Hallowed Be Thy Name

The Lord’s Prayer

Does God have a name? I think of God as the source of all that is — the One from which the many have come. As it says in the Tao, from the one came two and from the two came three, and from the three came the ten thousand things.

If God is the original One, then as far as I know, God has no name.

I’m using the word God to write about something that can’t really be defined in any human language because the original being is beyond time and space and therefore beyond all concepts. I am going to try to do so, using English (because that is my native tongue), even though it is impossible and will result only in linguistic nonsense.

It is possible that at some point beyond time and space God was not conscious. What the nature of God was in such a state is knowable only through direct experience. It is not comprehensible nor expressible but the experience can be approached through the imagination.

When God became conscious it was what we would call in English an “I Am” experience. God’s awareness of himself was the first duality, the knowing subject and the known object.

It was also the emergence of the first trinity: the knowing subject, the known object and the composite unified Self from which consciousness arose. As humans who reflect the nature of God we experience this on a personal level as me, myself, and I.

Wave tunnel

I would posit that perhaps this was the beginning of a learning experience for God. The experience of consciousness is itself a vibrational experience. Any vibrational experience involves differentiation and potential. In the world of non-being or potential being, God experienced the emergence of various active and passive energies.

When God manifested these energies they emerged as vibrational frequencies. In the various realities that we experience as human beings we can think of these as life, love, thought, light, sound, etc.

Within God these vibrational frequencies emerged from one center in a harmonious spectrum of mathematically perfect relationships. In terms of music all sounds come from one universal tone and all tones resolve back into that one resonant vibration which is the source and sum of them all. The Alpha and the Omega. If we think of light, reality is an interplay between light and darkness. All colors are refracted from light energy and recombine into these primary radicals.

Moses and the Burning Bush by Marc Chagall

As long as we think of God as All One, then there is no name. God is simply the primary “I Am.” That is why the Bible says that when Moses asked what God he should say sent him, God said simply, “tell them that I Am sent you.”

Now I am going to contradict myself. Saying that God has no name does not meant that God has no name. Obviously God has many names in many different languages. Just take a quick read through the Wikipedia article Names of God.

If we examine the many names of God in many different languages, we will see that most of these describe attributes of God or names that people have given to identify their apprehension of the divine.

99 Names of God in Arabic

When I emerged from my mother’s womb, I was not aware that I had a name. I simply was. My parents gave me a name. Similarly, God is aware of his existence. Human beings who have experienced God have given him names. The various names are used to try to identify what it is that they are talking about. Naming things is one of the qualities that with which human beings are endowed. Because we  name things we have developed language in order to communicate with one another.

For instance, Islam has 99 names of God which describe various attributes of God plus the one primary name Allah that simply means the God.

One of the names Judaism used to God as El Shaddai, meaning “god of the mountain” or “most high god.” Another term used to identify God was Adonai, meaning Lord. And then there is the tetragrammaton יהוה (English: YHWH), which no devout Jew has pronounced for over 2000 years. It is not even sounded within the mind. While Christian scholars argue over the pronunciation, Jewish scholars say that the original sound which was once known is now lost.

I encourage everyone to explore the Chinese and Hindu names of God as well. I’m not going to do so now because I want to follow another tangent that leads to identification of the Name of God with the Word of God or the Sound of God.

As I said earlier, all frequencies in the universe emanate from one original vibration. All frequencies also resonate with that frequency and if all are sounded simultaneously they harmonize and resolve into the original vibration.

Om

In various cultures, mystics who practice the science of sacred sound attest that they are elevated into the presence of the divine by chanting or singing a sacred syllable. For example, many Hindus experience this through Om or Aum. Sufi orders who practice dhikr experience union with God through the singing of Hu. Both claim that these sacred sounds are the original sound from which all vibrations emanate and that they are both the Word of God and the Name of God.

It is interesting that Eban Alexander, in his recent book Proof of Heaven, wrote that when he experienced heaven while brain-dead for seven days, he associated the experience of God in the highest heaven with the sound Om.

I am not going to offer and opinion on this. I like both Om and Hu. I encourage you to try them both with like-minded friends.

Hallowed Be Thy Name

So, when Jesus taught his disciples to pray “Hallowed be thy name,” what did he mean? Given the context within which he spoke, I assume he was referring to the sacred tetragrammaton that could not be pronounced, though I believe that Jesus himself, having ascended to the highest heaven, may have been familiar with the sound.

For all of us who love the potency of the Lord’s Prayer, I feel that on a personal level you may choose the Name that resonates most vibrantly with you and most effectively empowers you to experience the presence of the One Divine, Most-high, Compassionate and Loving Source of All. There is only one God. There is no God, but God.

If you enter into communion with God, as Moses did, and you feel a need to ask for a name, then ask and you will receive.

 

 

 

 

 

Preparing for a birth of new creativity January 2016

A brief exposition of the solar, lunar, and astrological influences as we move closer to the birth of a new spring. I forgot to mention the Chinese New Year. On February 8, we will be entering the Year of the Monkey. Peace be with you. Let go of the old to prepare for the new.  This is  cleansing time.

Our Father who art in Heaven

the Lord’s prayer in English and Aramaic (Click to view larger)

I love The Lord’s Prayer. I say it in my mind almost everyday. I find that it connects me to some higher realm of spirit and provides strength and solace. Saying it deepens my faith, motivates me to serve others, alleviates my anxiety, liberates me from guilt, makes me more forgiving, helps me to end unhealthy behaviors, engenders a sense of gratitude, and opens me up to new possibilities and opportunities every day.

