Some BK style inquiries.

I know.

1. Yes (seems so, on the surface).
   
   
2. No (cannot know for sure, an opinion only, an appearance only)
   
   
3. There is something to hold onto, something to protect, something that can be lost, diluted or contaminated. This brings up a range of reactions in me... Such as fear and obsessiveness. Of being lost, or at risk of being lost. Of fragility. I have something that can easily go away, any time. It also brings up arrogance, a sense that I know while others may or may not know. It closes me off from my immediate experiences and the information and gifts there. I isolate myself from the gifts of others and my own immediate experience. >> I am truly lost, even as I believe in the thought I know.
   
   
4. Clarity. Space. Receptivity. Here, now. Presence. Receptivity to what is, in the present, wherever it arises - in others or in my own immediate experience. Sense of no separation.
   
   
5. (a) I don't know. (Yes, that is more true than the initial statement. I really don't know. All that appears as knowledge is just ideas, abstractions - and that is all they are. They are never the terrain, what arises in the present. The world is always more than and different from my ideas, thoughts, models, maps. And even on a conventional level, my knowledge is only of temporary and limited value. It is only of practical value, at best. And it is woefully incomplete, in any area, even at that conventional level.)
   
   (b) My thoughts know. (Yes, they are the only ones who knows. Or rather create the appearance of knowing. There is no "I" there. They just happen. Just arise in space & awareness as every other phenomena. The thoughts know, in their own temporary, limited and practical way. I - however I define I, as awareness, dancing emptiness - don't know.)
   
   (c) My thoughts don't know. (Yes, that is true as well. They are just maps of the terrain, at best just reflecting immediate experiences. They can be practical tools, but have only temporary and limited value and usefulness. The terrain is always more than and different from these maps. Realizing this, over and over, opens up for a certain humility for their limited usefulness and for fluidity in relationship to them. There is no need to hold on to any particular thought, idea, model, idea. None of them represent any absolute truth. They are all particular filters, particular maps highlighting some aspects of the terrain and de-emphasizing and leaving out other aspects. They come and go as all other phenomena, and have only limited and practical usefulness.)

Going to ideas instead of immediate experience

I see the tendency to jump to answers when I do inquiries of any kind - Byron Katie inquiries, Big Mind process, Headlessness experiments, Atma Vichara.

If I try to resist or get rid of this tendency, I am stuck in/with it. But if there is just the seeing of it, there is release. There is a sense of space, overview and choice. The "I" is shifted to the seeing and there is a de-identification with this particular tendency.

Labels: own inquiry