Ego is always ready to hunt the Truth and tell itself, “Yes, I got it.” 1. Find 50 words used in Vedanta to point towards Truth. Then see how many of them are positive (via-positiva).??? 50 words/expressions used in Vedanta to point towards Truth. Almost all are via positiva—they seem to tell me what Truth is: 1.* Sat — Being, Reality 2. *Chit — Consciousnes 3.* Ānanda — Bliss 4. *Brahman — Absolute Reality 5. *Ātman — Self 6. *Satya — Truth 7. *Jñāna — Knowledge 8. *Ananta — Infinite 9. *Jyoti — Light 10. *Śubhra — Pure, luminous 11. Amṛta — Immortal 12. Śānti — Peace 13. Pūrṇa — Full, complete 14. Advaita — Non-dual 15. Ekam — One 16. Akṣara — Imperishable 17. Avināśī — Undecaying 18. Nitya — Eternal 19. Svayam — Self-existing 20. Svarāṭ — Self-governing 21. Prakāśa — Illumination 22. Chaitanya — Consciousness 23. Sākṣī — Witness 24. Kūṭastha — Unchanging 25. Asaṅga — Unattached 26. Nirmala — Stainless, pure 27. Nirañjana — Unstained 28. Nirvikāra — Changeless 29. Nirāmaya — Free from affliction 30. Nirbhaya — Fearless 31. Abhaya — Fearlessness 32. Svarūpa — Essential nature 33. Param — Supreme 34. Parabrahman — Supreme Reality 35. Puruṣa — Cosmic Self 36. Īśvara — Lord, governing Reality 37. Nārāyaṇa — Supreme Reality 38. Tattva — That-ness, Reality 39. Antarātman — Inner Self 40. Antaryāmin — Inner controller 41. Prajñāna — Conscious awareness 42. Vijñāna — Higher knowledge 43. Bhūmā — The Infinite 44. Mahaḥ — The Great 45. Ākāśa — Space, expanse 46. Amātra — Without measure 47. Turīya — The Fourth 48. Svaprakāśa — Self-luminous 49. Sat-Cit-Ānanda — Being-Consciousness-Bliss 50. Aham Brahmāsmi — I am Brahman What strikes me is that even these positive descriptions can become objects for the ego to grasp. I can turn Brahman, Ātman, Sākṣī, or Ānanda into concepts and imagine that I have understood or attained something. So the words are pointers, not possessions. Perhaps this is why Neti-Neti is so important: it keeps me from mistaking the pointer for That towards which it points. 2. When you speak of Truth or of the Highest in your life, is your language one of negation, or of positivity? Why do you think it is so???? When I speak of Truth or the Highest, my language feels insufficient. I try to speak through Neti-Neti, yet even negation ends up creating a positive assertion. I say, “Truth is not what you think; it is beyond thought, beyond the senses, beyond language; it cannot be imagined, coded or grasped.” But the mind immediately searches for a word, an idea, an image—even “meaningless” or “unknowable” becomes something to grasp. The ego is always ready with its gear and gadgets, wanting to go hunting for Truth so that it can finally say, “I know the Truth.” But perhaps Truth cannot be known as an object. What can be known and clearly seen is falseness and bondage—what I am falsely identifying with, what I am clinging to, and what keeps me restless. That is where Neti-Neti becomes meaningful: not as another description of Truth, but as the seeing and dropping of what is false.
