Why have all the Buddhas used words if truth cannot be expressed in words?

If truth cannot be expressed in words, then why have all the buddhas used words?

A parable: THE GREAT MYSTIC, Rabia of Basra, was immensely beautiful. And a beauty not of this world. Once a rich young man from Iran comes to Basra. He asks people, "Is there anything that is out of the way, something special here?" "Yes," they all tell him. "We have the most beautiful woman of the world!" The young man naturally becomes interested and he asks, "Where can I find her?" And they all laugh and say, "Well, where else?... in a brothel!" That repulses the rich young man, but finally he decides to go. And when he gets there, the matron asks for an exorbitant fee. He pays the fee and is ushered in. There, in a silent and simple room, a figure is praying. What beauty she has! He has never seen such beauty and grace, not even in his dreams. Just to be there is a benediction,…

Question: First question: Osho, truth cannot be spoken—then why do saints speak? Words make you a student. For another kind of knowing, another kind of hearing—deeper than words—you must become a disciple. Then merely being curious will not do; you must become a yearning one for liberation. Soon you will find that even yearning is not enough; you must become a practitioner. Then you will descend, slowly, into depth. But the journey begins with words. You have come to me; for no other reason. A word called you. The first letter reached you through a word. There are people here who have come from unknown far-off lands. A book fell into their hands; somewhere a word reached them. That word stirred something within; a nectar welled up. Then they traced that word to its source and came—journeying from afar. Now further bonds can be forged.

Osho, in so many ways, in so many manners, you keep saying the same things over and over! Does truth really require so many words?

Truth requires not even a single word. Truth never reveals itself through words; it is beyond words. That is precisely why there is an attempt to say it with so many words. If you don’t understand from this angle, perhaps you will understand from that one. If not from this direction, maybe from another. If not by this pretext, then by some other. Sometimes by the pretext of Sahajo, sometimes of Daya, sometimes Mahavira, sometimes Buddha, sometimes Christ—by any pretext at all I am trying to make you understand. If you miss this time, I will find another pretext. I have to say what cannot be said; I have to tell what has no way of being told. But if I remain silent, you will never be able to understand. Truth does not fit into words, but if the blow of words keeps striking continuously, something within you begins to…

Beloved Osho, lord buddha kept on discoursing and giving sermons continuously for forty years, yet it is said that he never spoke a single word. The same way you are discoursing and giving sermons continuously for the past twenty years and it can be said that you do not speak even a single word. Is it true?

Sometime visit a madhouse: the doctor there seems to be crazier than the patients. The patients are mad without worries, but this poor man has to suffer the madness of so many of them. In treating all these mad people, the psychologists themselves reach to the same stage of madness. The qualities travel through the words too. So an intelligent person will listen only to the words that are coming out of an inner emptiness, an inner peace, that are born in the inner depths. If the words are coming from an inner dis-ease, then close your ears -- it is better to be deaf to them. This will protect you. And likewise, don't look at the wrong -- because by looking at it, it is entering you. And don't touch the meaningless, because the very touch of it will affect you. But we are not aware of all this.…

Question: BELOVED MASTER, ARE ALL WORDS LIES? Peter Hendrickson, truth is an experience so profound that it is inexpressible, so vast that no word can contain it. Words are small things; they have a certain utility, but they have limitations. And truth has no limitations; it is vaster than the sky. Truth means the whole existence. When you disappear into the whole you know it. Saying that you know it is not accurate; rather, you feel it. Or, to be even more accurate, you BECOME it. When you have become the whole it is impossible to say it. And truths need to be said; they have an intrinsic quality that they have to be shared. Hence words are only hypothetical; they can be used, but one should not believe in them. They should be used as stepping-stones.