WHATEVER THIS IS

Writer, lecturer, and Vedantist Gerald Heard used the expression "this thing" when referring to his experience of the mystical.  He wanted above all to avoid such loaded terms as Brahman and Atman because his sense of them and what he meant by them quite possibly was not what other people meant by them.  They would not, in other words, be talking about the same thing were he to bring up the matter among them. 

What's more the words Brahman and Atman, as with all words in spirituality, are limiting.  The words mean so much more than their scant few letters would suggest.  It is for this reason that I myself use the expression "whatever this is" in meditation and in my personal writings in this area.  I know what I mean when I say "whatever this is," I know what feeling I'm referring to.  I rarely put "whatever this is" in this blog because no one would know what I am talking about, not exactly, whereas they do know what I mean by Brahman and Atman.

Such words as Brahman and Atman, after all, are mere pointers.  They point to the truth but are not the truth themselves.