Neti neti

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In Hinduism, and in particular Jnana Yoga and Advaita Vedanta, neti neti is a chant or mantra, meaning "not this, not this", or "neither this, nor that" (neti is sandhi from na iti "not so").

Adi Shankara was one of the foremost Advaita philosophers who advocated the neti-neti approach.

The Upanishads talk of a supreme existence, an impersonal oversoul, called Brahman, which goes beyond western-definitions of a personal God. Brahman by definition, encompasses all reality, and is therefore not completely describable. Neti-neti is therefore held as the approach to understand the concept of Brahman without using affirmative (and thereby inadequate) definitions or descriptions of Brahman.

The purpose of the exercise is to negate conscious rationalizations, and other distractions from the purpose of a meditation. It is also a sage view on the nature of the Divine, and especially on the attempts to capture and describe the essence of God. In this respect, the phrase succinctly expresses the standpoint of negative theology.

1 The significance of neti neti
2 In Judaism
3 In Eastern Christianity
4 References

[edit] The significance of neti neti

In Brhadaranyaka Upanishad, Yajnavalkya is questioned by his students to describe God. He states "The Divine is not this and it is not that" (neti, neti). It can also be interpreted as neti(not so) and neti (n-iti, i.e. no end). Meaning it is not this and it also has no end.

Thus, the Divine is not real as we are real, nor is it unreal. The divine is not living in the sense humans live, nor is it dead. The Divine is not compassionate as we use the term, nor is it uncompassionate. And so on. We can never truly define God in words. All we can do is say, it isn't this, but also, it isn't that either". In the end, the student must transcend words to understand the nature of the Divine.

In this sense, neti-neti is not a denial. Rather, it is an assertion that whatever the Divine may be, when we attempt to capture it in human words, we must inevitably fall short, because we are limited in understanding, and words are limited in ability to express the transcendent.

[edit] In Judaism

The Judaic equivalent for Neti Neti is JHVH. The idea of God is unpronounceable, one can only describe it by saying that is neither this, nor that. This original idea was later deformed as 'You must not speak out the name of Jehovah'. You simply can't speak out 'his' name.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] In Eastern Christianity

Eastern Christendom, particularly in Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Christian circles, have developed, under the auspices Pseudo-Dionysian literature, a concept similar to neti-neti. Apophaticism (see Apophatic theology) has historically played a profound role in expressing Orthodox Christian doctrine, philosophy, and theology. Descending directly from ancient Judaism, Eastern Christians adopted its philosophical perspectives and remarks. The apophaticism seen in Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagite echoes the tradition of the ineffable Name of ancient Judaism, and expounds further upon the unknowable essence of God as well as the transcendent energies that emanate from his being.

This ineffibility and neti-neti-like tradition is seen in the Areopagite's On the Divine Names and the Mystical Theology:^[1]

For even as things which are intellectually discerned cannot be comprehended or perceived by means of those things which belong to the senses, nor simple and imageless things by means of types and images, nor the formless and intangible essence of unembodied things by means of those which have bodily form, by the same law of truth the boundless Super-Essence surpasses Essences, the Super-Intellectual Unity surpasses Intelligences, the One which is beyond thought surpasses the apprehension of thought, and the Good which is beyond utterance surpasses the reach of words.