Knowing beyond Not Knowing

Start with “I don’t know.” Why not start with where you’ll end up anyway? ~Adyashanti

This quote inspired the second chapter of my book Your Breath Is Your Guru. It refers to thinking that we can know or understand truth with our thinking minds. When we begin to question what we think we know, we discover that many things we take to be truth are really just beliefs, opinions, or assumptions. Even things that seem to be scientific facts sometimes turn out to be mistaken. It is disorienting to realize that so much of what we think we know, we don’t. But the steady dismantling of our false system of certainty, as unnerving as it can be, is what opens up the possibility of rediscovering the truth we’ve always known but have forgotten.

Beyond not knowing is knowing. Not the knowing of information, or of belief, or of science, of or religion. Not the knowing that is in one moment true and in the next moment untrue. The knowing beyond not knowing is not a logical conclusion. It is a recognition, a remembrance of what has always been, and can only be, true.

We cannot seek it; seeking keeps it always out of reach. We cannot think our way there. All we can do is empty the space cluttered by our chattering thoughts. And in the silence, truth will come to you.

It comes upon us as revelation, sometimes unbidden, sometimes invited, but never within our control. It blooms within our heart like a mystical flower, it illumines our spirit like the rising sun, and occasionally it strikes like lightning within our mind.

However it comes into our awareness, we know it through out entire being. We need not test it; it requires no proof. Our minds might experience it, but will never be able to explain or understand it. In our culture where logic and rational thought reign supreme, we might be tempted to dismiss our experience of truth. But listen more closely. It sings the love song of all creation, and we realize we know the tune.

There are three stages in the revelation of truth. The first is to be ridiculed, the second is to be resisted and the third is to be considered self-evident. ~Arthur Schopenhauer