Ruowen Huang

Language limits the wisdom.

this is what my higher spirit told me quite some time ago. 

Honestly, when he first told me this, I didn't quite agree with him. 

Because I didn't believe I would be able to understand others if language doesn't exist. 

But he said: You can communicate with me without language. 

I: That's different!  Language will help me "CLEARLY" understand what you are trying to communicate with me.

He: It IS the tool to help you communicate, but it's not THE ONLY tool! It's very limited what language can express.  So when you rely too much on the message language can communicate, you will also limited the wisdom to grow. 

Limited?

This is not really the understanding I have toward language: Is it the same meanings when I believe my English is not good enough to express myself?

He: In spiritual form, All spirit can communicate with each other no matter what they are, where they come from.   They can communicate with nature and all existence.  In ther other hand, Human rely on lanuage so much, they just do not believe they are able to communicate with others without speaking their language...

Well, it seems to make a little bit sense for me, but still not fully agree with him. 

Because, if language didn't exist, I am not sure I will go this far with all those spirits around me?

But after such a long time, I also seems to understand what he meant when he told me this. 

After experience all kind of spirits...

From the begining, I insisted I couldn't understand what that ancient Samurai was trying to say to me for 3 days, and my "buddha" keep asking me to listen with my heart till this very moment, 

I can hear the voice form all spirits, voice from ghost and devil ( they are actuall the only spirit form who still trying to speak Language...), voice from all kind of faeries, and voice from all natures...

This is the moment I start to realize that: What language has to offer is really limited!

With language, we can hear what others are "trying to communicate in words",

but with heart, we can hear EVERYTHING!

This is when I start to understand, what my higher spirit meant by "language will limite wisdom to grow".

 

Today, I happened to have a conversation with a friend.  Mainly because I was curious where her dialog come from. 

I: So... Where exactly does " Taishan" dialog come from?

She: Taishan?  It's south of GuangDong.  A little village in GuangDong.  Most of earlier imigrants speak Taishan.

I: Well, that will explain why I only heard it since I came here. 

She: But I knew lot of imigrants, they will not admit that they speak Taishan.

I: Why?

She: Some people believe Taishan is a lower class dialog, because it's such a poor area.

I: That's funny.  I remembered when I was young, I speak Taiwanese.  (which is a dialog mostly used in south of Taiwan, same as FuJian dialog) When I moved to Taipei (North of Taiwan), lot of people still believe that only uneducated people speak Taiwanese.  But my mom speaks Taiwanese, who care what they think?

She: That's how I feel about Taishan.  I sometimes have to educate people that speaking Taishan is not a shameful thing to do.   At least, all those ground works were done by those Taishan imigrants.

I: It's funny.  It reminds me that my higher spirirt once said: Language will limit the wisdom. 

She: What does that mean?

I: I didn't quite understand at the beginning, but it seems to make sense now. 

She: But how do we understand each other without language?

I: Language was created to record.   Picture long time ago before language even created.  I think people communicate with their instinct and sensation, therefore, they are also more connected to the nature and other spirits.  That's where they are able to look at the star to predict the future, or feeling wind to forcast the weather.  

She: That's right.  Just like those First Nation Indian...

I: Well, I believe that is how spirit should communicate with each others.  But due to we live in the world of language too long, we no longer believe anything language cannot describe. (where it's called science.)  We depends on language so much, that we cannot imainge anything beyong language can described. But we have never consider that the language is limited for the world we are living in!  and we forget, Language is created by human, too!   So eventually, we cannot hear voice form natures, faeris, sky... we are not able to see any signs from natures...  

I think...what my higher spirit meant is that if we depends on language is the solely tool to understand and communicate, we will then never grow the wisdom beyond what language can describe. 

 

So what do you think?

 

In spirit form, there's NEVER "I don't understand."

But when we try to translate our feeling into language, it then become a common problem?

We either don't understand their accent, their dialog, their volcabulary, or we simply just don't try to understand?

We somehow believe language is the ONLY tool to communicate, so feeling frustrated by how limited it can describe how we feel, we just stop trying?  or...many of us just keep using the wrong word at wrong time?

 

Maybe, Existense of language will really limit the wisdom of human beings after all...