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karma
October 2009 
What do we really know?
Posted on Oct 10th, 2008
by 
Centria
Centria
Do we really know anything? Have we just made up stories about the world, about this life, about everything we perceive? Things happen....good things, bad things.....and we try to make sense of them. But we only have limited awareness. We can't always see karmic connections, possible past-life connections, soul teachings, the hologram of Oneness, the invisible world pulsating between individuals, events, nature. Heck, we can't even see beyond our noses half the time. It's a Mystery out there, folks! Let's just say we really don't know anything. Can we be comfortable with that? :)
Access: Public
Socrates was!!
:)
love you
the surest answer is always I don't know.
Socrates! Obviously, Aley, there's our answer of the moment! tee hee…. Maybe love is the only “answer”…. (hey that should be a song somewhere, shouldn't it?)
Mr. Tom….and that may be the wisest answer of all. I don't know….
ha ha!
When asked what I know, I usually respond, ”I don't know anything.” Great photo! Did you take it?
My toes instantly started wiggling & felt the sand & the water looking at your photo..
I know what I don't know (I think that's a socrates too) & I do know I am not all that comfortable with you hinting at the size of my nose ;-)
we don't know anything people search their lives trying to find answers.the truth out life but they never find it.only when you die all those question will be answer
and there lies the rub, i must KNOW that you are correct in order to believe or create that death will provide me with answers….pass the knife please :D
What we “know” is related to The Past only. We make up stories about ourselves and others all the time. The worst thing is that we believe these stories and then make them come true. We create our past now. So it is important to try to know what is really happening Now and act according based on reality, not on some crazy ideas about what you think should be happening, or being mad about what DID happen.
My family and friends still holler out “You're/I'm Making Up the Story” about why someone did or didn't do something, or general speculating stuff —. Our favourite was The Dead Squirrel - we all made up stories about how he died and why. It made us realize that we speculate about every crazy thing in our life and others' lives. Most of the time we are wrong. It is amusing to catch yourself and others “Making Up the Story”.
I will close with this D.H. Lawrence quote:
“All that we know is nothing; we are merely crammed wastepaper baskets, unless we are in touch with that which laughs at all our knowing.”
PS – I agree with Tom, just say I don't know
.
Kathy,
If we are able to accept that we don't know, we become open to what is. That is the beauty of being in the moment, of expressing whatever your heart and soul tell you to (whether it makes “common sense” or not). Then, the magic happens because you can accept it, because it doesn't violate any rules, because there really aren't any rules; except those we impose on ourselves and by agreement upon society.
Then, we just flow with what it, and life unfolds beautifully, according to the content of our beliefs. If we don't like how it is unfolding, we've only to change what we were believing, to “feel” better. Then, the most amazing thing happens, our life reflects that new belief back to us and encourages us to continue on the path of our happiest hopes and desires.
That is how one finds heaven on earth - and it doesn't take “knowing” a thing.
Hugs and much love. I've been away from your space too long.
Deborah
Seems like we now know much about nothing………
Pretty, gauzy, foamy, lacey water photo! :)
Lenore….I'm listening to that song “I Don't Know Anything” and smiling right now. As to the photo, my daughter took it. Because I don't know anything, I can't tell you if she took it the same day as the icon beach photo. But if it's OK to make up a story about reality, I am guessing she took it the same day. Isn't it cool?
Tara, dear, I am SO sorry to have insinuated anything about the sizes of anyone's noses…..see where words get ya? You can't say anything w/o screwing up! giggling & wishing we could be there splashing in that water!
Isacc, you think when we die we'll get all the answers? hmmmm…..maybe we will. Maybe we'll suddenly know. Or maybe we won't care about the answers anymore. Maybe we'll be so filled with joy that the joy will be bigger than any answer we ever dreamed. (just a thought! sorry….couldn't help myself.) Thank you for stopping by to comment.
Elisa, indeed that is a rub. Let me know if you find your way through that quagmire….it's all beyond me lately. :)
Mimi, that D. H. Lawrence quote is great! I agree with you so much about stories. The Now is really the only place we're based in reality. On the other hand, sometimes I don't mind telling stories….as long as I'm not believing them and getting all attached and bothered and defensive and reactive. Then stories are just….stories. And the next story in the next moment can be something entirely different. Do you think so?
Oh, Deborah, so glad to see you again, as well. I agree–that's how we create “heaven on earth”. It's really interesting to watch it happen over and over again in life. And when something goes wrong….well what kind of story will we tell that will shift the energy, that will move us along in the flow? Thank you for flowing on over here with your wisdom.
Mum's the Word….I like your name! Yes, more wisdom for us. We know a heck of a lot about….nothing. Or nothing about something. Or…..I'll shut up now. :) Thank you for stopping by.
