Who needs language when you have zen?

I first heard about zen buddhism when i was 20. A friend told me this story about an American who went to Japan and became the disciple of a Zen monk who was a gemmologist. The monk had taken a vow of silence. On the first day he gave the American a stone and asked him to keep it in his hand all the time, night and day and never to part with it. The excited student did just that. He went about his business which was mainly waiting and hanging around the monastery with the stone in his hand. Weeks passed. The monk would sit every day in meditation amongst the group but never communicate anything else to his disciple. The stone stayed in the American's hand until it felt like another part of him. Finally, one day, quite fed up with all that waiting and increasingly suspicious that he had been duped, the American threw the stone in front of the monk and gave vent to his feelings. The monk listened patiently, then quietly picked up the stone and put it back in the man's palm. The next moment the American exclaimed- 'this isn't my stone!'
The monk smiled smugly and indicated something like this in sign language: Congrats. You've just passed your first lesson!
Apparently, the man had learned every property of the stone through touch. So when he was handed a replica he recognised it immediately.
Moral of the story: Language is not always the best medium of communication. A lesson i've tried to apply since then to my life with a lot of interesting results.
For one, it saves energy. Imagine going through the same drivel of words everyday! For another, it creates interesting situations, sometimes funny. Take for example the familiar strangers i meet everyday, the autowallahs and rickshawalahs in my commute. A few rides later the necessity of language is pretty much dispensed with. The flowchart is like this. Come out, see autowala, mutual recognition through neurons on both sides, hop on the vehicle, drive to destination, pay fare, exit.
Non verbal communication at its best!
Try it out. You might be surprised. Language is often quite useless and superfluous, especially when confronted with emotions like anger, frustration, rage and complete idiocity. If someone is flinging a vase at you, would you hunt around for verbs and adjectives or would you trust your motor nerves to send signals at supersonic speed? I know what i would do.
I often think I have Zen Buddhism to thank for this.