Why Is God's Name 'I Am'?

Hello, I'm Sibila from Hamburg. [sighs] Um, my question is connected to um, the I am. Um, being in the meditation in being existence, I sometimes find that the I am is like, um, I wonder if it's a trap looking from that side because when I'm saying I, I already create a world. This is what I find. Um so I can cannot understand how God's name can be I am. I think it's not possible because once it says I there is a world and maybe is there a small decision for consciousness for God not to >> okay >> not to say I because I think there is >> all right >> okay [clears throat] >> you quite right uh [clears throat] infinite being God's being the unlim limited white paper. It doesn't need a name. It it it is itself without a name. But if it were to give itself a name, what name would it give itself? >> No name. >> No. We're we're we're demanding of God. Give yourself a name. it. You're right. It has no need of a name. But the finite mind, that's all of us. We want to speak of these matters. So we have to use words. We have to use names. So we're saying to God, okay, we we we want, you see, even calling God God is already giving God a name. But when we give God a name, when we call God God, that is the finite mind's view of the infinite. So when the finite mind gives the infinite a name, it calls the infinite God. But in reality, there are no finite minds. So the finite mind's view of God cannot be accurate because in reality there's only God's infinite being. So we shouldn't ask the finite mind to to to give the infinite a name. Even to call the infinite infinite is only true from the point of view of the finite mind. I think I explained that a couple of days ago. So even the name God is just the finite mind's name for God. But God's name for itself if we were to God was to name itself would be a better name than the finite mind's name. Yeah. For it would be a more accurate name. It would be a truer name. Yeah. So if we want to if we want if we want to give God a name, we should at least ask God, what is the name you would give for yourself? Because that must be your true name rather than imposing our name. We're going to call God infinite. But God doesn't know that it is infinite because it doesn't know the finite. For anything we say about God is untrue. Only what God says about itself could be true. So if we want to call God something I if we do I agree it's not necessary but if we want to call God [snorts] refer to God we should at least be polite enough to to [snorts] uh call God by the name that God would give to itself rather than to impose our name on God. Now if God were to give itself a name what would it call itself? >> It would be a sound for me a vibration. I wouldn't say something. I mean to be kind. Yeah, maybe I Yeah. >> to to to [laughter] get into contact with >> a sound is not a name. We want God because we that we the finite mind we want to talk about God. We want to understand God. So just an abstract name it an abstract sound is not a name. We want to give God a name. We're saying, "God, what will you name yourself?" If you were to write a story about yourself, what's the first word you would say? >> Come on. I want to hear you say it. [laughter] >> All right. I >> It would call itself I because in the English language, I is the name that is given to that which knows itself. >> So I and and then if we asked God to say, having given itself a name, we would say, "Okay, what's the first thing you can say? Tell us something about yourself because we want to know about us. What would God say? What's what is the first true thing that God would say? >> I exist. I am. >> No, no, no. God doesn't exist. >> Oh, he doesn't. Okay. >> Remember exist [laughter] existence remember exist to stand out. If God anything that exists stands out from a background and the background is more real than that which stands out from it. The movie stands out from the screen. Yeah. The movie exists, but the screen is, relatively speaking. So God doesn't exist. God is. >> Yeah. Everything else exists or seems to exist. So no, God wouldn't say I exist. >> What would God say? [laughter] [sighs and gasps] >> You got me. I am. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. What else would God say about itself? If you said, "Okay, God, tell us something. You've told us your name. You've told us the first thing you know about yourself. What else would God say? >> I am everything. >> No, but everything. In order to know everything, you have to first know something. >> Okay. Then I am me. >> God doesn't know things. Because in order to know a thing, you must stand apart from that thing as a separate subject of experience. And God not cannot stand apart from itself. Where would it go? >> I am the I am. I I am >> the I am >> I I am I am that I am. That's it. That's why Raman Mahashi said that the statement in the Old Testament >> when Moses asked God what is your name? God replied I am that I am. He Raman Mahashi and I agree with him >> said that this statement is the highest formulation of the truth in the English language. I am I am I >> or simply I am that and that the statement I am is higher and more true than the statement God is. That's why Raman um Ma Ekhart prayed to God to rid him of God. It was an absolute heresy in in his time. He was persecuted for it because he didn't understand. He prayed to God to rid him of God because he knew that to conceive of God as God, he must stand apart from God's infinite being, as a finite being, as a separate self, a second Lord. And he knew that to do that was blasphemy because it was to set himself up as an identity apart from God. So he prayed when he prayed to God to rid him of God, he didn't really pray to God to be rid of God. He prayed to God to rid him of his feeling that he was something other than God's infinite being. [snorts] So that that's why that the knowledge I am is is it's it's the absolute truth. It's a statement of the absolute truth. Any other truth, anything else we say about God is true only from the relative point of view of our finite mind. God is infinite. For instance, that's not absolutely true. It's true only relative to the mind that knows finite things. From the point of view of the mind that knows finite things, God is infinite. From the point of view of the mind that knows temporal things, God is eternal. But God does not know that it is infinite or eternal because it doesn't know finite or temporate things, temporal things. So the knowledge God is eternal or infinite. That's relatively true. But the knowledge I am is God's knowledge of itself which can be the only true knowledge. It's the absolute truth. >> Yes. Thank you.