The soul of language言霊: Tell your own prophecy
In the series of “10 Japanese sayings, 10 life lessons”, I would like to share a beautiful selection of Japanese sayings that may change life perspectives.
The Japanese saying today:
言霊 Kotodama
The soul of language
Somewhere between a word and a spell, there is an expression in Japanese appreciating the soul hosted in every word we said.
Our speech carries soulful powers, as the Japanese used to believe to an extent that the country is said to prosper upon the souls of speech, either a nation rises with the beautiful expressions or falls with the ugly and filthy speeches.
In ancient Japan, people were big believers who acted in a seemingly overly superstitious way. When the priestesses were deciphering words hinted by the gods of nature, the villagers were also consciously picking their words to avoid taboos in ceremonies and praise every living thing.
“This is bullshit (ugly word).”, immediately you said, not to mention “action speaks louder than words” has always been your life motto. You are so right, however, is there the slightest chance that our words also unconsciously shape our actions and decide our fates?
A word, a dream or a story sealing someone’s fate somehow reminds me of the psychological concept of self-fulfilling prophecy, which has been depicted in numerous literature from ancient plays to modern fictions.
In the Greek drama, the king of Thebes expelled this son, Oedipus, believing in a prophecy that his son would one day kill him and marry his wife, the child’s own mother. Oedipus has then been adopted by another kingdom. Mistakenly recognizing the adopted parents as biological ones, after hearing the prophecy, Oedipus decided to leave for the good of his own parents and incidentally returned to his home country, ending up killing his biological father and marrying his biological mother.
Similarly, in the book Harry Potter, the villain Voldemort believed that someone born on Harry Potter’s birthday would kill him, leading him to kill Harry. Accidentally this transferred to Harry his own power which ironically became the key to Harry defeating Voldemort eventually.
If life is like a drama, perhaps we are also living in our own self-fulfilling prophecies. Are there any chances for us to re-write our own prophecies?
Let’s do an experiment and recall the “word” you use most, and then we find an alternative “word” to be repeated daily as your new prophecy. For instance, Trump always says “big” things, eat “big macs” and press “big” buttons, conversely if he’s enchanted with the word “small”, I’m curious what he would do differently.
Follow me if you would like to see things a little differently from the lens of the Japanese culture.
In the series of “10 Japanese sayings, 10 life lessons”, I would like to share classy and beautiful selections of Japanese sayings that may change life perspectives. Language is the mirror of culture and philosophy. Through the lens of Japanese, we may see a different color in life.
Read my other posts in the same series:
Cut off, let go and leave behind 断捨離
Written by Rex Lam K.M.
Someone who tries hard to love the saddening life a little bit more, and happens to see the light through the lens of Japanese philosophy.
