What
is the real name of God?
(The 3-Minute Weekly Insight
from Spirituality U.)
What
is the name of God? It depends. For Zoroastrians, God is called Ahura Mazda.
For Hindus the answer could be Brahma…but since Hindus have thousands of gods,
the answer gets more complicated. For Native Americans, the name varies by tribe
and language, but a common term for God is the Sioux, “Wakan Tonka.”
Although
Muslims generally refer to God as Allah (literally, “THE God”), they have a
prayer practice that involves reciting “The 99 Names of God.” These names are
actually attributes rather than appellations. Consideration of some of these
attributes gives keen insight into the nature if not the name of God. Among the
99 are: compassionate, merciful, Holy, protector, forgiver, just, and aware. It
is perhaps appropriate that the 99th
name or attribute is “patient.” What attributes would you assign to the Divinity
you believe in? Making your own list might be a spiritually helpful exercise.
Two
names of God used by wise Jewish leaders open some very interesting
possibilities. Jews generally are discouraged from speaking or writing the name
of God. When they need to refer to the Divine in writing, some Jews use this
way of writing the Holy name: G-d. Rabbi Arthur Waskow once sent a letter to
his mentor, Rabbi Zalman Schacter-Shalomi using this form of the name. Zalman
wrote back suggesting Arthur instead use “G!d”. I like that. And Rabbi Rami
Shapiro (who sees God as a great question) suggests using “G?d”.
Rabbi Arthur Waskow also prompts
us to think of another way of referring to God. He points out that in the part
of the Bible shared by Christians and Jews, God is referred to as YHWH, which
is often translated into English as “Yaweh”. There are no vowels in the Hebrew
language, so Yahweh is an extrapolation. Arthur suggests trying to pronounce
the YHWH without the vowels. Try this yourself. Just make whatever sound comes
out of your mouth by trying to pronounce “YHWH”. [Please stop and try this
before reading on.]
If you listened to yourself, you
probably heard something that sounded like a deep exhalation, a sigh, or more
properly, a breath. Arthur points out that in this form, the name of God is
simply a breath. But that simple breath gives this name majesty. Why? Because
breathing is the one thing that connects all living beings whether they are animals
or plants. What a beautiful thought. God is actually the one thing that truly
connects us all!
So, the answer to the original
question is that there probably isn’t one true name for God. Whether we call
Her (or Him) “God”, Allah, Brahman, Wakan Tonka, YHWH, or any one of thousands
of other names created by humans, God alone really knows the correct name.
And in any case, we should
remember that someone (Moses) actually asked God for his name. The Divine One
replied: “I Am that I Am.”
For more
information about the 99 Names (or Attributes) of God, visit:
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