Is the Buddhist Saying "Inexpressible, Inexpressible" Mysticism

Summary

The concept of 'inexpressible, inexpressible' in Buddhist texts is often misunderstood as mysticism or a rhetorical avoidance. This paper argues that 'inexpressibility' reflects a recognition that language, as a low-dimensional system, cannot fully express high-dimensional experiences. It integrates theories from Wittgenstein, cognitive science, and Yogacara to argue for the existence of non-linguistic cognition and explores the cognitive challenges of verbalizing non-self experiences. The findings suggest that this notion aligns with modern scientific rationality.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The proposition of "inexpressible, inexpressible" in Buddhist scriptures has long been misinterpreted by the public and some researchers as irrational mysticism, or dismissed as an evasive rhetorical device to avoid in-depth exploration of doctrinal implications. Taking the boundary of language as the core entry point, this paper attempts to construct an interdisciplinary theoretical framework integrating Wittgenstein’s philosophy of language, anti-linguistic-determinism cognitive science, the theory of verbal designation in Yogacara, and the cognitive dimensional dilemma of mind-consciousness. It preliminarily argues that "inexpressibility" represents a sober epistemological judgment: as a low-dimensional symbolic system, language cannot fully carry high-dimensional life experience and ultimate reality. This paper conducts academic dialogue with Western Buddhist philosophers such as Garfield and Loy, and draws on the Yogacara research achievements of domestic scholars including Wu Xueguo and Chen Xin. It introduces empirical evidence from cognitive neuroscience on the separability of language and thinking, and adopts neurophenomenology, enactive cognitive science, and conceptual metaphor theory to provide multi-dimensional corroboration, thereby preliminarily consolidating the scientific foundation for the independent existence of non-linguistic cognition. Based on the intrinsic correlation between the sixth and seventh consciousness in Yogacara theory, combined with Vygotsky’s developmental psychology of language, this paper further reveals the deep cognitive structural dilemma that makes ineffable non-self experience hard to be fully verbalized: the linguistic function of the sixth consciousness is inherently attached to the self-grasping cognitive framework of the seventh consciousness. Consequently, all linguistic expressions will inevitably reconstruct the transcended dual subject cognition within syntactic logic. Furthermore, this paper tentatively extends the theory of cognitive dimensional divide, and draws on information theory and Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of the body to interpret the inevitable dimensionality-reduction representation mechanism of language embodied in depicting physical and mental experience. This study finally concludes that the Buddhist notion of "inexpressibility" embodies self-reflection on the epistemological boundary, a rational affirmation of the priority of embodied experience, and a feasible path toward cognitive transcendence. Its inner spirit is highly compatible with the rational spirit of modern science.

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