​

Not Knowing

​

At some point in our journey toward spiritual awakening we may find ourselves frustrated, or at least challenged, by questions for which there seem to be no answers, or paradoxes that offer no solution, or Zen koans that have no meaning. Because we may find ourselves preoccupied looking for an answer, we may try to acquire more information or try thinking more deeply. This results in our moving attention away from essential Being and toward thought. This tendency is how we've been trained to address problems by our conditioning and education system; but there's an alternative approach. Some teachers suggest that at times our efforts themselves can be part of the problem and that it's worthwhile to consider not knowing. 

 

Quotes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rest nakedly in truly not knowing. Until now we have opted for trusting our minds, images and ideas, rather than trusting the spaciousness from which all arises. What an opportunity is available now to trust the unknown spaciousness of the heart. 

~ Gangaji 

 

When you ask yourself the question Who am I? you will immediately notice a vast space, and that vast space is the answer. You, your natural state as presence/awareness, is the answer. This is all that there ever was, is, and will be. Ask the question, and then stop there, at the edge of a vast aware space of not knowing. Go no further. Allow the answer to reveal itself. This is not an intellectual knowing. If you just continue to pursue the question rather than paying attention to what is actually there, thoughts and ideas will continue to flood in to try to fill that unknowingness. You will never find the answer in the realm of the mind, because the mind seeks always to fill in the space with ideas, concepts, and imaginings. Why? Because the mind, the false self, is uneasy with not knowing! Generating fantasies gives the mind a reason to exist. As you gain experience with this, you will stop rushing to fill the gap. You will no longer try to fill the space. You can be content with not knowing, 

~ Enza Vita 

 

The door to God is the insecurity of not knowing anything. Bear the grace of that insecurity and all wisdom will be yours. 

~ Adyashanti 

 

Truth happens in a state of not knowing, truth happens in innocence. Truth happens where there are no clouds of thoughts moving in your consciousness, when sky is absolutely clear, when there is no abstraction, when you have no idea and God is or God is not. When you don't believe in no-God, when you are simply in a state of not knowing. You don't claim any knowledge, that non-claiming consciousness begins to open up. All knowledge burdens and closes you. 

~ Osho 

 

If you want to enter knowledge of the Tao, the entrance is called “Not Knowing”.

~ Chuang Tzu

 

The jewel is always wrapped in that dark velvet of not knowing. 

~ Pamela Wilson 

 

You don't need answers today. Bless your questions today, as you walk, sit, stand, go about the business of your day. You don't need to feel 'better' today. What would happen if you gave yourself full permission today to feel confused, frightened, full of doubt? You don't need to understand today. Can't you see, even your non-understanding is beautiful, even your not knowing is sacred, held in the light of presence? 

~ Jeff Foster 

​

Confucius said,"To know that you don't know is the beginning of knowing."

― Thich Nhat Hanh

​

If one can really come to that state of saying, "I do not know," 

it indicates an extraordinary sense of humility; 

there is no arrogance of knowledge; 

there is no self-assertive answer to make an impression. 

When you can actually say "I do not know," 

then in that state all fear ceases because all sense of recognition, 

the search into memory, has come to an end; 

there is no longer inquiry into the field of the known. 

Then comes the extraordinary thing. 

If you have so far followed what I am talking about, not just verbally, 

but if you are actually experiencing it, you will find that 

when you can say, "I do not know," all conditioning has stopped.

~ J. Krishnamurti

​

I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.

~ Socrates

​

And so, instead of trying to 'fix' our lives, instead of trying to neatly resolve the unresolveable and quickly complete the epic story of a fictitious 'me', we simply relax into utter not knowing, unravelling in the warm embrace of mystery, sinking deeply into the moment, savouring it fully, in all its uniqueness and wonder. And then, perhaps without any effort, without any struggle or stress, without 'you' being involved at all, the true answers will emerge in their own sweet time.

~ Jeff Foster

 

If we talk of knowing the Self, there must be two Selves, one a knowing Self, another the Self which is known, and the process of knowing. The state we call realization is simply being oneself, not knowing anything or becoming anything. If one is realized, he is that which alone is and which alone has always been. 

~ Ramana Maharshi 

 

Real knowing only is in not knowing. In not believing the thought that insists that I know or should know, there is the freedom for whatever is actually here to be acknowledged just as it is. Perhaps there is fear, perhaps pain, perhaps a sense of innocence, strength, or openness. Thoughts not only seem to help us to avoid feeling so-called 'negative' uncomfortable feelings, but also they seem to act as if they can limit our real power and freedom. How can they, really? I am freedom itself. Nothing can ever limit who I am. ~ Unmani Since no one really knows anything about God, those who think they do are just troublemakers. 

