of the ineffable. To fully honor the subject of the ineffable (which could be argued, is everything, if all is the great mystery), I purpose that we engage and envision languaging as a relationship between languager, subject, text (sub relationships between diction, syntax diction and style), audience, and the infinite/soul/universe. These rich layers of relating produce a living inquiry and soulful expressive experience of languager, audience, text, the expressed and the infinite. These five elements dance with and through each other, weaving a tapestry of living depth and magic that is inspiring, intense and at times disturbing as each element is dissolved and reformed anew in the act of relationship. They are co-creative, mutable, and alive. This relationship is a transformative one, and can create inspiring, enlivening, effective, intense and sometimes disturbing experiences as each element is dissolved and reformed anew during the relationship.
From now on when I use the term writing, I also wish to infer speech. When I use the term soul, I define it as that which is related but not confined to that which is in communion present and ancient, dense with aliveness, deep, impactful and involving humans and the non-human. It refers to that which eludes reductionist definition. The Greek philosopher, Heraclitus observed that one can never discover the extent of the soul, no matter how many paths one traveled, so profound its nature. I will also be using the terms universe, infinite, and mystery, these I will use interchangeably not to equate, but rather create an illusive mutable term for that which is larger than the human body and consciousness, not fully known, and awe producing. I will often just refer to this as the ineffable. Paper …
In conclusion, writing about the ineffable, is to engage the ineffable. To create an authentic, effective and enlivening written work about it, we must engage the work as a subjective relationship between writer, subject, text, audience and the infinite mystery. This relationship is an opportunity for transformation, to co-create a new living experience in this world. It is an opportunity to create in love, have an affair with languaging, and offer this child to the great mystery. With image, metaphor, embodiment and action we can serve this relationship through creating a deeper sense of connection. The mutable and un-definable nature of the world can be held and released again as it utilizes paradox, negation and depersonalization. The ineffable forever remains alive, denying capture, as it is adored with misaligned aims, that when released, create an arch of arrows to define its ever-changing expanse.
References
Prechtel, M. (2004). Long life, Honey in the Heart. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books.
Anzeldua, G.E. (2002). Now let us shift… the path of conocimiento… inner work, public acts. In G.E. Anzeldua and A. Keating (Eds), This bridge we call home: Radical visions for transformation. New York: Routledge.
Hillman, J. (1991). A blue Fire. New York: Harper Perennial.
Springgay, S. (2005). A/r/tography as Living Inquiry Through Art and Text. Qualitative Inquiry, 11(6), 897-911.
Tseng, M. (2002). Expressing the Ineffable: Toward a Poetics of Mystical Writing. Social Semiotics, 12(1), 63-82.
Caulley. D. (2005). Making Qualitative Research Reports Less Boring: The Techniques of Writing Creative Non-Fiction. Qualitative Inquiry, 14(3), 424-449.
White, M., Bruning, R. (2004). Implicit Writing Beliefs and Their Relation to Writing Quality. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 30, 166-189.
Burroway, J. (2003) Writing fiction: A Guide to narrative craft (6th ed.). New York: Longman.
Minot, S. (2003). Literary nonfiction: The fourth genre. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
McVey, D. (August, 2008). Why all Writing is Creative Writing. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 45(3), 289-294.
Strunk, W, Jr., & White, E.B. (2000). The elements of style (4th ed.). New York: Longman.
Cheney, T. A. R. (2001). Writing creative non-fiction: Fiction techniques for crafting great non-fiction. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press.