Exodus 6:7 Meaning I Will Take You to Myself

Bhāra: The burden Bhāra is the load together with the grip that keeps hold of it. Brick quotas and straw press on the back, and beneath them sits an older weight: the bundle of body and mind a person carries everywhere, picked up again each morning by craving. Coming out from under the burdens ends the way any load ends, with the hands opening and the weight set on the ground.

Nissaraṇa: The escape Nissaraṇa is the way out of a condition. Egypt can be described at length, its taskmasters counted and its bricks tallied, and none of that opens a door; to a slave the good news is that there is somewhere else to stand. The Buddha ordered his first teaching the same way, naming the affliction and then the exit from it, since the second half is what makes the first bearable to hear.

Saraṇa: Refuge Saraṇa is where you put your weight and it holds. "I will be your God" arrives before these people have done anything to earn it, spoken to men and women too crushed by their labor to listen. Going for refuge runs in that direction too: you lean first, and the steadiness comes of the leaning.

Saṅgha: The community Saṅgha is a body of people held together by a shared release. Separate work gangs, each with its own quota and its own overseer, become one people in the hour they walk out the same gate. They may share nothing else, and the direction they are walking is enough to make them kin.

Saddhā: Trusting confidence Saddhā is trust extended before the evidence is in. Every promise here stands in the future tense, given to people whose load grew heavier right after Moses first spoke to Pharaoh, so nothing in their hands confirms it. Trust of this kind is meant to be spent and checked against what follows, the way you find out a bridge will hold by crossing it.

Sacchikiriyā: Knowing for yourself Sacchikiriyā is knowledge that comes of undergoing a thing. "You shall know" waits on the far side of the exit, so the name is learned from having been carried out from under the load, the way you learn what water is by drinking. Described from a distance, the God who ends Egypt would be unrecognizable; walking out from under the whips, they will know him.