When I meet someone for the first time, I tell myself that above all the person is a human being who wishes to be happy and not to suffer, just like me. Age, size, skin colour, and social rank do not really matter; there is no fundamental different between us. In this way, I can open up to that person as though he or she were a member of my own family, and all shyness disappears.
From one point of view it is a good thing to say little and to speak only when one has something to say. Language is one of the extraordinary characteristics of the human race, even though some animals such as dolphins and whales seem to have a complex form of communication.
But if we look closely at human language, we realize how limited it is. Concepts and words isolate things artificially, whereas the objects they designate actually have innumerable facets that are constantly changing and that result from a set of equally innumerable causes and conditions.
As soon as we name an aspect of reality, we mentally eliminate all other aspects and we designate the chosen object by a word that applies only to that object and this enables us to recognize it. Then, according to how that object is used, we establish distinctions: this is good, that is bad and so forth, when in fact it is important to attribute intrinsic properties to anything.
The result is a vision of reality which is at best partial and at worst plainly wrong. However rich language may be, its power is therefore very limited. Only non-conceptual experience enables us to apprehend the true nature of things.
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