Advice for the Sound Student: Language to Avoid

“If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.”
– Albert Einstein

I believe Sound as a modality, offering and practice is for everyone and for everybody.

It can be non-sectarian, non-dogmatic and open for all people of all beliefs, faiths, colours, creeds and socio-economic status.

Therefore, to do Sound Work justice we must learn not to segregate and exclude because of our own beliefs, ideas and opinions.

For example, living in many “spiritual wonderlands” and centres for much of my life I became all too familiar and tired of the jargon, alienating language and cultish attitudes that only seem to create more division with people and exclude a large demographic who may not dress or speak a certain way.

Be mindful of hypocrisy, materialism and narcissism in spirituality; it is rampant.

As a Sound Practitioner you must be able to explain what you do to your grandmother's generation.

If you are a Grandmother then learn to explain what you do to the younger generations.

Learning to cross cultural and generational divides helps to educate ourselves more in the process of understanding and being understood with compassion, harmony and curiosity.

This especially means being intentional with our language.

Speak to what you know and understand and avoid traversing territories that you that you have not walked/studied thoroughly.

Speak clearly and simply. Try to find meaningful ways to articulate your experience and wisdom without using stock words borrowed from exclusive spiritual sects, tactics, ideas and dogmas.

Notice and avoid superfluous and redundant fillers in your words such as:

Y’know, uh, ah, umm, er, I mean, like, so, actually, basically, well, look, just, really, literally, kind of, sort of, ok, like I said, yeah-nah, then… needless to say, in my humble opinion, you know?

If you are clear in yourself, in your speech and action then that will aid towards clarity and sincerity of the transmission of sound.

If words come out of the heart they will enter the heart, but if they come from the tongue, they will not pass beyond the ears.
- Al-Suhrawardi