Language is a system of symbols and rules used for communication and the expression of thoughts.

On the path of knowledge, language is understood as:

• A tool for information exchange, not for conveying knowledge

• Based on memory and learned associations

• Limited in its ability to describe existence

• Part of the illusion - words are not the things they refer to

• The language of ignorance - built around illusory objects

The descriptions of existence often fail because language is designed to describe objects and their relations, but existence is not an object. This is why negative knowledge and neti neti (not this, not this) approaches are used.

The terminology section of this wiki defines key terms as they are used on the path of knowledge.