the Word,or Name, of God
A talk given by Bubba Free John to his devotees
The Enlightenment of the Whole Body – 1978
ADI DA SAMRAJ: Do you know, the true esoteric
significance of the sacred word “Om”? That syllable, spelled
in English “Om” or “Aum,” is considered a primary sacred
syllable in the Hindu tradition, and meditation upon it is
part of the yogic idealism that leads toward Absorption in
God. But all of the other ancient traditions also have a
version of this “Word,” or they have other words or
wordsymbols that more or less fulfill the same requirements,
and that represent more or less the same characteristics as
the word-sound or word-symbol “Om.”
The Christian tradition uses the Word “Amen.” (And Jesus
is believed to be the incarnation of the Word, just as the
Spiritual Master in every tradition is believed to be the
Word, or the Living Divine, in human form.) The Muslims use
“Allah,” and the Sufis use “Hoo,” and the Tibetans use
“Hum.” Other cultists use Krishna, Ram, Radhasoami, Hrim,
Soham, and so forth. The examples are countless.
These word-symbols are supposed to be equivalents of God,
ways of approximating the Deity, or the Transcendental
Reality. They do not simply mean God, or the Blessing of
God. They are the verbal or audible Form of the Divine. When
the Word is properly uttered, or when devotees make use of
the Word as a way of communing with the Divine, they are
performing a most high and sacred act. Certain sounds, or
Names of God, are used very commonly in the larger
traditions of great movements, while others are considered
to be especially sacred sounds, and they are revealed only
to initiates.
But what is the origin of the idea of the Word or Name?
The origin of it is the sacred or higher mystical experience
of highly developed individuals in the past, who, in their
profound meditation, in which the ordinary experiences of
the body and mind were transcended, would hear sounds in
space or internal to the body that were not otherwise
audible. By holding on to these sounds they would lose
bodily and mental consciousness and become absorbed in
higher mental states. So the primal sound, the “unstruck
sound,” the Word or Name that appears mysteriously, prior to
all acts of Creation, was, on the basis of mystical
experiences, considered to be sacred, the highest sacred
means of attaining Absorption in God. Indeed, the Word or
Name is traditionally considered to be the Primal Agent of
Creation, the Source, the “Son” of the Transcendental,
Unseen, and Unheard God. Therefore, to meditate on the Word
until Absorption is to Return to the Domain or Condition of
God, prior to Creation. Even today, in the esoteric orders
of the great traditions, aspirants are given, at a certain
stage in their maturity, techniques for turning to the
unstruck sound, the sound that is always already occurring
without anyone’s doing anything to create it, the internal
sound of the Life-Current, audible in the brain core. An
aspect of that practice also appears in our own work, in the
Way of Re-cognition, the third stage of spiritual practice.
The idealism of contemplating the Word to the point of
Absorption is also part of the more popular levels of the
cults all over the world. The practice of listening to the
sound of the Life Current internally is extended into the
outer levels of the cults, into the general idealism of
religious and spiritual practice, and thus the Word or Name
becomes part of the practice even of beginners. Even at the
most exoteric level of religious and spiritual practice,
people say the Word or Name of God. They verbally repeat, or
honor, a word-symbol that is intended to be the equivalent
of the Sound that may be heard internally, the original
Sound from which all sound comes.
What is symbolized or represented by the many Names and
holy Words is sound itself, or vibration, the Life-Current,
the Native Feeling, the Light of lights, the Sound that is
already there, the Sound from which all other sounds and all
forms in fact emanate. Therefore, these Names are simply
symbols for the inherent Vibration of Life, and they are
similar, because they generally correspond to forms of sound
that can be produced by the vocal cords, as when we hum. In
fact, humming is the only way for the human being to make a
continuous vibrating sound. All other sound must be
interrupted and requires changes to be produced. The only
consistent verbal sound you can make is a humming sound.
Thus, in the esoteric traditions, the aspirant is taught
to practice the contemplation of the Word, and to feel it
all over his body, through the making of this humming,
vibrating sound. When you hum, you can feel the vibration
all over your body. And by concentrating the vibration in
any part of the body, you can heal it, you can bring
Life-Energy there, you can keep your attention there and
awaken the psychic qualities associated with that part of
the body.
“Om” is a word-symbol for humming. So are “Amen” and
“Ram” and “Hrim. ” All of those holy words are ways of
humming. They are part of the ancient idealism of the Word,
in which, ultimately, you listen to the internal sound of
Life, the Sound that you do not create, mentally or
physically. And by listening to the audible Word, or feeling
into the Life-Current, you may become absorbed beyond the
awareness of the body-mind, beyond psycho-physical
awareness. And in the process of approaching such perfect
contemplation and absorption, you first honor and make use
of mental and physical equivalents of that inner or prior
sound.
