Here we are at day 7. We are breaking the 20 minute mark - woohoo! As we delve into these slightly longer meditations you may begin to notice a real deepening in your experience. Some teachers say that if you haven't been able to meditate yet, it's because you haven't sat for long enough. Let it take you away, let go.
Today's Teaching: The Unknown.
A couple years ago one of my friends, Patty, said to me in a voice of real awe, "You know what's amazing?" and she began to draw a pie chart on a napkin. "Here's what we know," she pointed to a tiny sliver of pie on the chart. "Here's what we know we don't know," she pointed to a slightly bigger piece of pie, And "Here's what we don't even know we don't know!!" and pointed to the remainder of the pie.
That pie chart has really stuck with me. The more I contemplate it, the deeper I seem to sink into that unknown. And the glimpse that there is such vast potential of not only ideas but actual ways of thinking yet to be manifest is both humbling and inspiring! If the idea of thinking differently intrigues you, follow this link to a scientist who was asked to speak about a new paradigm for science and then was banned for his perspective: Rupert Sheldrake TED talk.
Ever since we were little we were trained to know, to conclude. From a state of pure unknowing as a baby, we mature through great complexity into adults who know an awful lot. A lot of this knowing is vital, we need it to thrive. But we've come to rely solely on knowing and the ecstatic freedom of not knowing is lost in our culture. We live in the information age. We have more access to information at our fingertips than Einstein ever did. Our very nervous systems are constantly flooded by information in the form TV, billboards, pop up adds, and the invisible frequencies of radio waves, micro-waves, and WiFi. Living in our day and age means a constant surplus of nervous input. Its a condition of our culture, but it won’t bring us what we need to live a full life.
Im not saying that knowing and information is bad. I simply bring all this up in the light of meditation because when we make room for the unknown, the unknowable, we prime ourselves for grace to descend. After all, we can't force miracles, we can only leave rooms for them. Not knowing is actually the foundation of everything we know(and don’t know), yet we dismiss it. Terence Mckenna said it wonderfully when he said “Science just asks for one miracle and they’ll explain the rest.” All of everything we think we know has a foundation of pure mystery. Can you make room for this in your experience?
When we sit in meditation, we lean up against the mystery of existence itself. And as we delve into the mystery, we see our limited sense of self from an entirely new vantage point and we realize- I have been leaving out nearly all of reality.
Day 7 Guided Meditation:
Download: The Unknown (21 min) or http://bit.ly/meditateeveryoneday7