Skillful Meditation Project Monthly E-mail

VOLUME ONE, SEPTEMBER 2006

As a first article in what we intend to be a ongoing e-mail, I would like to talk about my choice of words in presenting this process of meditation. In trying to get at exactly what I was teaching by having people report their meditation sittings, I had to invent a word. The phrase "reflective awareness" did not get at it, so I invented the word "recollective." I had mixed feelings at the time of using a word not found in the English language, but went ahead anyway and used it freely for a couple of years. Now, as more interest has formed for this approach to meditation, I feel that having an invented word as its "name" is probably not such a good idea. For one thing, people can't look it up in a dictionary, for it's not to be found there; and, another thing, spell-checkers will always pick it out and underline it in red, judging it as unacceptable English.

This is actually a rather absurd predicament. Do we drop the old name because it is not proper English? Or do we keep using it until it joins the English Language? But it may never join the English Language. I am not attached to the word "recollective" and have grown less and less fond of it as I have sat with the dilemma as to what to do about it. I have gone through various alternatives for it found in the English Language, such as "retrospective awareness," which carries with it its own set of problems. I hope there is a word I have overlooked that we can use instead.

One thing this predicament has taught me is to always run key words and phrases through a committee. We have actually set up a committee for that very purpose: to look at the language we use in talking about this approach to meditation and to come up with better language for it. If you would like to join us in an ongoing exploration of the language we use to communicate various aspects of this form of meditation, then consider joining the Skillful Meditation Project Communications Committee. But if you would just like to comment on this particular topic of what to call this approach to meditation, I would be happy to hear from you.

Yours in the Dhamma,

Jason Siff

© 2007 The Skillful Meditation Project
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