I am that I am

At fEAST last week, I said a few things about the name of God which seemed to strike a lot of chords. Since only a few people were there, I thought I'd repeat them.

When God appeared to Moses in the burning bush, Moses asked God's name, and was told given the reply 'I am that I am. If they ask you who sent you, say that I am sent you'

So why is God called 'I am'? It's a bit of an unusual name.

My first answer was that God encompasses everything and is beyond comparison to anything. As such, 'I am' is the only possible name. Any other name exists to help distinguish the named thing from other things. God cannot be distinguished, and so can only be called 'I am'.

But I then gave a second answer, which people seemed to like. The name 'I am' in hebrew is spelt YHWH, and was probably pronounced Yahweh. 'Yah' is one of the very few sylables that can be pronounced on an in-breath, and it sounds like an in breath anyway. Weh sounds like an out breath. The name of God is nothing more than the sound of the breath.

So God's name can be looked at in 2 ways; as utterly all-encompassing and transcendant, or as close to us as our breath. In fact, it seems even more intertwined than that; it's impossible to think of the name 'I am' without thinking of yourself; no-one ever says anything including the words 'I am' that isn't about them. And the breath of God is constantly talked about.

And of course, the name of God is constantly on your lips. Every breath is a prayer. Recently I've been using 'yahweh' as my mantra during meditation. For some time I've preferred very simple mantras which mean there's no hard and fast line between meditating on the breath and using a mantra. Yahweh is literally perfect in this respect. It is also, of course, the name of God, which seems like a good thing to meditate on. And finally, it seems to fit well into Ramana Maharishi's practice of 'Self enquiry'; of constantly asking who you are. Who is it who thinks these thoughts? Who is it who says this mantra?

I can't help thinking that the jewish tradition of never using the name of God is missing out on something. But that might make an interesting post on its own.