Words are social as well as individual. Between everything and nothing there lies . . .

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In Sanskrit (unlike most languages), there is a relationship between the sound of a word and its meaning (form). This draws the meaning much closer to sync with reality. Also, when things first express, they start as vibration alone, give rise to fields and so forth into expression. If one can be still and silent at that level of first vibration (called Ritam Bara Pragyan – that consciousness which accepts only truth), we can listen to sounds and they will trigger related forms. In other words, they are a way to codify and share experience. This is the hidden secret of Sanskrit chants. They are encoded experiences. Cool eh?

For some reason “All I can say is Words, Words, Words!! You can say whatever you want, because none of them are really true.” struck me as like words to a song. (laughs)

As for the “you can’t be enlightened because you said “I am enlightened”: the first time I heard that I thought “what a crock of sh*t!” It was a semi-popular spiritual teacher who has had some experience with awakening. He goes to great lengths to say “this body-mind” instead of “I”. Ridiculous. I’m glad to know where it came from. And it is still a crock. The word “I” is completely empty, at least as it refers to the point in space called Tom or Davidya. It refers to nothing. Yet look at Nisargadatta. He’s saying things like “I’m everything.” He clearly means more than the little Indian man sitting on the rug.

All I can say is Words, Words, Words!! You can say whatever you want, because none of them are really true. Adya says, “all words are simply teaching strategies.” Much better! Or the Zen concept of two words canceling each other out like two arrows meeting in midair.

Then the Upanishadic saying is true – I am That, Thou art That, All This is That. As the unity deepens, a new value emerges. Another surprise.

In quite a bit of the literature, people say things like “any teacher that says I am enlightened is not because they said I” I becomes the dirty word. (laughs) But heres the surprise – its back. Only now, ‘I’ is everything, unbroken, unbounded.

It illustrates from where Ramana Maharishi spoke.

(PS – Yogananda was the originator of the quote (without the because) in response to a reporter. I think his statement was directed more at enlightenment as a concept. Any concept of enlightenment is automatically wrong.(laughs) It is not something the mind can conceive. So teachers tend not to make claims like this.

PS – thanks for all the inspiration

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@Evan There is nothing wrong with thought. Thinking is neither good nor bad. Thought just won’t tell you who you are. Ramana is pointing that the thought “I” is the thought that causes all the trouble. What you are is beyond the thought of who you are. So, you can think all you want. But just don’t believe what it tells you about who you are.

But if I question I’m guilty of thought and so must be wrong? Hmm

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*sigh* Hopefully, someday I’ll manage to scratch that itch.

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