Word Up! - Using Words and Phrases to Reach Spiritual Clarity

Words are Symbols

I detailed my thoughts on this in the linked post, basically talking about how we sometimes think we know something because we have defined it using words. But words can never fully describe a thing. That is why I feel that when we observe the world, we need to drop our definitions and need to identify. We try to pin things down, but that keeps us in the past trying to remember and define the memory and describe or imagine what it was.

Now, that doesn’t mean words are useless, we need them to communicate with each other more fully. We can use words while realizing that each word is just pointing to a thing of infinite depth. Words can also be used to meditate on if we choose the word or phrase carefully...

Using Words in Meditation

Certain words and phrases have been used by different groups as objects to meditate on. Basically something for your mind to focus on that prevents it from wandering, for example the phrase “I Am.” When meditating on “I Am” there are really only two things your mind can try to figure out: What ”I” means, and what “Am” means in reference to the “I.”

In order to truly understand the statement, we have to know what the “I” is. Here’s what the dictionary says:

the nominative singular pronoun, used by a speaker in referring to himself or herself. Source

We also need to know what the word “Am” means:

Am is the first person singular of the present tense of be. Source

Ahhh, be, one of my favorites, it seems indefinable, let’s see what the dictionary says:

To exist or live Source

So the meditation of “I Am” is basically a search to know what we are. The first part is determining what the “I” is, what is being referenced when we say “I.” To “know thyself,” which is a knowing beyond words, we can’t define ourselves in words, so how else can we know ourselves?

The next part is the “Am.” What does it mean to exist?

We all know “We Are,” that we exist, but what is the we and what does it mean to exist? Any answer we come up with in our heads is wrong, so it’s an excellent phrase to meditate on. It forces us to shut up and listen.

Another Example

Lately I’ve been reading Paul Selig’s Mastery Trilogy. If anyone hasn’t read anything by this guy, I highly recommend his books. I feel they are the most potent written work on spirituality available. If you are looking for spiritual growth and cannot attend some kind of workshop by a teacher, then I feel these books are the next best thing.

The main teaching in the books that keeps coming up is the claim:

I know who I am, I know what I am, I know how I serve. I am here, I am here, I am here.

This is something the reader is told to claim throughout the books, the guides (who actually write the book, it’s a channeled text) say that only our true self can make the claim, so it is always true.

They say the who that we are is the divine, God. The guides say the what that we are is the divine in manifestation or form, “God in drag” as Adyashanti says. And the how we serve is the true expression of God in manifestation.

While it’s easy to take what they say at face value, I want to feel like I actually know. To truly know who and what I am and how I serve. So last night I tried a meditation on the first part: “I know who I am.”

Meditating on these words is a stalemate for the mind. The mind doesn’t know who we are, the mind can only think of who we are, it can only reference the term itself: God. But to actually know is a whole different thing. You don’t think you have hands, you know you have hands. Likewise, you can’t think you are the true self, you can only know you are the true self.

During the meditation I simply asked myself, “What would it feel like to know who I am?” To know that I’m God, or consciousness if you’d rather. This statement seems to align to the first stage of awakening, realizing that we aren’t the body.

I suggest giving this a shot, close your eyes and make the statement “I know who I am.” Then sit there, you aren’t asking a question, you are making a statement. What would it take for you to know the statement is true? Where would you be coming from in your perspective?

I feel that this statement: “I know who I am, I know what I am, I know how I serve,” is a very simple form of a very potent teaching. It first brings us out of the body and what we believe ourselves to be with the statement “I know who I am”(God.) Then it brings us back into the body as God, the true self(consciousness) manifest in form. Then comes the knowing of how that true self acts on the world, how it witnesses itself through the various creations and how it expresses in form.

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How can you not upvote after that?

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Give this type of meditation a try, if you are going to use the phrase from the Selig books, I suggest taking it one part at a time. And like I said before, I highly recommend the books starting with I am the Word and engaging in the texts by directly applying them to the present moment.

Thanks for reading, let me know what you think in the comments!

@jakeybrown