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Abstract

ow would things sound if I stopped thinking?</li></ul><h2 id="9fa8">Somatic Field</h2><ul><li>Which part of my body is the least comfortable?</li><li>Which parts of my body are hardest to detect?</li><li>What happens when I concentrate on two body parts at once?</li><li>Do any bad emotions arise during the body scan?</li><li>How would my body change if I stopped thinking about it?</li></ul><h2 id="778a">Taste Field</h2><ul><li>Does the taste change as I roll it around my tongue?</li><li>How does the intensity compare with other things I have tasted?</li><li>How would it taste if I had never smelled it?</li><li>Does my feeling about the taste change between first contact and swallow?</li><li>How would it taste if I were asleep right now?</li></ul><h2 id="a87c">Olfactory Field</h2><ul><li>Would I recognize the smell if I had not seen it?</li><li>What adjectives are suitable? (Smooth? Bold? Sweet? Floral?)</li><li>How close must it come to me before my nose can detect it?</li><li>Does it improve my mood or worsen it?</li><li>What memories does it bring to mind?</li></ul><h2 id="5631">Cognitive Field</h2><ul><li>If my thoughts were rabbits in a yard, how crowded would the yard be?</li><li>If my attention was a dog, which rabbits would it chase?</li><li>How much of my focus three seconds ago was on the past?</li><li>How does a little circle make me feel?</li><li>What would I be dreaming now if I were not awake?</

Options

li></ul><h2 id="9690">Emotional Field</h2><ul><li>How easy or hard is it to turn each feeling on and off?</li><li>What changes will happen when I start to pray?</li><li>If I were the prow of a ship would my sea be bright under the sun?</li><li>Who have I shared this suffering with?</li><li>How deeply do I love you?</li></ul><figure id="ef74"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*31vXTbzWPAdDxN72iuu31w.jpeg"><figcaption>Photo by Author | Dancing with the Goddess</figcaption></figure><h2 id="1f17">Questions After the Scans are All Finished</h2><ul><li>Did I close my eyes for most of the scans?</li><li>In what ways are mental fields like maps?</li><li>If I were only allowed to keep one field, which one would I choose?</li></ul><h1 id="010c">Note</h1><p id="4022">To the best of my recollection, all the questions are in my own words. If I copied anybody from unconscious memory it was probably my first remote meditation teacher, <a href="https://www.thegreatcourses.com/professors/mark-w-muesse/">Mark Muesse</a>, a Therevada practitioner from Texas.</p><h1 id="d3c3">About the Author</h1><p id="f104">Tom spends his workdays asking people in a big store if they would like any information about heating and cooling. He often wears an Indiana Jones hat. A grapevine in his front yard convinced him to let her live and to even provide her with a little support. That’s all. :)</p></article></body>

Breaking Language Barriers

Musing the idea of sharing one language with the entire world.

My daughter and I frequent the playgrounds around our city. We came across a girl who could only speak Spanish on several occasions. She behaves shy at first but soon warms up to my daughter, and they chase each other around the playground as only toddlers could.

I would catch up with the girl’s mother in the meantime. She came from Spain and married a second-generation Latin American. As for myself, I’m from the Netherlands and married a woman of half-Filipino descent. Things get even more European when my German/British friend stops by with her boy, and we catch up on the differences between continents.

After the kids stopped playing (which is never), we would drive home and talk about the fun time at the playground. But as my daughter shares her adventures with me, my mind wanders off to how easy it was for her to communicate with a Spanish-speaking girl and a boy who understands both English and German and how adults approach communication differently.

I can talk a lot, but I listen a lot as well. The other two parents are the same way, and all we do is talk in English — the only language we all know that bridges the gap between us and makes understanding one another easier.

English became one of the most spoken languages globally and found its way into foreign languages. For example, the Dutch term “met stomheid geslagen” got replaced by “flabbergasted” due to American influences. As is my observation, English words replaced other prevalent words and phrases with English counterparts over the past two decades.

But why haven’t any of the most spoken languages — Mandarin, Spanish, English — not wholly taken over as the world's primary language? It could unite humanity as a whole!

The European Union has come a long way to unite European countries, adding new members, establishing common laws, and a common currency. But even as most of the EU leaders and representatives speak English, they all revert to their native language once they set foot on native soil — and probably a whole different language when they get home.

Using your native language is part of your cultural identity, and it connects you to your home country and families. It also grants access to knowledge written in that language — information governments might censor in other languages.

Language barriers aren’t only cultural; they are also, unfortunately, political. Everybody within the country’s borders has to learn the native language of that country — it‘s in their laws.

Schools might include additional languages depending on what country you grow up in. I grew up in the Netherlands, where Dutch is the primary language. Early on, they taught us English, and when we entered secondary school, French or German got added to the list (German in my case).

Have I used German? Never. Every German I met knew English. Same thing in France, though there was this one exception at the Paris subway. Why did that man work in a public place in a tourist-infested city like Paris without knowing any other language?

Having one worldwide language can overcome misunderstandings and frustrations. Many people have gotten tattoos in a different language, “thinking” it meant something nice, only regretting their choice when a native speaker points out its actual meaning.

It could be great if we all talked in one language and let other languages die down and only use them for science, linguistics, and anthropology — like Latin. However, culture, national pride, and politics prevent us from getting to that point.

Although only having one language seems impossible, sharing a single common language does look more feasible. We can keep our culture and country’s pride through our primary language and talk to anyone in the world with the one worldwide language.

English seems like a trendy option.

It was great talking to the other parents in a language we all had in common, and I am thankful for being raised bilingual with help from my babysitter and the BBC.

I am most thankful for our children, who get along great without the need for a common verbal language. If only grown-ups could get along like our kids.

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