WORDS AS POINTERS

Words are not truth, but they can point to truth. As it is said in Zen Buddhism, the finger pointing at the moon is not the moon, or as the semanticist Alfred Korzybski put it, the map is not the territory.

Unfortunately we get hung up on the words. It is like throwing a stick across the yard, pointing at it and saying to Fido, "fetch." The dog stares at the finger. We stare at the words.

It is similar with ritual. A religious service shows the way to something, rather than is that something itself.

Regarding words, once the truth is recognized, the words pointing to it may be discarded. The Taoist sage Chuang Tzu wrote:

Fishing baskets are employed to catch fish, but when the fish are got, the men forget the baskets; snares are employed to catch hares, but when the hares are got, men forget the snares. Words are employed to convey ideas, but when the ideas are grasped, men forget the words.

The Buddha said in a like way that when the raft of his teachings has been taken to the opposite shore (enlightenment), there is no need then to carry the raft across the land.