Spiritual Spice: Chuang Tzu -- Words

The fish trap exists because of the fish; once you've gotten the fish, you can forget the trap. The rabbit snare exists because of the rabbit; once you've gotten the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words exist because of meaning; once you've gotten the meaning, you can forget the words. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can have a word with him?

Chuang Tzu (circa 400 B.C.) translated by Burton Watson

Words, as is well known, are the great foes of reality.

Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)

No word is ever anything more than a metaphor.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)

Cease from practice based on intellectual understanding, pursuing words, and following after speech, and learn the backward step that turns your light inward to illuminate your self. Body and mind of themselves will drop away, and your original face will be manifest.

Eihei Dogen (1200-1253)

Know that words are words and nothing else. When Zen wants you to taste the sweetness of sugar, it will put the required article right into your mouth and no further words are said.

Dr. D.T. Suzuki (1870-1966)

All the problems vanish when you are in the nonverbal dimension of consciousness. You see the answers to all the questions that theologians and metaphysicians ask and you see why their questions are absurd. Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889)-1951)

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