The beginners mind. The I don’t know mind. When life feels like I know how it’s going and it’s not a way that feels good I always talk to myself about getting curious about the next minute or day as a way to counteract my minds certainty and the dread or the futility of the next steps. The shrug now means for me I don’t know. Step out of concretized thinking again and again and allow the I don’t know. Meditation. Walks in nature. Trying to be empty of my self to allow possibilities in to allow life to flow Anyway thank you. I’m rambling. I’m inspired
1. Delight in the world's good things at the very most can only tire the appetite and spoil the palate; and so, not for all of sweetness will I ever lose myself, but for I-don't-know-what which is so gladly found.
2. The generous heart never delays with easy things but eagerly goes on to things more difficult. Nothing satisfies it, and its faith ascends so high that it tastes I-don't-know-what which is so gladly found.
3. He who is sick with love, whom God himself has touched, finds his tastes so changed that they fall away like a fevered man's who loathes any food he sees and desires I-don't-know-what which is so gladly found.
4. Do not wonder that the taste should be left like this, for the cause of this sickness differs from all others; and so he is withdrawn from all creatures, and tastes I-don't-know-what which is so gladly found.
5. For when once the will is touched by God himself, it cannot find contentment except in the Divinity; but since his Beauty is open to faith alone, the will tastes him in I-don't-know-what which is so gladly found.
6. Tell me, then, would you pity a person so in love, who takes no delight in all creation; alone, mind empty of form and figure, finding no support or foothold, he tastes there I-don't-know-what which is so gladly found.
7. Do not think that he who lives the so-precious inner life finds joy and gladness in the sweetness of the earth; but there beyond all beauty and what is and will be and was, he tastes I-don't-know-what which is so gladly found.
8. Whoever seeks to advance takes much more care in what he has yet to gain than in what he has already gained; and so I will always tend toward greater heights; beyond all things, to I-don't-know-what which is so gladly found.
9. I will never lose myself for that which the senses can take in here, nor for all the mind can hold, no matter how lofty, nor for grace or beauty, but only for I-don't-know-what which is so gladly found.
In Thailand 30 years ago all of the heavyweight Buddhist masters all shared the constant refrain of "Myy Neh" ("It's not certain"; or "Maybe; maybe not").
This reminds me of the concept of Shmuel Erlich: not knowing – knowing – not knowing (and so on). To restore the true value of ignorance.
And also about how this is getting harder these days where everything is supposed to be calculable, how the fiction of controllability has to be sustained at all times. Ignorance or the unconscious simply don't fit into the delusion of society that everything is possible and knowable.
The beginners mind. The I don’t know mind. When life feels like I know how it’s going and it’s not a way that feels good I always talk to myself about getting curious about the next minute or day as a way to counteract my minds certainty and the dread or the futility of the next steps. The shrug now means for me I don’t know. Step out of concretized thinking again and again and allow the I don’t know. Meditation. Walks in nature. Trying to be empty of my self to allow possibilities in to allow life to flow Anyway thank you. I’m rambling. I’m inspired
John of the Cross wrote this poem:
A gloss (with a spiritual meaning).
1. Delight in the world's good things at the very most can only tire the appetite and spoil the palate; and so, not for all of sweetness will I ever lose myself, but for I-don't-know-what which is so gladly found.
2. The generous heart never delays with easy things but eagerly goes on to things more difficult. Nothing satisfies it, and its faith ascends so high that it tastes I-don't-know-what which is so gladly found.
3. He who is sick with love, whom God himself has touched, finds his tastes so changed that they fall away like a fevered man's who loathes any food he sees and desires I-don't-know-what which is so gladly found.
4. Do not wonder that the taste should be left like this, for the cause of this sickness differs from all others; and so he is withdrawn from all creatures, and tastes I-don't-know-what which is so gladly found.
5. For when once the will is touched by God himself, it cannot find contentment except in the Divinity; but since his Beauty is open to faith alone, the will tastes him in I-don't-know-what which is so gladly found.
6. Tell me, then, would you pity a person so in love, who takes no delight in all creation; alone, mind empty of form and figure, finding no support or foothold, he tastes there I-don't-know-what which is so gladly found.
7. Do not think that he who lives the so-precious inner life finds joy and gladness in the sweetness of the earth; but there beyond all beauty and what is and will be and was, he tastes I-don't-know-what which is so gladly found.
8. Whoever seeks to advance takes much more care in what he has yet to gain than in what he has already gained; and so I will always tend toward greater heights; beyond all things, to I-don't-know-what which is so gladly found.
9. I will never lose myself for that which the senses can take in here, nor for all the mind can hold, no matter how lofty, nor for grace or beauty, but only for I-don't-know-what which is so gladly found.
In Thailand 30 years ago all of the heavyweight Buddhist masters all shared the constant refrain of "Myy Neh" ("It's not certain"; or "Maybe; maybe not").
This reminds me of the concept of Shmuel Erlich: not knowing – knowing – not knowing (and so on). To restore the true value of ignorance.
And also about how this is getting harder these days where everything is supposed to be calculable, how the fiction of controllability has to be sustained at all times. Ignorance or the unconscious simply don't fit into the delusion of society that everything is possible and knowable.