Language has nothing to do with the world

Language has nothing to do with the world.

Look at everything in your house. Look at carpets. Look at clothes. Look at children's homework. Look at everything you encounter and see how it is constructed. It's something put together.

And start to observe the function of language in your existence. Language is something exquisite. It's a very beautiful thing.

It can bring us so much pleasure. But it is a game. Language speaks to language. Language hovers like some mesmerising archangel in the world with glistening wings and little rainbows falling from them. Words and things exist in a very complex and strange relationship. People like Wittgenstein would say, language has nothing to do with the world.

Language only speaks to language. The world is…….. And that's quite a good place to start.

James Low, Lojong mind training, Macclesfield 12.2006 (on YouTube)

Video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zERm9hcDWI