Question!

     “The contemplative branches of every religion dwell in the questioning mind. They dig deeper than the words and doctrines into some ineffable place. 
     Most people think that place of questioning, that no man’s land, is unsettling and scary. But in reality, it’s wondrous. Even when it’s difficult or painful, there’s a feeling of appreciation and wonder. In this space, which is bigger than anything we can define or reduce to a doctrine, we appreciate the reality of being alive beyond our various reality-reducing notions of what we think or are told being alive is. 
     When life is an open question, life is appreciation. We still have to deal with whatever problems we have on a practical level, but underneath that there’s life as open question, immense in all directions – Wow, we’re alive! We have been given the gift of this magical, this mysterious, this impossible-to-define life!” 

Norman Fischer - Lion’s Roar, May 2017

awakeningartsacademy.com

 

Are You Sure?

     "Real faith means holding ourselves open to the unconditional mystery which we encounter in every sphere of our life and which cannot be comprised in any formula. Real faith means the ability to endure life in the face of this mystery.” Martin Buber 


When You Are Old
W.B. Yeats

When you are old and grey and full of sleep, 
And nodding by the fire, take down this book, 
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look 
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace, 
And loved your beauty with love false or true, 
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you, 
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars, 
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled 
And paced upon the mountains overhead 
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.



     “If you want a barometer for progress in practice, look at how skillful you are at holding ‘not sure’. It’s very different from what most spiritual disciplines teach. Exercise the skill of being mindfully ‘not sure’, apply it and try it out. Remember this is not just another technique or position we grasp in our search for security. Really try it out in your formal practice and in daily life. Start to experiment with the result of restraining the mind’s tendency to grasp at wanting to be sure.” Ajahn Munindo 


     "Certainty": http://www.johnlovas.com/2012/03/certainty.html

          "In the Forest" watercolour on rice paper by Krista Hasson   http://fogforestgallery.ca

Opening to Reality

     [We] will not perish for want of information;
     but only for want of appreciation … What we lack is not
     a will to believe but a will to wonder…. Reverence is one
     of [our] answers to the presence of mystery …               Abraham Heschel

     “I’ve had to learn to lean into all I don’t understand, accepting that I am changed by what I hear. In all, it’s been an exciting journey, one that’s made me more alive.

      With each trouble that stalls us and each wonder that lifts us, we are asked to put down our conclusions and feel and think anew.”

         Mark Nepo. “Seven Thousand Ways to Listen. Staying Close to What is Sacred.” Free Press, NY, 2012.  

False Certainty

Rick Archer : “There are so many people in this world who are so sure of their position, their beliefs, whatever, and of course so many wars have been fought over that mentality – many of them in the name of religion.”

Mooji : “It’s actually because they are not sure. They’re not sure, that’s why they try to appear so sure. They’re not sure.” 

Rick Archer : “They’re desperately defending their doubt.” 

Mooji : “Yeh, if you’re sure about something, there’s a great relaxation in you, a very great openness. When you really can say that you are clear and certain about it, you reach a place of stillness. And you cannot be moving in some line of aggression towards any being. There’s a stillness in that.” 

Rick Archer : “And in that stillness, you’re very comfortable with paradox. You don’t take a polar position and adhere to it, you can actually embrace two contradictory concepts or positions."

Mooji : “Of course, because ultimately you can only do this because you have transcended concepts. You see their limitations. You see their usefulness. And you know that what is, is not shaped by any concepts. The concept is secondary. Only one who is really moved beyond the dependency on any concept is free with all expressions and any concept.”

     More on "Certainty": http://www.johnlovas.com/2012/03/certainty.html

Above transcribed from the interview below:

Seeking Truth over the Illusion of Security

     “Let nothing come between you and the light.        Henry David Thoreau

     ... each person must free himself from prison – the prison of being a limited, corporeal, dying self.

     ... mystics don’t want to read religious wisdom; they want to be it."

       Huston Smith, Jeffery Paine. “Tales of Wonder. Adventures Chasing the Divine. An Autobiography.” HarperOne, NY, 2009.

Tuscan Rain

Authenticity, Certainty, Self-centeredness

     "All of us have had the experience of dropping our guard when engrossed in the natural world and living for a brief moment free of our mental discursiveness and language. We suddenly feel 'at home,' relaxed, and connected to the sights, sounds, smells, and sensations around us. In fact, this loss of self-centeredness and the accompanying sense of connectedness may be one of the reasons we appreciate being in nature. With this experience as a guide, we can begin to question whether this self-center is authentic or whether it is keeping us from something natural. Could our mental need to label and fix experiences into a rigidly certain world be the only inauthentic aspect of nature?"

       Rodney Smith. "Awakening. A Paradigm Shift of the Heart." Shambhala, Boston, 2014.


     "The small man builds cages for everyone he knows. While the sage keeps dropping keys all night long for the beautiful, rowdy prisoners."                                Hafiz
       http://wisdomandcompassion.us/

Exclusivism & Growing Up

     We have a huge proclivity to think - to be certain - that our current perspective is correct, true & accurate. This is so, even though most of us can recall how we felt the same certainty earlier in life, but now with 20:20 hindsight, realize how immature & silly we were.
     Personal pride & certainty is usually misguided at best. But when pride & certainty join forces with the momentum of "group think", all hell often breaks loose - mob violence against "competing religions", cult suicides, genocides, ... world wars. If my group is right, others must be wrong AND must be corrected, if not eliminated - this is 'mob mentality'.
     Mercifully, (some) people can & do outgrow this adolescent, rigid, black-and-white phase, realizing that they have many, many higher levels of self-concepts & worldviews to evolve through.
     Sadly, fear of leaving the group, fear of being shunned, fear of leaving behind the comfortable pretense of certainty, keep many otherwise intelligent, educated people stuck in such groups - even if it means having to park their minds & hearts at the door.
     Aging, especially wisely, isn't for sissies. See: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2012/03/aging-wisely.html

 

Brian Castellanos, National Geographic   http://photography.nationalgeographic.com

On a Journey, with No Place to Rest

     Don't we crave security, certainty, safety, stability, predictability, the idea of being able to control our external & internal environment?

     How do we relate to the fact that none of these are real?

     What if the only "home" were a loving, conscious openness to the mystery of timeless, unpredictable, uncontrollable internal & external change?

Don't Know Mind, Have No Opinions, See Things as They Are

     “Thinking we know costs us all we don’t know – which is nearly everything. Knowing is a veneer our minds create and lay over the landscape like a painter’s drop cloth set upon a forest floor. Its uniformity protects us from the pine needles and beetles, but it also obscures them, as well as the soft moss, fragrant soil, and teeming complexity of nature’s bed. Our knowing is nearly always tinged by the filter of our conditioned outlook, and what we see as ‘true’ is determined by our expectations, preconceptions, hopes, and fears. In short, the things that define the self stand between our awareness and our environment as such. In moments, however, we catch glints and feel the breezes of something more direct, something outside that self system. It may just be a clearer view of a mountain range … or it may be something with a strong impact on our lives.
     We can meet this world immediately, but … we sacrifice security.”

        Kramer G. “Insight dialogue. The interpersonal path to freedom.” Shambhala, Boston, 2007.

     Our sense of "being certain": http://www.johnlovas.com/2013/03/crisis-of-faith-limits-of-intellect.html

Tim A2   www.dpreview.com