~ Rabia of Basra 

​

The most powerful place is to NOT know. Be comfortable with NOT knowing

~ Eckhart Tolle

 

Can we open into love, not knowing where it will take us? Trust it to dissolve whatever we have accrued that is not fundamentally who we are, let it take us out on a limb and mould us into full embodiment - so we literally become what we are here to be - the presence of love in human flesh upon this earth? 

~ Miranda Macpherson 

 

Earlier I was sure of so many things, now I am sure of nothing. But I feel that I have lost nothing by not knowing, because all my knowledge was false. My not knowing was in itself knowledge of the fact that all knowledge is ignorance, that "I do not know" is the only true statement the mind can make. 

~ Nisargadatta 

 

The state we call Realization is simply being one’s self, not knowing anything or becoming anything.

~ Ramana Maharshi

 

Usually in our world not knowing or not understanding is considered a problem, something to fix a gap to be filled, usually we think we should know and there is something wrong with me if I don’t know and I dont understand. Most of us are desperately trying to know in our lives in order to survive, its really quite innocent its just about survival, as if knowing how to live will save us. As if understanding the way it all works will save us from being uncomfortable from fear from pain from anything that we think shouldn’t be here… often it can be quite a shock to realize that really nobody knows. 

~ Unmani

 

Awakening comes unexpectedly when you do not wait for it, when you live in not-knowing. Only then are you available. 

~ Jean Klein 

 

Here's some very good news. Right here, right now, in this moment, you don't have to 'figure out' the rest of your life, no matter what anyone says. In this moment, you don't need all the answers. They will come, in time, or not, or perhaps the unnecessary questions will fall away. There is no rush. Life is not in a hurry. Be like the seasons. Winter is not trying to become summer. Spring does not rush towards autumn. The grass grows at its own pace. The choices that will be made will be made, and you've no choice about that. The decisions that will happen will happen, events will unfold, but right now perhaps you don't need to know the solutions or the outcomes or how best to proceed. Perhaps not knowing is a welcome guest at life's banquet. 

~ Jeff Foster 

 

Faith is stepping into the unknown and being comfortable with uncertainty and trusting your higher self

~ Deepak Chopra 

 

You are not who you think you are. You are not who you think you are. You are not who you think you are.

~ Jac O"Keeffe 

 

The ancient Masters didn't try to educate the people, But kindly taught them to not-know. When they think that they know the answers,  People are difficult to guide. When they know that they don't know,  People can find their own way. 

~ Lao Tzu 

 

We can forget our adult selves. Just simply forget them. They're not good for anything, not anything real, just this playing of this serious game where we dress up like big people and try to sound like we know what's going on. We don't know what's going on, none of us do. Just rest here as cluelessness. 

~ Jeannie Zandi 

 

"I don't know" is a fine state to be in. You are still busy working on your body-mind attachments. I would like you to leave all that behind. There is no end to that pruning, pull it up at the root. How? By staying as Awareness only. Stay as the Highest. Honor the Truth in yourself. This body was given to you so that you could discover your true nature, the Origin of all, the one unborn Self. To inquire, relentlessly contemplate and strive until you are fully free from the slimy quicksand of the ego-ridden mind. For this single purpose you have appeared into manifestation: to solve yourself by dissolving the you which is the non-self, and thereafter to effortlessly celebrate your discovery as Peace, Love, Light and Joy. 

~ Mooji

 

Real knowing only is in not knowing. In not believing the thought that insists that I know or should know, there is the freedom for whatever is actually here to be acknowledged just as it is. Perhaps there is fear, perhaps pain, perhaps a sense of innocence, strength, or openness. Thoughts not only seem to help us to avoid feeling so-called 'negative' uncomfortable feelings, but also they seem to act as if they can limit our real power and freedom. How can they, really? I am freedom itself. Nothing can ever limit who I am. In not-knowing there is no doubt. In not-knowing there is absolute clarity. Simply the direct recognition of what is. This is what I am. I am Life itself. 

~ Unmani 

 

The more we think and talk about truth the further we wander from the truth. When we stop the mind's drive to know, there is nothing we cannot know. 

~ Jianzhi Sengcan, third Zen (Chan) patriarch 

​

BACK

​