1. All mystics agree that Ultimate Reality—whether It is called Allah, Brahman, Buddha-nature, En-sof, God, or the Tao—cannot be grasped by thought or expressed in words. (In fact, the word mystic is related to the word mute, both of which derive from the Greek root mustes, meaning “close-mouthed.”)
The Tao which can be named is not the true Tao. —Lao Tzu (Taoist)
The Spirit supreme is immeasurable, inapprehensible, beyond conception, never-born, beyond reasoning, beyond thought. —Upanishads (Hindu)
Words and sentences are produced by the law of causation and are mutually conditioning—they cannot express highest Reality. —The Lankavatara Sutra (Buddhist)
That One which is beyond all thought is inconceivable by all thought. —Dionysius the Areopagite (Christian)
The gnostics know, but what they know cannot be communicated. It is not in the power of the possessors of this most delightful station…to coin a word which would denote what they know. —Ibn ‘Arabi (Muslim)
2. The reason Ultimate Reality cannot be grasped by thought or communicated in words is that thoughts and words, by definition, create distinctions and, hence, duality. Even the simple act of naming something creates duality because it distinguishes the thing that is named from all other things that are left unnamed. However, the mystics of all the great traditions agree that all distinctions are imaginary and that the Ultimate Nature of Reality is non-dual.
In essence things are not two but one. …All duality is falsely imagined. —Lankavatara Sutra (Buddhist)
No matter what a deluded man may think he is perceiving, he is really seeing Brahman and nothing else but Brahman. …This universe, which is superimposed upon Brahman, is nothing but a name. —Shankara (Hindu)
If we will see things truly, they are strangers to goodness, truth and everything that tolerates any distinction. They are intimates of the One that is bare of any kind of multiplicity and distinction. —Meister Eckhart (Christian)
That Oneness is on the other side of descriptions and states. Nothing but duality enters speech’s playing-field. —Rumi (Muslim)
There all things are as one; Distinctions between “life” and “death,” “land” and “sea,” have lost their meaning. —anonymous Hasidic master (Jewish)
3. Although mystics cannot define Ultimate Reality in words, they still use words to point to That which is beyond words. For instance, all mystics agree that, while Ultimate Reality constitutes the true nature of everything, in itself It is nothing.
Neti neti (not this, not that)—Upanishads (Hindu)
Emptiness (shunyata)…is the ultimate nature of everything that exists. —Lama Yeshe (Buddhist)
The myriad creatures in the world are born from Something, and Something from Nothing. —Lao Tzu (Taoist)
It is within our intellects, souls and bodies, in heaven, on earth, and whilst remaining the same in Itself, It is at once in, around and above the world, super-celestial, super-essential, a sun, a star, fire, water, spirit, dew, cloud, stone, rock, all that is; yet It is nothing. —Dionysius the Areopagite (Christian)
He is not accompanied by thingness, nor do we ascribe it to Him. The negation of thingness from Him is one of His essential attributes. —Ibn ‘Arabi (Muslim)
The hidden God, the innermost Being of Divinity so to speak has neither qualities nor attributes. —Gershom Scholem (Jewish)
(Extracts from the ‘Center for sacred sciences’ website. Supremely valuable utterances for our guidance)
RAJA ARASA RATNAM 