Before The Name

Before you were called anything, what were you? Not the stories you've repeated. Not the roles you've played. But that quiet presence that watched it all unfold, like sky watching clouds pass. If your name dissolved, would you disappear? Or would something remain, something vast, unspoken, unshaped?

The Upanishads whisper: "Neti, neti". Not this, not this. You are not what you see. Not what you think. Not even what you believe. You are what remains when all that fades away.

Sometimes, clarity is not an answer. It's the falling away of everything that isn’t you. you were not born with a name, you were born with breath, and the space between it,

you arrived in silence, and it never left,

what you are cannot be pointed to, only peeled back, layer by layer, story by story, until all that remains is watching,

no shape, No center, just being,

the self that was never separate, the you that needs no word. Pause here. Not to become something, but to touch what was never undone. And if a flicker of it moved through you while reading, don't rush to name it. Let it remain unnamed.

If you'd like, leave a wordless mark below. Or simply carry the silence with you.

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© 2025 Beyond Silence. Written by 'the one listening'.

If shared, please credit with care.