About Names and Labels
By William Samuel

What name is given this philosophy? What are these ideas called? Is this Christian Science? Is it Unity or Religious Science Is it Taoism, Buddhism, Existentialism, Solipsism, Judaism? Is it The Infinite Way carried another step forward? Is this an Easter philosophy or Western? Is it a combination of all of these or is it none?

"He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches: To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it." This study is related to no organization. It has grown out of no religious group.

This is not a special theology more related to one church than another, or more to one metaphysics than another. The Truth is the Truth is the Truth-not strained through any organization. It follows no particular line of teachers. The Truth includes all that has evern been construed to be any and every teacher, philosophy or holy book. The Truth we are concerned with is the truth of the Single Selfhood being the awareness of these words. There is one Truth only-the fact of Identity-the truth I am.

Jesus said: "Blessed are the solitary and elect, for you shall find the Kingdom. . ." That same enlightened mirror of my Self also said, "Many are standing at the door, but the solitary are the ones who will enter the bridal chamber…He who lives as the living one shall see neither death nor fear…" This study is a matter of Self-discovery-an individual, solitary action. But one does not have to forsake business, friends, family nor society and its organizations to pursue it. As Awareness we are the Living one within whom the universe is included.

A year ago, a European Rabbi told me that I was teaching the Essene philosophy or Judaism in the purest form. The same week an "authority" announced that these ideas are the essence of Taoism. Time and again, those who know have said they are an absolutely correct statement of Christian Science. A recent letter states that A GUIDE TO AWARENESS AND TRANQUILITY accords with the spirit of Buddhism. Many teachers of Unity, Religious Science and New Thought have come here to Mountain Brook to learn and say that these principles coincide with the most absolute aspects of their teaching. And I know that all of these statements are correct because Truth is universal- single, alone, only and all.

"But you haven't answered my question," said a young man to me a few days ago. "What do you call this teaching? What is its name?"

Names are labels. Labels are the names for specific things. Labels are for parts, bits and pieces, not for the single, whole, universal all. Labels have us looking out at something else with which we may or may not identify. Labels are for groups, organizations and philosophies which have followers. But the truth we are has no limiting label on it-unless we would limit ourselves. The Truth we are is the Identity we are. It is self-defeating to hang a label on it. The moment we do, we have that name standing in contradistinction to all other names; we have established an exclusiveness rather than an inclusiveness; we see this Self-label as not that Self-label, which makes this self not the Self.

Regardless of the organizations, religious or otherwise, that we may belong to in order to avail ourselves of their intellectual instruction, camaraderie and kitchen facilities, our deepest and final study is self study, self discovery, self education and self acquaintance.

It is defeating and dishonest to call ourselves by some limiting name which we are not. It is well to remind ourselves that the awareness that reads these words or hears the sounds of labels is also the awareness that knows whatever is known of Judaism, Religious Science, The Infinite Way, Taoism, Catholicism, Christian Science or the American Automobile Association. Those concepts do not exist outside this awareness we are. They owe their apparent existence to the awareness that is conscious of them. They are subservient to awareness, the selfhood I (Identity) am. The labels are for the included images and ideas, for the parts, for the bits and pieces, the qualities and attributes, "the ten thousand things," for the flowers in the garden-for the birds-but not for the one-I (we) am. Who can give the Deific Identity a name? By what name does the Nameless go?

We break with the notion of being a part, to be the whole, the "Living one." Soon we shall all see that we are not members of this or that label, but that every label exists as some aspect of this Identity we are. And listen, listen: this knowledge does not mean that we must fight with or break from the sundry organizations that may appear meaningful to us at the moment. As a matter of fact, the knowledge that a label cannot bind the Identity we are may very well appear as that particular labeled aspect of ourself becoming more meaningful than ever.in ways we never dreamed. And certainly, it means we would stop attempting to lower the boom on the rose just because it has thorns. We might even see that it was the rose's thorn that made us leap so high in the air we were able to see the whole garden of many flowers.

Semantic tricks to equate the comfortable old label of yore with the unnamable identity-we-are will ultimately be abandoned. We are all prone to slam the door in the face of certain labels as surely as we are to pucker at the taste of green persimmons or sigh at the sight of a little girl giving a flower to her daddy. We are here to find and live the whole Self we are and speak of that. This is why we search for a simplified, universal language that has neither crystallized nor been anchored to labels-and this study is proving itself capable of reaching every group we are being. Just today a letter arrives from one of the world's authorities on religion, Zen in particular, saying in essence that our messages are identical.

So, who can name this "way"? Who can label this single Selhood except the Self "you" are? "…And I will give him…a white stone, and in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it."

Asked the same question, Laotse answered: "I do not know Its name. If I must name It, I call it Tao and I hail it as supreme."

Return To Essay List