It's time to face the big unknown.
Can we admit that we really do not know much about most things, find peace with this, and stop trying to know the future? Why should we?
Because we don't know almost everything, and we can't know almost everything. Somehow we have been erroneously programmed into thinking we can.
So much of what drags us down emotionally, is wanting to know how things will turn out and then worrying about it. We expect something bad. This desire to be secure and know we are safe, drives us into endless fearful, exaggerated, over reactive stories about the future that torture us, and most of them never happen. Trying to know is a huge habit and problem in so many ways.
The second I heard the concept of "don't know mind", I knew I had been delivered some sort of divine nectar. When I pointed it toward letting go of our fearful complaints about what could go wrong, I saw it as another tool to outwit the critical mind.
To let go of the need to know the future: Brings us into the present moment, frees us from creating needless anxiety, and disarms the complaining mind by taking away the complaining mind's opportunity to project its nasty mood into the future and expect tragedy. We get so worked up for nothing.
Admitting what we can't know re-aligns us with the truthful facts instead of denying them. Surrendering to our vulnerability gives us a clear view to change what we can, and lets us come to terms with the ever-changing and unpredictable nature of our lives.
This is what we need to remember, that we don't know, as our practice:
It is impossible to know if:
Our plans are going to work.
The timing will turn out the way we plan.
We will get sick or stay healthy.
Our relationships will last.
We will be rich or poor.
Our desires will get met.
What our actions will accomplish.
How long anything will last.
What is going to happen next.
How to we will feel.
What our minds will think.
What to expect. (except the unexpected),
Why most things happen.
What people are thinking.
How to prevent most things from happening.
How things will change,
and almost everything else about the future.
None of this needs to be a problem if we stop trying to change it.
We can live in the mystery and be free of our crazy mental habits to try to know and cultivate trust, instead of trying to guess what is next.
If life follows a different plan than what would have looked like our success, nothing has gone wrong and we did not failed. To me, success is when I make good things out of whatever shows up and I become one with how life naturally unfolds. From this point of view, everything that happens is going MY way.
We want to learn to know that whatever chain of events occur, it is taking us to where we need to go, for unseen, unknowable and potentially divine reasons; A perspective that has no room for complaining. I like to think of life as being guided by "divine orchestration."
If you stay present and let go of the future, so many of your fearful assumptions will go away it will make a huge difference.
The bottom line is to practice:
Notice when you find yourself asking yourself a question about the future.
Get curious. Do you need to know it now? Is it even really truly possible?
If not, let it go, and breathe in the wisdom that "good enough" and "potentially positive outcomes", are normal and reasonable to expect. Come back to the present and rest in trust.
Peace to you!
Bryan
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Bryanzerr copyright 2011
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