Meditation: What is the true name of God?
In spirituality, everything begins with “the name of God”. Naming God is the first step in any prayer or spiritual treatment, since it involves speaking to God or “in the name of God”.
But what about the name of God? The answer is of the utmost importance because the word “God”, whose translation varies according to language and culture, is still very vague.
The nature and origin of the divine name
To trace the origin of the divine name, we need to refer to the words of the Creator himself when he spoke to Moses in Exodus:
“God said to Moses: ‘I am That I Am’. And he added: Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: He who is called ‘I am’ has sent me to you.”
The translation of this divine name varies. What you need to know is that the original language in which it was pronounced is Aramaic. In this language, whose pronunciation we can only assume today, the verb “to be” transcribed in our alphabet corresponds to “YWH”. We assume that this root corresponds to the pronunciation Yah(ou)we, from which the name Yahweh or Yehowah is derived.
Note that the Creator adds to his declaration: “This is my name for ever, this is my name from generation to generation”.
The Eternal Being-ness
The important thing to remember is that this verbal root is the expression of being in action. Saying “I AM” is enough. The following part “…that I Am” seems to have been added for clarification purposes, since it evokes a duality of being that contradicts the idea of unity.
God is therefore the ONE BEING, the expression of divine action, forever ONE in himself, pure expression. To deduce the practical consequences of this, we must refer to the following commandment:
“You shall not use the name of the Lord your God lightly, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who uses his name lightly.”
We only need to make a very simple substitution to understand that every time we say “I AM” we are using the name of the Lord and defining his being, and therefore our own.
Sacred power of words
The “I AM”, implicit in all expression, defines power. Having lost the true meaning of the”sacred”, we most often use the name of God “lightly”… Don’t we allow ourselves to say “I’m sick” or “I’m lost” or other words in which divine identity is even more seriously undermined…
To use the “I AM” in the second or third person singular or plural is to activate the power of the Word for “Good” (Blessing) or Evil (Curse). We are constantly choosing between elevating our divinity or lowering it.
All condemnation applies only to us
We must be aware that there is no God other than “I AM” in us to judge. All judgement is therefore self-judgement. In other words an activation of the law of Karma:
“Judge not, that ye be not judged. For you will be judged by the judgment with which you judge, and you will be measured by the measure with which you measure”.
The “I AM” is in the mind and in the mouth of the one who thinks or speaks. To utter it lightly is called “sinning against the spirit”.
This happens every time we say “I AM” without a full awareness of consequences. In this sense, every word and every thought is an expression of the power of creation in action, whether consciously or unconsciously.
We must therefore insist that every “sin” is a sin against ourselves. Through the use of the I AM, we define ourselves, we map out our destiny through the image we form of our I AM-ness.
“Make no mistake: God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap”.
Personality and identity
However, we must not confuse the programmed “I am” we take to be our being with the “I AM” of inspiration that is ex-pressing itself when we are in the “zero state”, i.e. aconsciousness of pure being, without any pre-judgements.
Again, to conclude, let’s refer to the words the Creator addressed to Moses:
“Who made man’s mouth? And who makes him dumb or deaf, seeing or blind? Go, then, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you have to say.”
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