The Futility of Words

“The purpose of a fish trap is to catch fish, and when the fish are caught, the trap is forgotten. The purpose of a rabbit snare is to catch rabbits. When the rabbits are caught, the snare is forgotten. The purpose of words is to convey ideas. When the ideas are grasped, the words are forgotten. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words? He is the one I would like to talk to”. (Chuang Tzu)*

“Even the finest teaching is not the Tao itself. Even the finest name is insufficient to define it. Without words, the Tao can be experienced, and without a name, it can be known”. (From the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu – translation by Stan Rosenthal)

In this election year we listen to many words. There are many who say that despite all the promises that politicians’ make they are “all the same” once they get into power. I have found in my life that any time I get into the “politics” of something, I loose track of my role in life and I have to pull myself back into focus before I drown in some war of words.

Have you noticed that all these political rallies are very noisy? A barrage of sign waving, yelling, cheering, speakers using “sound bites” to fire up the crowd – all designed to stop any true consideration of what is before us and to make us “follow the crowd”.

A comparison can be drawn with the average casino – have you noticed that once you step onto the casino floor you can no longer see any windows, that there are no clocks to tell you the time, that the noise is non-stop and the games are designed to hold you there, daring you to walk away and loose that chance of the jackpot?

Both are forms of brainwashing, designed to take away all rational thought and persuade you to buy into what is being presented. Politics is a gamble. You enter into the world of the rally, you are swept away by promises of what might be and you cast your vote. When all subsides you eventually notice that nothing has changed, just like when you step outside of the casino – the world is proceeding just like it was before you entered.

The ancient philosophers tell us that to transcend the ego we have to be silent, for without quieting the mind we cannot experience the infinite.

The words of a famous folk song come to mind, “When will we ever learn?”

*The Chinese philosopher Chuang Tzu (ca. 369-ca. 286 BC), also known as Chuang Chou, was the most brilliant of the early Taoists and the greatest prose writer of his time.