Arvindus

Contemplations

'I Am That I Am' and 'Aum Tat Sat'

  • Title: Contemplations, 'I Am That I Am' and 'Aum Tat Sat'.
  • Author: Arvindus.
  • Publisher: Arvindus.
  • Copyright: Arvindus, 2019, all rights reserved.
  • Index: 201912031.
  • Edition: html, first edition.

Content

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In the Old Testament we read that Yhwh instructed Moses to name Him before the people of Israel as "I am that I am" and "I am".1 These expressions are also used in the ageless wisdom. There the 'I am' principle is said to be embodied by the personality, the 'I am that' principle by the ego (or soul), and the 'I am that I am' principle by the monad.2 'I am' expresses thereby the identification with an isolated self, with the personality. With 'that', referring to an alterity, added to the aforementioned expression does 'I am that' express an identification with what lies beyond an isolated self, with the soul, with a group. And when then 'I am' is again added to the aforementioned does 'I am that I am' as a rounded off expression without loose ends express an identification with all there is.3

The above expression 'I am that I am' and its deconstruction can be seen as a Western esoteric and Christian equivalent of the Eastern esoteric and Hindu expression 'aum tat sat' with its deconstruction. This expression was already contemplated in another context in 'The Fractalness of 'Aum Tat Sat'' in the 'Contemplations' series.4 There it was found that 'sat' refers to a subjectivity, 'tat' to an objectivity and 'aum' to an intermediary of these two. 'Sat' then can be compared to the 'I am' identification with an isolated self, 'tat sat' with the 'I am that' (or rather 'that I am') identification with a group beyond oneself, and 'aum tat sat' with the 'I am that I am' identification with all there is. The second 'I am' then must in comparison with 'aum' be considered to refer to the between subjectivity and objectivity intermediating function.

To consider the second 'I am' as intermediating between the first 'I am' and 'that' is explainable. For in expression being identical to the first 'I am' it bends so to speak the ending of 'that' back to its beginning when the two aforementioned identical expressions are unified. Something similar was the case in the expression 'aum tat sat' where the 'a' of 'aum' had a same reference as 'sat' and the 'm' thereof had a same reference as 'tat'.

We thus get the following overview, wherein not only a semantic but also a remarkable phonetic closeness between 'aum' and 'I am' and between 'tat' and 'that' can be noticed.

Aum I am
Tat That
Sat I am
Tat sat I am that (that I am)
Aum tat sat I am that I am

Figure 1.

May we thus become that we are.

Notes
  1. The American Standard Old Testament, (software), Version 1.0, Ages Software, Albany, 1996, Exodus, Ch. 3, v. 13-15. "And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? What shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, Jehovah, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations."
  2. Alice A. Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, in: Twenty-Four Books of Esoteric Philosophy, (CD-ROM, Release 3), Lucis Trust, London / New York, 2001, p. 245. "The first manifestation, the Personality, embodies the "I am" principle.
    The second manifestation, the Ego, is embodying the "I am that" principle.
    The third manifestation, the Monad, will embody the "I am that I am" principle."
  3. Alice A. Bailey, The Consciousness of the Atom, in: Twenty-Four Books of Esoteric Philosophy, (CD-ROM), Lucis Trust, London / New York, 2001, p. 89-90. "This triple idea can be found summed up in the Bible in a rather interesting phrase, where Jehovah says to Moses, the representative man, "I am that I am." If you split this verse into its three parts you have what I have been seeking to bring out to-night: First, the atomic consciousness, I AM; then the group, I AM THAT; a consciousness that he is not just a separated individual, not only a self-centred unit, not only a self-conscious entity, but that he is something still greater. Man then reaches the recognition which will lead him to sacrifice his identity in the service of the group, and to merge his consciousness in that of the group. Of such a conscious union we know practically nothing as yet. This is succeeded by the still greater stage, when I AM THAT I AM will be for us not an impossible ideal, and a visionary concept, but a fundamental reality, when man in the aggregate will recognise himself as an expression of the universal life, and the group consciousness itself will be merged in that of the Aggregate of all groups."
  4. 'Contemplations, The Fractalness of 'Aum Tat Sat'', Index: 201107191.
Bibliography
  • 'Contemplations, The Fractalness of 'Aum Tat Sat'', Index: 201107191.
  • Alice A. Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, in: Twenty-Four Books of Esoteric Philosophy, (CD-ROM, Release 3), Lucis Trust, London / New York, 2001.
  • Alice A. Bailey, The Consciousness of the Atom, in: Twenty-Four Books of Esoteric Philosophy, (CD-ROM), Lucis Trust, London / New York, 2001.
  • The American Standard Old Testament, (software), Version 1.0, Ages Software, Albany, 1996.