“Your don’t-know mind will become clear. Then you can see the sky, only blue. You can see the tree, only green. Your mind is like a clear mirror. Red comes, the mirror is red; white comes the mirror is white. A hungry person comes, you can give him food; a thirsty person comes, you can give her something to drink.” Zen Master Seung Sahn
Flowing Freely
A few days ago, I struggled to solve a problem related to my work. For the entire day, I couldn’t figure out a good solution to the problem I was facing. When I got home, still struggling with the stress at work, I prepared dinner, and after listening to some music, I retired for a few minutes to my meditation space.
My meditation was just breathing in and breathing out for awhile, in the darkness of the room, trying to be present to the smell of the incense, and the sounds of people outside in the street. My mind, after a few minutes, was able to calm down. It wasn’t until I relaxed a little, when I allowed myself “not-to-know,” that things became more clear. After another twenty minutes or so of this “Unknowing” practice, something just came up. It was an interesting, unexpected way to see the problem, the inkling of a solution. I kept breathing. I waited, I saw an opening and I was grateful to the darkness, the stillness, the power of Unknowing to dissolve those moments of stress.
It is only in my most cherished moments of stillness that I have found the real spark of an unexpected answer to my problems. Whether in my professional life, in my relationships or in general in my spiritual life, I have learned to recognize those moments as unique but also belonging to the contemplative space that I try to cultivate in the midst of my busy life.
I have cultivated that space by entering “the cloud of unknowing,” as the English mystic put it, a practice that helps to expand the consciousness beyond the usual routines of the brain. Even though I have dedicated all my life to education and learning, I have also seen the need for the cultivation of this wisdom as a way of deepening the tools available to the mind and the heart.
Do you have a way of deepening the creativity in your heart and mind? Do you have a practice when the stress shuts down all the other avenues of your creativity?
Try this:
- Sit with your back straight and focus on your breathing.
- As you are breathing in and out, allow ‘don’t know’ mind to be part of your experience.
- Relax and let go, and calmly encounter the ‘unknowing’ as if you were greeting your best friend. Allow yourself the space of deep listening and compassion for as long as you need. Clarity and insight will slowly appear.
- When you finish, write down your experience. Write about meeting the ‘unknowing,’ about the clarity that comes with surrender, patience and compassion. Notice the way you were practicing ‘deep listening’ in this practice and the creative muscle that you were exercising beyond your thinking mind.
Peace,
Juan