EmmaTree, I dug that photo out of “My Pictures” this morning thinking that it might say even more than the accompanying words. So glad you like it. I will report back to the photographer that more of her work was admired.
lol i am not attached to what i said earlier though i nearly did bite to be understood there till I got down to your answer and i lauuuuuuuuuuughed yay :D
http://tickleawakeningsport.gaia.com/blog/2008/10/is_bin_laden_dead_or_alive_today_his_role_today_if_still_alive
Wondeful! I'm very much in sync with this post Ms. Kathy. In fact, I'm in the middle of an exercise of using that mantra “I don't know” as a response whenever my existential angst brings up questions. To learn to appreciate the asking and not worry about the answering is not an easy task and yet it's so worthy. Being willing to say I don't know, opens up space that would otherwise be filled and limited.
Wheeee!
Elisa….so glad you felt understood….and then even had a laugh on top of that!
Spundana, I read your link about Bin Laden. I guess we can add that to things we don't know….things we really don't have a clue about.
Janet, glad you're in sync. I like that mantra “I don't know.” Yes, doesn't it open up a spacious space? I am fascinated with saying words that part of me doesn't believe in, because that part just groks with the “I don't know.” Sounds like we're thinking in similar ways these days….. :)
OK, I woke up this morning at 5:30 a.m. (going to bed early lately; waking up early too) thinking, “OK, let's turn that answer around in a way that's equally 'truthful'”. How can we answer this question: What Do We Really Know? in an opposite or contrary way?
Some people will look to the bottom of their heart for what really counts in their lives. Some people will say: Love. We really know Love. Or Awareness. Awareness is something we can really know. Or feelings: we have a “feeling” of what is true in the Moment. We can “know” because our innermost guide directs us towards action. Some people will say “We can know the Moment.” (which I suppose means something like “we can trust the moment.”)
We can say there's no way we can comprehend meaning…..and yet so many of our actions are built on patterned ways of responding to the world. Even those of us who have moved beyond patterned meaning and re-active responses quite often fall back on a pattern that's way beyond “not knowing”. We might say we don't know….yet we're still acting….and many of those actions are based on sometimes unconscious or barely-conscious shreds of meaning or knowing that we're still connected to on a body level.
So….here's the other answer…..maybe something in us “knows”. Maybe it knows perfectly well. Maybe this inner guidance, inner awareness, inner love…..knows beyond words.
Sorry, folks, I can't help it. There's something inside that insists on turning every answer around, inside out, upside down, and then shaking. :)
Thnk you Kathy. I am glad that you have a nice Blog discussion going on here and people are so friendly. In the past month or so, the world has changed dramatically at various levels– specially the economic sector. “Hope” carries us forward that it will all come to rest soon and we shall have a tranquility inside and outside of us.
Peace, Love n Light
Spundana
You're welcome, Ms. Spundana. I love the friendly people around here on Gaia (and even when someone seems unfriendly at times, it's often just a matter of viewing it from a different perspective to find the love hidden inside that's having trouble expressing itself at the moment.) Yes, there has been lots of change lately. I'm usually in favor of that optimistic turning towards hope, as well. Blessings!
Kathy,
I think your statement this morning -
>>>something in us “knows”. Maybe it knows perfectly well. Maybe this inner guidance, inner awareness, inner love…..knows beyond words.<<<
is as true as the first. When I am compelled against my “better” judgment, meaning patterned, to act anyway, I can be sure that something HIGHER than my little human form is at work. I can't KNOW that but I do trust it. It is called surrendering to the impulse that must be expressed.
Deb
I know that you know that we both know nothing about knowing, except that it is a word worth expressing in order to be known.
I love your mind and your consciousness Kathy!
Hal
I was looking for something else & stumbledupon this lil fella ;-)
omniscience
knowing what
thou knowest not
is in a sense
omniscience.
a piet hein grook
i know a little bit about a lot…and a lot about nothing…lol
Deb, don't you love it when you can find seemingly opposite statements that are just as true? I love 'em…..doesn't it all just point to a reality that exists before we utter that first word and then attach to it? I agree w you totally! :)
Hal, you always make me smile. Loved following that convoluted logic which, of course, is true. Or not true. Or something in between!
Tara, love that word: omniscience.
Oh how lovely….and even lovelier that you came back and commented twice! However those last four words: a piet hein grook…..leaves a bit to the imagination. I guess we can tell any story we want about what it means. I think it means (as of this moment) A little tiny bit of wisdom. Yes? (smiling….you are omniscent!)
