What Do I Know For Certain?

Adya wrote in “The End Of Your World” in Chapter One…

“This one question - “What do I know for certain?” - is tremendously powerful.  When you look deeply into this question, it actually destroys your world.  It destroys you whole sense of self, and it's meant to.  You come to see that everything you think you know about yourself, everything you think you know about the world, is based on assumptions, beliefs, and opinions - things you believe because you were taught or told that they were true.  Until we start to see these false perceptions for what they really are, consciousness will be imprisoned with the dream state.”

I read this late last night as I lay awake on my bed.  I closed my eyes and asked myself, “What do I know for certain?” and understanding flooded over me as I realized that I only know that I exist and that this existence is looking at itself.  At that moment I came free from many assumptions about myself and the world and entered a moment of clarity and freedom which healed many pains in my heart.  They fell away.  This clarity carries over now and I see my life and the life I live as from the eyes of a dove flying high above me.  I share this in hopes that we can all soar.

Namaste`

Samiyam

Re: What Do I Know For Certain?

This reminds me so much of Byron Katie's question, but it feels almost deeper, as it goes right past whether or not something is or is not true, but whether it is at all. I do hope your insight lasts. (Or, if it doesn't, that you experience that clarity over and over and over. :)

Re: What Do I Know For Certain?

That feels lovely Samiyam.  Sitting with the question, over an over, I come to  “absolutely nothing.”  Feeling that further, is the realisation that this is not a question for the intellect.  Being with “absolutely nothing,” is to sink into awareness, nothingness itself…

Re: What Do I Know For Certain?

Nicola, you are so right.  This isn't a question for the intellect.  Being and nothingness come into play and we begin to see how limitless we are while we become, as Chonyam Trungpa once said, “as meaningless as one grain of sand in a beach of sand.”  This freeing nature begins to make existence a dance.  A dance of nothingness just like Adya's book title, “Emptiness Dancing”.

Siona, yes, I was reminded of Byron Katie and saw exactly what you saw… that it is very similar but deeper.  The beauty of sharing is that each time I am reading what I shared, I re-acquaint myself with the sensation of that awakened moment and it happens all over again.  Love runs through me like a shot of good gin.  :wink:  But better… gin with no dizziness and no hangover.

Namaste`

Samiyam

Re: What Do I Know For Certain?

The I who thinks, who writes, who uses words, knows nothing for certain, other than that she knows nothing for certain. The I glories in this *fact*. It feels, as Adya suggests, like being released from prison.

The I AM *knows* but has no words for the communication. Any attempt to translate the inner knowing comes short, a bit like using Babel to translate a difficult passage between two very dissimilar languages.

Ruth

Re: What Do I Know For Certain?

I think you made an interesting point, Ruth. The “inner knowing” is something we cannot learn. It cannot be taught and is a different kind of knowing from what most people think knowing is. I am a scientist myself and science claims to know things. But I find this is far from the truth. Scientist put up theories and as long as nobody can disprove them, they will be taken for the truth. But often they are not. They hold true until the next smart guy comes up with a better theory (see Netwon and Einstein, for example). And we get taught in schools that science knows things. But if we ask the question that started this thread “what do you know for certain”, we have to admit that there is not much from what we were told that we know is certain. But our feelings, our emotions, our experiences cannot lie to us. Therefore, I totally agree with your point that the “I AM knows but has no words for the communication. Any attempt to translate the inner knowing comes short”.

I believe all we can really know for sure is what comes from our own experience. Nothing else can be “known” for sure. The world is an illusion and matter does not even exist (as quantum physicists have clearly shown). We don't even know what is real. Except for our experiences.

Thanks for this interesting thread. I am glad I found this group and you guys.

Namaste,
Axel

Re: What Do I Know For Certain?

Too true, Ruth.  We can see, but we cannot explain.  I guess that's why The Buddha once just held up a flower as a lecture.

Namaste`

Samiyam