Written on May 15, 2008 by Tom Stine
There is nothing better than to know that you don’t know.
Not knowing, yet thinking you know—
This is sickness.
Only when you are sick of being sick
Can you be cured.
The sage’s not being sick
Is because he is sick of sickness.
Therefore he is not sick.
The you that you think of as you (and that thinks of you as you, and so on) is not you, it’s just the character that the underlying truth of you is dreaming into brief existence. Enlightenment isn’t in the character, it’s in the underlying truth. Now, there’s nothing wrong with being a dream character, of course, unless it’s your goal to wake up, in which case the dream character must be ruthlessly annihilated. If your desire is to experience transcendental bliss or supreme love or altered states of consciousness or awakened kundalini, or to quality for heaven, or to liberate all sentient beings, or simply to become the best dang person you can be, then rejoice!, you’re in the right place: the dream state, the dualistic universe. However, if your interest is to cut the crap and figure out what’s true, then you’re in the wrong place and you’ve got a very messy fight ahead and there’s no point in pretending otherwise.
But beauty, real beauty, ends where intellectual expression begins. Intellect is in itself a mode of exaggeration, and destroys the harmony of a face. The moment one sits down to think, one becomes all nose, or all forehead, or something horrid. Look at the successful men in any of the learned professions. How perfectly hideous they are! Except, of course, in the Church. But then in the Church they don’t think. A bishop keeps on saying at the age of eighty what he was told to say when he was a boy of eighteen, and as a natural consequence he always looks absolutely delightful.
Intelligent practice always deals with just one thing: the fear at the base of human existence, the fear that I am not. And of course I am not, but the last thing I want to know is that.
Q: Since all is pre-ordained, is our self-realization also pre-ordained? Or are we free there at least?
A: Destiny refers only to name and shape. Since you are neither body nor mind, destiny has no control over you. You are completely free. The cup is conditioned by its shape, material, use and so on. But the space within the cup is free. It happens to be in the cup only when viewed in connection with the cup. Otherwise, it is just space. As long as there is a body, you appear to be embodied. Without the body you are not disembodied — you just are.
So the most important thing to realize is this: Your life has an inner purpose and an outer purpose. Inner purpose concerns Being and is primary. Outer purpose concerns doing and is secondary…. Your inner purpose is to awaken. It is as simple as that. You share that purpose with every other person on the planet – because it is the purpose of humanity. Your inner purpose is an essential part of the purpose of the whole, the universe and its emerging intelligence.
Buddhism stands unique in the history of human thought in denying the existence of a Soul, Self or Atman. According to the teachings of the Buddha, the idea of self is an imaginary, false belief which has no corresponding reality, and it produces harmful thoughts of ‘me’ and ‘mine’, selfish desire, craving, attachment, hatred, ill-will, conceit, pride, egoism, and other defilements, impurities and problems. It is the source of all troubles in the world from personal conflicts to wars between nations. In short, to this false view can be traced all the evil in the world.
on May 15th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
You know, I like this quote. I often find that I know I don’t know. But, then I stumble, and think I know consciousness only to realize again that I don’t know what I think I know.
on May 16th, 2008 at 7:31 am
Tom
I like this post. I have become an expert on knowing as much as I thought I knew. Just knowing this has freed me up. Does that make sense to you?
Mark’s last blog post..Justa hoping for some good Karma!
on May 16th, 2008 at 7:32 am
I meant to say “on not knowing as much as I thought I knew” Just a little different take isn’t it?
Mark’s last blog post..Justa hoping for some good Karma!
on May 16th, 2008 at 11:26 am
@Mr. Morrissey Hi Thomas. I agree. You know, of all the things that we can say we know or not know, consciousness if one that, well, seems to fit in the notion of “mystery.” How to know it? I mean, we ARE it, but how to know oneself? I can be it, but know it? Not so sure.
@Mark It makes complete sense. What you are doing is being honest. You don’t know. You don’t know a fraction of what you thought you knew. What a relief! No need to pretend that you have all the answers.
on May 18th, 2008 at 4:11 am
Ooh, Mark! I think the first sentence is just as important. It is wonderful.
I have become an expert on knowing as much as I thought I knew.
That is the perfect sentence. Forget about not knowing as much as you thought.
This is a subject I like to explore on my own. There are many things to be found there.
If you meditate on that sentence, wonderful things could happen. Or not.
It will be just as wonderful either way. Haha.
Takuin Minamoto’s last blog post..Questions on Sitting
on May 19th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Wonderful quote Tom. Hard for the mind to break out of the sanctuary of the known though eh!?
Cheers,
Anmol
Anmol Mehta | Mastery of Meditation’s last blog post..The Key to Natural Healing
on May 21st, 2008 at 11:13 am
@Anmol Thanks. I love reading the Tao Te Ching. The wisdom is incredible. Yes, it is hard for the mind to break out. Best to just leave the mind to its dance.