Sufis have beautiful names for God; in all they have ninety-nine names for God.
One wonders why not one hundred?
It looks so incomplete.
For a certain, subtle reason, the hundredth name has been kept silent.
That is the true name of God which cannot be uttered. The tao that can be uttered is not the true tao and the God that can be spoken of is not the true God, because the word 'God' falsifies the reality of God.
So the hundredth name is the true name — what Hindus call 'satnam', the true name — but it can't be uttered. It will lose its beauty if it is uttered.
It remains unuttered, at the deepest core of the heart. But ninety-nine names can be uttered just as a help to reach the hundredth.
The hundredth name is almost a nothingness — what buddhas have called 'nirvana', nothingness.
So I call these the ninety-nine names of nothingness.
Get into the idea of it and become more and more of a seer. Change the gestalt from the seen to the seer. Looking at the tree, remember the one who is looking; eating, remember the one who is eating; walking, remember the one who is walking.
Rather than emphasising the outer, emphasise the inner, and slowly slowly it becomes clear who this seen is. That is our true reality and that is what God is.
OSHO
