The Unknown

As I said, when we already know, there is no room for the unknown. The unknown is everything. The unknown is not just what lies beyond the farthest star. The unknown is every single moment. And everything that occurs between one moment and the next is the unknown. But it is the unknown only if there is no limitation in our consciousness, in our fundamental relationship to life, then every moment is not separate from the unknown itself. Included in the unknown is the known. The unknown is the seen and the unseen. It is thought and what lies beyond thought. It is time and what lies beyond time, and everything in between. All becomes the unknown. The unknown is a metaphor for no limitation. It's a metaphor for no limitation only if our fundamental position is that we don't know. Do you understand? So if we know, if we already know, our fundamental position is limitation. If we don't know, our fundamen- tal position is no limitation. That means if we already know, everything that we think and feel, everything that occurs that can be measured, inner and outer, gross and subtle, all will occur within this very narrow or very small view. If our absolute relationship to life is negative, then that is the filter through which we are going to perceive all of our experience. Then no matter what occurs, the first thing we will always be aware of is that we already know. And because of this, it will be impossible to experience anything directly. It will be impossible to perceive our experience with any real depth. What that means is that we are always only going to perceive a part of the whole picture. Therefore our experience of life will always be partial, and all of the conclusions that we will draw from our own expe- rience are going to reflect that limitation, that partial view. That's what ignorance is. But if our absolute relationship to life is one that is positive, which means that our fundamental position is that deeply we don't know, then there will be infinite room, there will be infinite space. And therefore every- thing that occurs to us, gross and subtle, inner and outer, now all will occur within a perspective that is unlimited because we don't know, so there will always be room for the unknown. And everything that does occur, will occur within this vast and unlimited per- spective where there is always depth. Therefore the conclusions that we will draw about that which occurs are going to reflect that depth. That is what wisdom is. That is what makes a wise person wise—because depth is there, and everything that occurs within their expe- rience occurs within the field o( that depth. That is why they appear to be able to see so much more than other people do. They are aware of the very same objects in consciousness as everybody else. But because of the enormous depth that is already present within them, they are able to see so much more of what is there all of the time. We began our journey by allowing everything to be as it is. We ceased to make distinctions in order to find our true self. Upon finding our true self, we returned once again to the world of differences, the world of distinctions. But everything is very different because now we know who we are, and the fact that we know who we are is what makes it possible for us to make distinctions without in any way losing touch with the absolute nature of life. And that's the whole point, you see. That's the whole point. That's the whole picture. And that is the great challenge. It's the great challenge of Enlightenment—how to make distinctions with- out in any way losing touch with the absolute nature of life.