Gifts of Inspiration

Reflections                                                                                                                                                    Catherine Al-Meten

Through the water, silent giant ship makes its way quickly upriver. Overhead, the fog hangs just above the river's surface. Crows fly and caw from post to tree to roof top, awake and active on their morning hunting expedition. Stillness belies the active, dynamic nature of life. Slowly the building's residents wake and begin to jostle the surface of the stillness with their morning ablutions and dog-walking activities. Can it be that night has come and gone already, and it's time for a new day's work to begin?

Morning is the time of day I write and reflect, munch on words not cereal, and often find myself lost in thoughts, ideas, and memories that seek to find form and meaning on the pages before me. Have you ever found a piece of writing, picked it up, and wondered whose work it was, only to figure out it was something you wrote? If you have had this experience, as I have more than once, you have probably come to realize the muse speaks around those corners or over those walls where we seem to feel we are blocked, wordless, or lost. This is the gift of inspiration.

Inspiration, a word derived from the Late Latin word, inspirationem, a noun of action that means to "inspire, inflame, blow into" from the roots spirare and in (to breathe spirit into). From my days of teaching grammar, I remember 'inspire' to be a transitive verb. A transitive verb describes the act of someone or someting inspiring another to create; infusing others with life, fire, energy. Every language uses words and shades of meaning  to describe both the effable and ineffable. How does this affect our own beliefs, viewpoints, perspectives, and experiences of our connections to and with the Divine? 

Much of the language in sacred texts was translated into Latin, often from Greek. Greek was first used to translate ideas from Aramaic, Arabic, and Hebrew.  The Sanskrit language, one of the most ancient languages, uses a rich array of  language to describe spirit. All these languages, and the cultures from which they come, infuse our own lives, perspectives, perceptions, and view of the world. We all have  ideas about how the world has come into being and what our purpose and relationship is with the Divine, Higher Power, God, or the Sacred, even if this is one of doubt. Cosmology is one of the most sacred and vital aspects of life for humans, and it is worth some time to explore for we have thousands of years of history leading us to this point in time where what we believe plays a major role in how we treat one another, how understand our place and role in the Universe, and what we do with our time, gifts, and lives. 

In our country, we are influenced by both Greco-Roman ideas and ideals and by our Judeo-Christian heritage.  We are also influenced and connected to the diversity of all the spiritual and cultural traditions that continue to form our identity as a nation of people who represent nearly every culture and spiritual tradition on the planet. How just some of that cultural influence affects us can be seen when we explore a simple word like INSPIRE. Most Near Eastern  cultures, as well as other indigenous cultures, view the cosmos as one united field of being. On the other hand,  the Greco-Roman constructs view the cosmos from a dualistic worldview. 

The Greco-Roman constructs and perspective undergird much of what the dominant cultures uses to define so-called the Western worldview. The dualistic bent of much of dominant culture's sacred ideals and formulations, is based on the idea that Rollo May calls the "I-Thou" relationship. A perspective based on separation and differentiation; dividing and disconnecting.  Most of us hold a variety of often conflicting views and beliefs. We  view the world differently, based upon our own experiences, own cultural biases and heritage, personalities, and life and soul experiences. Whether we experience life as Oneness and Unity, or whether we experience life as an us vs. them, I vs. thou, or It vs me, we meet ourselves along the way, in ways that allow us to grow or die, find meaning or lose hope, dive into life, or avoid living. What path have you chosen?

In looking at what inspires us to live life more fully or not, let's look at how language changes and infuses meaning for us. In Aramaic, (the language Jesus and his friends and family spoke) as in Arabic and Hebrew, there is no use of the male and female pronoun. There is definitely a way of designating gender, but it is not with a pronoun. So why does this matter? It matters in that when our language uses words that separate us into groups according to gender, our perspective and viewpoint tends to view the world as separate entitites. This affects the way we connect, define, understand, or envision our relationship with Spirit.  When asked "What is your image of the Divine, of God?" people often answer in terms that are very anthropomorphic (giving God human-like qualities or viewing God as a person in often giant-like form).  Another response to to describe the Divine is to describe what God is not. Often what is rejected is the idea that God is an omniscient, omnipresent ogre, judge, or manipulator.  Sadly, often that is such a strong image that it prevents a person from feeling any connection other than one of being under the thumb of some unkind and unloving divinity. This image of course, skews a person's view of something that is inherent in our nature, and that is the need we have to connect to that which forms our essence and the essence of others and the Universe in which we live.

Let's time travel a bit, and see how we have come to use language and concepts that help create a barrier to our connecting to the Divine essence of Spirit.  When ancient sacred texts and other works, were translated from Aramaic and other languages, into Greek,  translations began to change the meaning of the concepts, sometimes very subtly. There is a saying that something may be "lost in translation", and anyone who speaks a language other than English, certainly understands that. Ancient Aramaic  is a Semitic language, akin to Arabic and Hebrew. The idea that we are borne of the breath of the Divine is endemic in the languages out of which the word inspire was transported. Much of how the sacred ideals and ideas that were born in both the Indian and Near Eastern  cultures, have been passed along through translations first into Greek, then Latin, and then through countless other languages. .  All languages have different levels of meaning; denotations and connotations, physical and metphysical descriptions. 

Starting with the sacred language of  Sanskrit, words for soul and spirit include akasha and atman. Akasha generally refers to the animating essence of each of us. Atman refers to the Divine, all that is. There is an atman within the Atman; the aspect of the Divine within us and our essence within the Divine. Sanskrit and both Hindu and Buddhist traditions that have grown out of the cultures of the Indian subcontinent, are much more complex and diverse than this little article has time to elaborate on. However, the idea of our being part of the whole, the One, is very much an aspect of most spiritual traditions that grew from these cultures. 

In the Near East, home of the Semitic cultures whose languages, Arabic and Hebrew, are related to Aramaic, ideas about cosmology (how the Universe is/was created, and what our relationship is to the Divine) grew with ideas that used words differently. 

In Aramaic, 'Ab-woon, Abba is a word that can be defined as Divine Creator's Breath, Divine Breath of Creation, the one from whom the Divine Breath of life comes. 

In Arabic, nefs refers to the human soul, the essence of our being; ruah refers to Breath, the Divine Breath of Life.  Both words are used to refer to our Divine nature and to the Divine. 

In Hebrew, neshama refers to the human soul,the essence of our being; nephesh refers to the Divine Breath of Life, Creator/ 

When translated into Greek for the earliest translations of sacred scriptures that were written in Aramaic, the Greek word theopneustos was substituted. In Greek, theopneustos means "God-breathed", used as an adjective.  It also means inspired by God or due to the inspiration of God. 

The crucial understanding for me, of inspiration, is differentiating between what I personally am inspired to do, be, think, conceive of or what I inspire through what I do, think, say, believe, and who/what inspires me to act, be, do, conceive, or understand. This proces of discerning how the Spirit of God, my own soul and the Universe around me inflames me, sets me on fire, or infuses me with the ideas, energy, and inspiration to live more fully attuned to the Breath of the Divine within me, is what life seems to be about. So what began as a meditation on one word, inspiration, took me on a journey this morning, not on the river, but within the rivers of thought, time, distance, language, ideas, and my own connection with the Spirit that breathes life into me so I may breathe life into the gifts of life I have been given.

The tide is coming in, and the water ripples to shore, filling up all the spaces in and around the reeds, raising the boat dock, and covering the submerged logs and pilings in the lagoon. What appeared as stillness and calm, has given way to the movement, energetic flow and fire, of the day. Life inflamed, love infused, work inspired by our desire. 

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