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“Not knowing means entering a situation with openness and listening deeply. You don’t arrive with the idea that you’re going to fix something.”
-Bernie Glassman
I’ve been aware of “not knowing” for a handful of months and I’ve been working with it. It’s another one of those zen things that is simple and deep at the same time. It involves practice.
We can practice not knowing with this tree. It is a beautiful tree sitting near the Chesapeake Bay. Year after year erosion is cutting the land closer and closer and eventually it will fall on to the beach. Will it no longer be beautiful? Will it stop being a tree? How can I prevent this? Is this a result of climate change and what can I do to stop that?
Bernie has said that answers “stop us”. I believe he is right. For me the first step of not knowing is to quiet the mind and quit asking the questions! Be still and be present and not know. If the first step is not knowing, the next step is bearing witness. (be with the situation and be part of and become the situation – enter the space of non-duality) He says that after we do those two things then loving action will arise.
So for now I come back to not knowing. If I’m quiet and quit asking questions and trying to fix things I will get closer to what is important.