Buddhism and Language: Inner Space and Outer Space…
How can I quiet the voices in my head, when I can’t quiet the voices all around me? That’s what meditation is for, silent meditation, no app necessary. This is the conquering conundrum for much of Buddhism, of course, as when I knowingly posted pictures on Facebook this week of my search for the Buddha ‘out there, somewhere,’ roaming in the Thai countryside. I did that just to see how many people would advise me to change my search and look inward, which is the correct approach, of course, and which they did. And that’s possibly even true of any religion, though probably more so for Buddhism.
But it’s especially true for the practice of meditation, regardless of the religion, particularly when the meditation is of the traditional silent type, no apps necessary nor any commentary by Russell Brand, haha, the only likely difference being that where religion might give answers, meditation would only bring calmness. Vipassana claims insight, and that may be true, but ultimately unpredictable, and unnecessary, and I would rather not place the burden of proof upon the method of inquiry.
Because that is not the traditional goal of meditation, nor should it be, meditation being defined as that activity erasing the slate of its burden of language, whereas insight is usually defined by the language that accompanies it. That’s why I tend to avoid guided meditation, except as a form of ‘dharma talk,’ it not really producing the ‘calm abiding’ that I expect from meditation, if I expect anything. I go there to get away from language, not to add more to it. But maybe that’s just me. For me language is just too important to ignore.
hardie karges, 
No, I’m not talking about fighting the mean nasty ugly Muslims that fundamentalist Buddhists are supposed to hate because they supposedly ‘destroyed Buddhism in India’ with their medieval invasion, from which Buddhism never quite recovered. But I notice that ‘Hinduism’ recovered, though, hint hint, exposing this as false narrative. It seems that India is not big enough for both, especially when Hinduism is quite happy to include Buddhism under its larger umbrella, making and marketing itself as something of a national religion, if and when it is one, at all…
Plato’s ‘Allegory (or Myth) of the Cave’ is one of the great works of speculative philosophy, and very special to those who love his work, equal in thought and substance to Jesus’s parables, Einstein’s ‘thought experiments, or the Buddhist sutras, IMHO. This is the starting point to Platonic idealism, much of which was incorporated into Christianity in the early Roman era, until they finally got hip to the more worldly work of Aristotle. Hey, things take time…
The loneliness of travel should be crushing sometimes, but it’s not, not really, and I seem to attract it, by design, as if to do otherwise would mean I’m lazy, and corrupt, too weary in my old age to do the right thing, stay true to my principles, those principles of non-possession, non-attachment and non-consumption…
streaming consciousness... 
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