Not-Knowing

I have nothing to tell you that you don't already know.  I am a beginner too on this path, and always will be. 

I think we spend a lot of time thinking and devote a lot of energy to working things out.  I think we would be a lot better off if we just accepted things and moved on.  Like children do.  There is a strange kind of arrogance to being human; we think we know, even when life shows us, over and over again, that we don't know anything really. 

We like to protect ourselves against the not-knowing, because not-knowing makes us feel insecure and at the mercy of life.  So we make plans and develop ways of living that we think insures us against chaos: a tidy house, some money in the bank, a safe place to live, a good education; and yet, at some point, inevitably, life sweeps us off our feet and we are revealed in some way, we experience vulnerability; it doesn't feel good and sometimes it is frightening. 

If we are lucky, we ask what the fall has to teach us and we begin to learn; if we are unlucky, we cobble together an excuse, a recovery, and we carry on how we did before.  We don't know then that each time we meet this lesson it will become harder and harder to ignore; that life is here to teach us and if we refuse to learn, then it will go on trying in more and more blatant ways to strip us of our comfort so that we might learn.

The wonder of it is that there is so much time to peel away the layers of understanding in ourselves; so don't panic, because we have time. 

The gift is that there are so many people who have trodden the path before us and who shine their heart-torches on us to inspire and to draw us ever-onwards and inwards.

Keep your eyes on the ones you know have something to teach you and don't be distracted by the glittering world that tempts you off the path with promises of short-cuts to contentment.  Of course there are no short-cuts to self-understanding, how could there be?  Who on earth could give you understanding of yourself? 

Take care as you travel forwards and pay attention.

Shine as much light on yourself as you do onto others; take hold of the hands that are held out to you and let them help you through; don't be stubborn. 

Know this: you do not know, you do not know, but sometimes you might hear the whispers of those who do; if you become very quiet and peaceful and give up thinking you know anything, then and only then, you open the door and they come in.

Om Shanti

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