This short prayer provides an inexhaustible well of contemplative thought and meditation. I am fascinated by each phrase.

For instance, the opening phrase, “Our Father who art in Heaven” raises many questions.

Jesus instructs his  followers to begin their prayer by addressing a personal male being who lives in Heaven. I must pause here to remind myself that Jesus did not speak English. Most probably, speaking to the common people of the time he spoke Aramaic.

If you would like to hear The Lord’s Prayer as it may have sounded here’s a recording along with transcription.

The Lord’s Prayer in Aramaic

As far as I know, there is no historical record of The Lord’s Prayer as Jesus spoke it. The Lord’s Prayer first appears in the gospels, once in Luke and once in Matthew. It was also recorded in the Peshitta in Syriac, which is similar to the Aramaic of Palestine during the Roman period. Scholars think, however, that it was translated into Syriac from the Greek.

For those interested, here is the Lord’s Prayer in the original Greek.

I am not a Biblical scholar or an authority on ancient languages so I am not going to delve into biblical and historical criticism.

The point is that Jesus did not say, “Our Father who art in Heaven.” The Lord’s Prayer was first written in Greek and then translated into Latin and other languages. Centuries later it was translated into English, of which there are several different versions.

If and when Jesus spoke The Lord’s Prayer he probably opened it with something like “Avvon d-bish-maiya,” that may translate into English as “Our Father who art in Heaven.”

Often as I recited The Lord’s Prayer, I would hastily go over the Our Father. But over time, as my spirit nursed more deeply on the prayer, I had to stop.

Why “Our Father?” My first reaction is that it reveals a deep personal relationship with a divine parental being. But it also identifies that parental being as masculine. It indicates that God is male.

Throughout all that exists there is a differentiation of male and female. Genesis 1:27 says

God created mankind in his own image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them

This statement in Genesis appears to say that God is male and female. When I looked at some of the modern translations of the Aramaic, several rendered “Abwûn” in a number of ways: one who breathes life into all being, the mother/father creator, etc. Here are some examples from The Lords Prayer – The Nazarene Way.

I will let you draw your own conclusions. I recommend whatever most effectively opens the door for you to a personal relationship with the One. When you feel this connection in mind, soul, and heart you can ask the One directly to guide you into the truth.

There is another very important issue that arises in the words, “Our Father who art in Heaven.” The saying implies that we are the Children of God.

This is a main sticking point between Christianity and Islam. The Quran does not say that people can not have a personal relationship with God. On the contrary, it tells us that God is Al Rahman, the Compassionate and Beneficent, Al Raheem, the Merciful, Al Mujeeb, the One Who Hears All Prayers. There are many more Names that imply a loving God who seeks an intimate relationship with us. Mohammed said that Allah (God) is closer to us than our jugular veins. The Sufis encourage us to be not only servants and slaves of God but also to be Allah’s friends and lovers.

However, the Quran and Islam adamantly deny that God has children. In my understanding this is because the central affirmation of Islam is that there is no God but Allah.

This is a difficult problem. I believe that it is a reaction to the Trinitarian doctrine that there are Three Gods in One – God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit – and that Jesus is both fully man and fully God. This doctrine of orthodox Christianity, which was arrived at only after hundreds of years of theological turmoil within early Christianity is indeed a stumbling block.

There are many aspects to the theological conflict between Islam and Christianity. Too many to explore in a blog of this nature.

Personally, I believe that it is possible to have an intimate relationship with the divine One. I believe that God has a parental heart and loves all his creation. Allah loves us as a parent loves his children. He also loves each and every animal, every plant, every atom, every ray of creation, because love is essential to reality.

That does not mean that I am the One – although in some sense I am. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains in his commentary  on the Bhagavad Gita that every person has a divine spark in his heart. That spark, the soul, is divine and comes from God. Jesus said, “Do you not know that you are gods?”

Prabhupada uses the analogy of the sun and its rays. Every ray of sunlight is connected to the sun and carries its energy, but it is not the sun itself.

These are all metaphors not worth arguing over. The important thing is for people who have lost the life-giving connection to the source of the universe “Abwûn” to regain that connection.

As I said in the beginning, The Lord’s Prayer is a profound source of inspiration, contemplation, and meditation. My experience is that it is really much more than that. I encourage you to experience it for yourself.

I have only shared a few brief thoughts on “Our Father.” I haven’t even gotten yet to “who art in Heaven.” That’s a fertile field too.

Merry Christmas from the Flawed Guru 2015

Peace on Earth Good will towards all humanity! Faith, hope, and love. Now matter how dark things get, take things one day at a time and God will guide you. Love to everyone. Amen.

Here’s a crazy song I made up spontaneously at Glenn’s house recently.

Five minutes with the flawed guru November 22 2015

Happy Thanksgiving. We are entering the long nights time. Hope you enjoy the video.

Frost Time

It is Frost time. The totem animal is the snake. We have passed the cusp into Scorpio. The ruling planets are Pluto and Mars. It is time to rest and get in touch with the inner world. This is a time of endings and beginnings.

Introduction to the Flawed Guru

I felt the need for an introduction.