Warning: This blog entry must include a number of internal contradictions as it attempts to talk about limitations of language using the very limited and limiting tool.
When I experienced a sudden intense suffering about three years ago, the shell of my ego must have cracked open, at least partially. In retrospect, I must have started to see a little light of my soul for the first time that had been covered by my ego. Then I realized suddently that I had been trapped in my own egoic mind.
I also came to realize gradually that language is not only a limited tool but also limits us as the guard of this mind-made prison. It didn't take me long to lose my interest in linguistics though I had spent about 30 years occupying myself with it professionally. Since then I've been trying to go beyond language.
Most of us must be prisoners of our own mind-made prison to a greater or lesser extent, and many of us end our lives without even become aware of this very fact. Our problem is worse when we are unaware of it. I have been trying in vain to explain to my fellow cavemen with the help of this same prison guard that there seems to a vast world that transcends language though I have only had some brief glimpses of it.
Even after realizing my status as such a prisoner and seeing the possibility of liberating myself from it of my own free will, I haven't been fully successful to take advantage of this possibility as this prison guard called language is extremely cunning.
One of the most cunning tactics of language, hence the egoic mind is labeling. It loves to label other people and peoples. Paradoxically, the more we label them, the more we distance ourselves from their presence, hence their very essence. The ego seems to love separation. With the help of its faithful servant called language it separate itself from other beings. This separation is an illusion.
Recently I'm also realizing that even mindfulness is limited and limiting. It divides our being into the subject and the object - separation again. I've already stopped practicing mindfulness meditation and switched to breathing meditation in order to go beyond language. I still seem to have a long way to go to liberate myself from my mind-made prison with a cunning guard called language.