Through the mouths
And hearts of many traditions, and
Over the course of many ages,
I have come to you.
In a given tongue,
Through a given culture,
To a given audience,
I have spoken through your prophets.
Speaking now in the language
Of their personal experience,
And now reaching beyond themselves
In words they do not fully understand,
The prophets spoke both
From their own understanding and
To the understanding of others.
As determined by the disposition of their hearts,
One hearer understands, and
Another does not.
And so, yet again, I come to you.
---- *** ----
That you might know me
And with others share,
You once asked of me a name.
Nameless, I could but describe my nature, and
Through the limits of language and culture,
I was heard to say:
I AM WHO I AM.
I AM WHO IS.
I AM.
I AM BEING.
I AM ALL THAT IS.
---- *** ----
Yet again have I come to you
That you will know me.
That from which all things come, and
To which all things return,
I am also the very coming and going thereof.
Existing outside of time,
Not limited by space,
There is nowhere that I am not.
For I AM.
I am Being itself.
Time cannot hold me;
Space cannot bind me.
Just as there is no limit to my presence,
There is no limit to what I do.
Though there is no limit to what I do,
There are no goals that I achieve,
No ends that I will. Yet, in the fullness of time,
All, in me, comes to fruition.
For I AM.
I am Being itself.
---- *** ----
I am neither cause nor effect,
Yet in me there is nothing that
Is without cause nor anything
That is itself without causing.
I AM the cause;
I AM the effect –
And the very happening thereof.
For I AM.
I am Being itself.
Just as there is
Nothing that is not done by me.
There is nothing I do not know.
It is not that I am all-knowing, but that
I AM the knower
I AM the known
And the very knowing thereof.
For I AM.
I am Being itself.
The substance of man’s body,
The substance of man’s mind –
I am also the very working thereof.
I am all that men fashion with their bodies,
With their spirits, and with their minds –
And the very fashioning thereof.
For I AM.
I am Being itself.
Present in all before they are born,
My voice is heard by every man,
By carpenters as well as kings,
By the ignorant as well as the wise.
To the mute as well as the eloquent,
My voice rises in the hearts of all men.
To some but a whisper,
To others a maddening roar.
Deafened to the sounds of the world,
Those to whom I have spoken most loudly
Are compelled to speak as my prophets.
Speaking to a given people,
In a given place,
At a given time, my prophets
Share what they hear with others
Who also hear me, however faintly.