Why You are a Majestic Verb in a World of Nouns
1. Introduction: The Mirror’s Great Deception
When you stand before the mirror each morning, what do you see?
Most of us perceive a “solid object”—a finished, stationary entity much like a brick or a piece of furniture.
We have been conditioned to view ourselves as static nouns moving through an external environment.
But when we look closer at the intersection of modern biology and ancient metaphysics, we find that this perceived solidity is a sophisticated illusion.
To understand your true nature, you must recognize the distinction between a Static Object and a Process.
A rock on a shelf is an object; its atoms are locked in place, and it remains the same year after year.
A flame or a dance, however, is a process.
A flame may appear to have a steady shape, but it only exists as a high-energy interaction of rushing fuel and oxygen.
It is a constant “happening.”
The core thesis of our existence is that we are far more like the flame than the rock.
You are not a stationary “thing”; you are a wonderful, moving event—a localized expression of a continuous, universal current.
You are a “majestic verb” masquerading as a noun.
2. Takeaway 1: You are a Whirlpool, Not a Rock
Imagine standing by a fast-flowing river.
Near a large stone, a whirlpool forms.
You can point to it, name it, and watch its distinct shape.
Yet, the “stuff” of the whirlpool—the water—is constantly entering from one side and rushing out the other.
The whirlpool is a Pattern, not a permanent collection of “stuff.”
This is the fundamental metaphor for human existence.
We appear stable, but our biological “stuff” is in a state of total renewal.
Science reveals the “98% Rule”: approximately 98% of the atoms in your body are replaced every single year.
Through the air we breathe and the nutrients we consume, we are constantly trading pieces of ourselves with the atmosphere.
Our stability does not come from stagnation, but from the incredible steadiness of the flow.
“A whirlpool is entirely dependent on the river’s flow. If the water stops moving, the whirlpool doesn’t just ‘sit there’—it disappears completely. This proves it isn’t a solid object; it is a process that requires constant movement to exist.” — James Traverse
3. Takeaway 2: The Logic of “Is-ness” (Sat vs. Mithya)
In the Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 2, Verse 16), the text states: “The unreal never comes into existence and the real never goes out of existence.”
This introduces the distinction between Sat (the Real/Intrinsic Existence) and Asat (the Unreal/Appearance).
In this context, the world is not “nothingness” (which would be a different category of Asat, like a “square circle”), but rather Mithya—a “borrowed reality.”
To understand this, consider the analogy of a “hot potato.”
The potato is not intrinsically hot; it borrows heat from boiling water, which borrowed it from a pan, which borrowed it from a fire.
Heat is an incidental property for the potato, but an intrinsic property for the fire.
Everything in our world—pots, bodies, stars—has “borrowed existence.”
They are born and they die, meaning existence is incidental to them.
However, underlying these changing forms is the a-perspectival ground of consciousness—the pure “Is-ness” that lends reality to the appearances.
You are not the perspectival subject; you are the ground of being itself.
“The central teaching of Advaita Vedanta: Brahman is real, the world is an appearance [Mithya], and you are Brahman.” — Swami Sarvapriyananda
4. Takeaway 3: Stop Mistaking the “Debris” for the Water
If we are all part of the same universal flow—a “One Substance” often described as Love in Form—why do we feel so isolated?
The answer lies in the “Debris of Identity.”
Just as a whirlpool in a river catches twigs and leaves, our individual “form” catches psychological and physical elements that we mistake for our essence.
This “debris” consists of:
- Ego-driven narratives and the specific social roles we play.
- Historical grievances and the “sediment” of personal trauma.
- Physical traits and the inevitable markers of aging and decay.
- Environmental twigs and leaves such as status and possessions.
We suffer because we cling to the “debris” caught in the swirl, forgetting that we are the water carrying it.
Liberation occurs when we shift from the “noun” (the fixed debris) to the “verb” (the active flow).
Your true self is the flow of the river, not the twigs spinning in the circle.
5. Takeaway 4: The Ocean Never Increases or Decreases
The relationship between the individual and the absolute is best understood through the Ocean and Wave metaphor.
A wave arises, plays, and subsides.
Does the ocean gain anything when the wave appears?
No.
Does it lose volume when the wave vanishes?
Not at all.
This realization grants us a form of “X-ray vision,” a concept beautifully illustrated by an anecdote of a monk in Rishikesh.
Upon seeing a medical X-ray for the first time, the monk realized that spiritual vision should function the same way: seeing through the “skin, flesh, and bone” of appearances to the unchanging reality of “Is-ness” behind them.
Birth and death are merely waves arising and subsiding in the infinite ocean of the “One Substance.”
The biological flow of your breath and blood is simply that substance—Love—in action.
“In me, the infinite ocean of existence, the waves of the universe arise and subside. Let the waves arise, I gain nothing thereby. Let the waves subside, I lose nothing thereby.” — Swami Sarvapriyananda
6. Conclusion: Swimming in the Vast Radiance
Viewing life as a process leads to Titiksha—a profound spiritual fortitude.
This is not a mere “putting up” with things, but a fortitude born of the realization that you are the unchanging water, while your afflictions are merely modifications of a temporary pattern.
The biological flow of your atoms is the physical manifestation of the metaphysical plenum of existence.
You are like a fish playfully swimming in a “vast radiance” that surrounds you at all times.
This “Is-ness” is not a goal to be reached; it is the ever-revealed reality of your very breath.
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