“I am what I am.” — God, Exodus 3:14, The Bible
The Bible recounts Moses grazing his flock of sheep and encountered a “burning bush” whose flames were not devouring its branches.
The burning bush was the manifestation of God and symbolic of God: apparently everchanging and yet eternal.
Moses asked God: “What is your name?” God said (depending on translation): “I am who I am” or “I will be what I will be”.
In the now, God manifests as a “who”; a self of infinite everchanging selves (the flames of the Burning Bush). In the time after the now, God is an undifferentiated potential (the eternal branches of the Burning Bush), a “what”.
Encompassing the now (“I am…”) and after the now (“I will be what…”), we can paraphrase God: “I am what I am”.
God also self-identifies as, simply, “I am”; implying being, not a being; a flow, not a thing.
God is flow of the Everything.
“I am what I am” as an acronym (IAWIA) can be pronounced two ways:
“I WHY” (first vowel pronounced, second vowel silent).
“A-WAY” (first vowel silent, second vowel pronounced).
I WHY
Why do I exist?
There are no reasons or explanations.
Simply, I am because I am God.
A WAY
In the Bible, the written word for God is YHWH.
With no consensus as to its pronunciation, YHWH may have been pronounced as “A WAY”.
God (“A WAY”) is like the Tao (“The Way”).
The Way is the ineffable and eternal energy that flows through all things; bringing all things into harmony, as all the pieces of the universe come together as one peace.