All the many Words and Names of God have been given by
individuals who have practiced mystical contemplation of a
sound that occurred to them in their deepest meditation, or
that was given to them or suggested to them by some
experience or by some other experienced individual.
Therefore, there are many traditional Words or Names, and
many more will probably appear in the future. But they all
have essentially the same function-to lead you toward
contemplation and absorption via internal audition, vision,
and feeling of the Life-Current, and to orient you toward
the subtle or higher mental experience of God, thus
distracting you from the grosser or outward and manifest
effects of the Creative Vibration of God. Likewise, the
devotional practices of the Way of Divine Ignorance4 are all
activities that relate the body and mind to the vibratory
subtlety, the Radiant and All-Pervading Life-Current or
Word, of which all psycho-physical events are the creative
modifications.
The Spiritual Master, then, who is Awake, who has
Realized the Condition that is beyond sight and sound,
beyond the bodymind, and who can Teach and Awaken others,
also can, through his regard or touch, Awaken the vibratory
Current of Life that may be felt and heard and seen, and
that ultimately leads beyond Itself, to the very Heart of
Consciousness.
Therefore, the Spiritual Master is the Incarnation of the
Word. And every devotee, ultimately, becomes that
Incarnation. In Truth, every devotee is already the
incarnation of the Word when he is turned about in
self-transcending God-Communion. All are equal in that
sense, except that the Spiritual Master speaks that
Realization to others and demonstrates it to others, having
consciously Realized it; whereas the ordinary individual has
not yet Realized it.
The ordinary person is asleep, embedded in the Earth, the
lower body-mind, in unconsciousness, and in his separateness
and recoil from Infinity. The devotee, however, the one who
recognizes the Spiritual Master, is given the Teaching to
“hear.” The Teaching is itself the Word. By “hearing” the
Teaching and practicing its Way, the devotee is turned up to
Heaven, the higher body-mind, or super consciousness, and at
last, he is restored to the very Divine, prior to Heaven and
Earth, the Heart of all things and beings.
The devotee is given the Spiritual Master to “hear” and
also to “see.” There is a great ancient tradition not only
for the Word or the Name, but also for the Vision of God.
Vision is another area of contemplation that leads toward
higher Absorption and that is part of the mystical process
all over the world. And there are just as many formulas for
vision as for audition. The Spiritual Master therefore
incarnates the Vision of God also. He has seen and also
heard what is most subtle, and, through perfect intuition,
he has transcended all of it. Therefore, he is all of that,
and he can lead another to it all and through it all, if the
right devotional and spiritual relationship can be
established between himself and another.
In their childishness, people like to think that certain
official Words or Names are spiritual and that all other
Words or Names are not spiritual. They like to believe that
there is only one historically true Word or Name to
practice, and everybody who practices another is a heretic,
just as they like to believe that there is only one true
historical religion or one true historical cult. But in fact
all of the variant mystical practices are founded in the
same ancient understanding of inner experience. What is
significant, therefore, is that one understand the process
and be entered into right association with the free culture
of its practice. And one must be inserted into the Great
Process of the Way through a true Agent. Such are the
essential requirements. The Truth of these matters is
Transcendental, Living, and Present. We must be Awakened to
the Truth, rather than be concerned about historical
differences, or to become obsessed with exoteric teachings,
and phoney “secret” matters, and all the cultic trappings
that have nothing whatever to do with this Great Process of
Transcendental Communion with God.
So there is no more or less ultimate esoteric
significance to the word-symbol “Om” than there is to your
humming in the shower! It is exactly the same thing. What
you must understand is what all of it is about-your hum as
well as “Om.” The true Word belongs to all true practice,
rightly understood, rightly Awakened, and ultimately
Transcended.
The Teaching of the Spiritual Master is itself the Word,
and that is why it is good to listen to the Teaching as well
as to read it and to hear the Spiritual Master speak it. It
has purifying force, if you are present through surrender.
It is, therefore, a form of Transcendental Contemplation for
you, and it leads toward mystical Absorption as well as
higher understanding.
The devotee who comes to listen to the Teaching comes to
“hear” the Spiritual Master and to “see” him. Therefore, the
devotee should approach through surrender, so that he may
contemplate the Divine and be transformed through “seeing”
the Spiritual Master and “hearing” the Word. As he matures
in his practice, the more esoteric aspects of this great
Process of self transcendence and God-Contemplation and
Divine Absorption begin to characterize his practice. The
more esoteric or subtle and hidden aspects of this whole
affair of God-Realization become matters of responsibility
in the later stages of practice, but even they are
essentially extensions of the Revelation and the practice
that are given from the very beginning to those who are
Awakened in Good Company.