Irony of Finding No Common Language with Former Colleagues in Linguistics

Though I worked as a linguist for many years, I was always more attracted to knowing languages than to knowing about them. I ended up studying about a dozen languages. But one life-changing experience made me aware of a nature of language that never seems to be talked about in linguistics. Eventually, it made me lose interest in linguistics completely and decide to leave academia.

This is the nature of language as the gatekeeper of our mind-made prison. Language is supposed to be a tool that serves us, but I suddenly saw with such clarity that I had been subjugated by language. One form of this subjugation is our incessant unconscious labeling. If still "asleep", homo sapiens is also homo categoricus.

It's often said that a true prisoner is someone who is unaware that he is imprisoned and that the prison doesn't seem like a prison to him. I still don't understand how I could suddenly become aware that I had been in my own mind-made prison, with language as its gatekeeper, for so many years. But once I became aware of this, I realized that I had lost my common language with most of my former colleagues in linguistics.

"Language" here means more than just a combination of grammar and lexicon. It's even more than pragmatics. It refers to the state of consciousness, which, for the sake of this writing, can be defined as how much we are identified with our own thoughts. I don't know whether this is a curse or a blessing, but I've simply found myself unable to communicate with those who are controlled by language through unconscious labeling and are also unaware of this.

Of course, I'm not blaming them, as I was in such a prison myself. And I don't even try to explain conceptually this newly discovered nature of language that isn't taught in linguistics. Rather recently, I read a book about the nature of language written by two prominent linguists for the general public. It was actually about the nature of linguistics, which doesn't - or can't - see the above-mentioned aspect of language. ;-)

As you see, this has become too conceptual. ;-) So let me share with you an anecdote, which I myself find funny, but the linguists involved in it may not have found funny. You can see for yourself whether we had a common language or not. ;-)

Before I left Israel at the end of September 2023, I didn't tell any of my former colleagues in linguistics where I would be leaving for, simply because I already knew that if I told them, I would have to spend a lot of time answering a series of follow-up questions such as "Why that country?!" etc.

So when some of them contacted me after I left Israel and asked me where I was now, I said to them, "I'm always here and now." As you can easily imagine by now, they persisted with the same question. I, in turn, persisted with the same answer. ;-)

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Pre/Trans Fallacy

Ken Wilber explains what he calls the pre/trans fallacy as follows:

"Since both prerational states and transrational states are, in their own ways, nonrational, they appear similar or even identical to the untutored eye. And once pre and trans are confused, then one of two fallacies occurs."

"In the first, all higher and transrational states are reduced to lower and prerational states. Genuine mystical or contemplative experiences, for example, are seen as a regression or throwback to infantile states of narcissism, oceanic adualism, indissociation, and even primitive autism."

"On the other hand, if one is sympathetic with higher or mystical states, but one still confuses pre and trans, then one will elevate all prerational states to some sort of transrational glory."

In other words, this is a fallacy that many rationalists are liable to commit. I have to confess that I was one of them when I still worked in academia and mistook Chassidus for something inferior to the rational study of the Talmud.

But many rationalists are not as rational as they think they are. They often have blind faith in their intellect. They also often have blind faith that they have no blind faith. ;-) I know this from my own experience as a former rationalist.

One of the main reasons why I decided to leave academia before reaching the official retirement age was that I encountered Chassidus through a long chain of chance encounters following a life challenge I had experienced.

In retrospect, I had to experience a difficult challenge to become humble enough to appreciate the teachings of Chassidus. It didn't take me long to realize that Chassidus, as Jewish mysticism or nonduality, is not only not primitive but actually transcends rationality.

Not everything that is nonrational is prerational. It can also be transrational. But it's also a fallacy to think that rationality is always wrong. Both rationality and transrationality can serve us in complementary ways.

One major obstacle to studying mystical/nondual teachings is that they cannot always be studied through language alone, using reason. You also have to experience them. In this respect, I was lucky that the particular form of mysticism/nonduality I studied uses language to transcend language. This may sound paradoxical, but you have to experience it.

If you're interested in studying Chabad Chassidus through rational inquiry, ;-) here are some authentic introductory books I'd recommend. I've read all of them and have even taught courses using them.

• The Basics of Chassidus 1 Chabad: Its Origins, Principles, and Purpose by Rabbi Nissan Dovid Dubov & Rabbi Naftoli Hertz Pewzner
• Reclaiming the Self by Rabbi DovBer Pinson
• It's All the Same to Me by Rabbi Moshe Gersht
• The Jewish Book of Life after Life by Rabbi DovBer Pinson

PS: Ken Wilber is not a Chabadnik, but he could be a good Chabadnik. ;-)

Importance of Connecting the Dots

When I look back now at my own experience of waking up from sleep in two important areas, I seem to have experienced the eureka moment by connecting the dots that seemed unrelated. I can see it now as the culmination of a long process of study, direct experience, and contemplation. I have often been inspired by experts who paved the way for those who are open enough to listen to them without prejudice while the rest of the world thinks they are crazy.

In one area - geopolitics - I'm constantly reminded of this experience as I encounter so many people, including those I know personally, who talk about two controversial issues as if they were not connected at all.

Especially when I hear such people talk about one of them with such authority and confidence, I can't help asking them - often playfully - what they think of the other issue and whether they don't see a connection between them. A typical answer I get from them is, "What connection?!" ;-)

I've learned not to try to convince them, as this is a futile attempt. Even worse, such an attempt by others, especially those who are close to them, can make them even more stubborn, as I remember very well from my own experience of many futile attempts by well-meaning people to wake me up through rational conviction. When we don't know what we don't know, nobody else can generally help us turn this unknown unknown into the known unknown.

And in a sense, it seems even less problematic to remain asleep in both of the mutually connected issues than to be awake in one of them but remain asleep in the other, not only in this specific area but also elsewhere. In the former, you are at least consistent, ;-) while in the latter, you use two separate standards without realizing that you do so.

My ongoing experience of waking up from the prison of the egoic mind involved a totally different kind of connecting the dots. If we see each creature as a dot, all the dots are interconnected. So connecting these dots is actually getting rid of the illusion of separation, rediscovering the connection that already exists, or even dissolving the dots.

Here, I haven't even tried to explain this experience to anyone who seems to be still trapped in this prison, imagining that nobody else could have helped me wake up from sleep rationally without my prior direct experience.

Of course, there is no guarantee that I, as well as my predecessors who paved the way for us, have correctly connected the dots in these two areas. But one thing I can say is that what used to look nebulous and murky looks crystal-clear now.