Hi Star! I think we were posting at the same second. Sounds like wisdom to me! :)
“I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then.” ~Bob Seger
oh, dear, now I have to come back a do a third.. piet hein & his grooks or gruks are like an institution in denmark, so ignorant lil me didn't even think of leaving a link ;-)
Thank you both of you, fellow explorers in the known and unknown. Lars, for that link (could you get your mind around Mr. Seeger's wisdom?) and Tara for coming back a third time to teach us about Piet Hein. Very omniscent! :)
Kathy, let me clarify– I am Jagan Ramamoorthy, Director of my Non Profit org named Spundana Mudra. And I am very much a male. The pic in my profile that you see, is my adopted mother's. She was undergoing some health concerns last year, so I put up her Pic in my profile here, because many of my friends are into energy healing systems and they all must have put so much Positive vibes into this “Thought of mine” that my “Mom” gets well faster. And she is, believe me– she herself had no hope or will at one point. Now she is slowly but surely fighting back to her best.
Such is the Power of Love. As Jimi Hendrix has rightly said ” This world will become safe to live in again when the Love for power is overcome and replaced with / by Power of Love”
Best,
Namaste
Jagan Ramamoorthy
www.spundana.org
Hi again Jagan….I think I realized you were male sometime between yesterday and today. So you see, it goes back to that….I really don't know anything. By the way, your adopted mother looks beautiful. Glad she's slowly & surely recovering. Blessings to her & you.
Kathy, no no no. Actually All of us are Androgynous… The proof is here, ” A Shark was made to live all by itself, in Water isolated from its abode and its got pregnant after Six years in Isolation” Doesn't that tell us something?
Many mysteries though.
Love
Jagan Ramamoorthy
www.spundana.org
Many mysteries indeed, Mr. Jagan! Imagine that story…. :)
In continuation to the above, I must add that each individual has very different experiences with perhaps the same teacher and so do the teachers have different experiences with their students. But then, the Teacher is also the student and the student himself/ herself is the Real teacher.
I would like to add a few lines of my own here, in this context.
Once a student of esoteric knowledge, who had been seeking all over the place came in contact with me, not as a student, but as a friend, the very first thing I observed aboiut him was, ” His speed to do things was all different than mine and he was quite wayward in his approach towards the Spirit realm, because he was also a young, intelligent(Extremely intelligent I must add) and Pure hearted Soul).
As he started to chat with me, talk with me, question everything I had to say to him, about eastern esoterism, I felt like he was already filled with the information he was seeking outside. He kept trying to place me on pedistals and tried to trick me many times, on words, phrases, sentences and meanings of things I had said at many other times, previously and thus made me feel “Be on your toes”.
One day, he asked me 'What is the Purpose of Life?” I had a simple answer :” To Live” He said ” That doesn't help me much”
Then I asked him , ” What is your Object in your life as a journey?” He said ” I walk up in my path and I find I see a mountain to climb in all directions. Whenever I reach the foothill, I chicken out, thinking, the mountain is so Tall and humongous, I am so small, how do I make this journey to go past the mountain?”
I replied to him, ” there are various ways to do that. firstw ay would be to make yourself bigger and bigger, so that you can hold the mountain in your palm for a while, feel the “Biggerness” for a temporary moment in Time-Space continuum, then release it and keep going. ” He asked further:” Why would I release it once I have accomplished it?” I said, ” Soon, you would realize that neither did you grow any bigger than you always were, nor did you capture the mountain into your palm. You just cancelled the separation/ division between you and the mountain. Thus the distance between the Observer and Observed is dissolved. If you continue to remain attached to your 'achievements and accomplishments' then, you would again fall into the Abyss of delusional world.''
How many times have you felt this way? After an accomplishment of something, even a Spiritual monumental experience, did you ever feel ” Everything is so temporary that it doesn't matter, if I had this experience or not?” The bigger picture and Cosmic design of everything has choices, reasons and outcomes. If we attach to outcomes, then we might lose out on choices and understand the reasons about why other results are rightfully placed before us, even though we don't like them?”
Good to hear of your experiences, Much love n Light
Jagan
Los Angeles,
www.fiddlemaestro.com
Jagan, this is a really wonderful story. Thank you SO much for sharing it. I especially liked your answer and this part: You just cancelled the separation/ division between you and the mountain. Thus the distance between the Observer and Observed is dissolved. If you continue to remain attached to your 'achievements and accomplishments' then, you would again fall into the Abyss of delusional world.''
I am also thinking about your thought about attaching to outcomes. Thank you for being part of this discussion, dear Teacher and Student!
Dear Kathy, that is something I can surely boldly say “I know it happened in my life” Whether I was the student or he was? I know not. But both of us learned something and unlearned something. So all good in the end. LL, Jagan Ramamoorthy
thank you, Jagan….. :)