Then Mahamati said: Again, Blessed One, are words themselves the highest reality? or is what is expressed in words the highest reality?
The Blessed One replied: Mahamati, words are not the highest reality, nor is what is expressed in words the highest reality. Why? Because the highest reality is an exalted state of bliss, and as it cannot be entered into by mere statements regarding it, words are not the highest reality.
Here is a fun fact: there is no such thing as a word that wasn’t created by a person’s body.
Everything you’ve ever heard or read (or felt, if you’re blind) is the product of a person moving through reality, not the reality itself.
The letters on this screen? Someone typed those. The lyrics in your headphones? Someone sang those (or, perhaps, used their fingers to program a computer to sing those). Even when you think a word in your head, subtle muscles in your larynx move, reciting that word internally.
What does this fun fact mean?
It means that there is not a word in existence that exists from its own side. Not “nothing,” not “God,” not “science,” not “me,” not “Om,” or any other word, in any language, whatsoever, ever.
It means that if you ever want to find the real answer to any of the following questions:
- What is the meaning of life?
- Who am I?
- What is this?
- What is my true nature?
- What is the nature of the universe?
You need to stop looking for the answers in words and concepts, and start exploring nonconceptually, like you look through your pockets when you thought you had your keys and can’t find them.
Chances are, you’ll like what you find.