The vast unknowns of life

We all live in an inner and outer culture that does not do well with not knowing.
The unknown scares us. It’s natural.
When we are born we all get uniquely and collectively conditioned to relate to aspects of our life in a particular way.
I see now how I am uniquely conditioned by my parents, family, and culture with an identity of a colored immigrant woman in this country.
This has me experience my reality uniquely with certain limitations based on the paradigm set by my identity, beliefs, and conditions. This is good or bad news depending on how I relate to it.

THE CONDITIONED MIND.
Our conditioning that starts early has us carry certain beliefs in our minds as truths. In our culture today, the Mind we are familiar with is for the most part given the seat of the Master. We have forgotten that the Mind is simply a tool or an activity of our existence here.
We faithfully follow it, accepting every thought it brings into our awareness. In our day to day life we hardly even realize that we are not our Mind. While we stand unaware taking in all its chatter as the truth, the inner narrative is continuously whispering…

This is who I am. This I am not.
This is right. This is wrong.
This is beautiful. This is ugly.
This is safe. This is dangerous.
This is loving. This is not.
This serves. This does not.
Among many more…

When on unfamiliar ground, this particular frequency of the Mind jumps up to offer us thoughts. When we work in this conditional paradigm where what is unfamiliar is scary, we immediately move to choose thoughts that make us feel safe. This literally happens in seconds. Our conscious mind is not even aware of this most of the time.
This frequency of the Mind is thus strengthened. It thinks in binary dichotomies. It generalizes, oversimplifies and we accept these thoughts to feel secure and in control.
Our feel good, security targeting inner compass believes in concepts that “make sense” and are delivered in a neat safe bundle with a bow on top.
In unawareness, we don’t even realize there is something to question, let alone see that there is no real scope to ask true or open questions in this way of life. We stand and live our lives from the ground that is based on presumptive theories we believe as facts.

Is this really true?
Even in this instance?
What may be the invisible presumptions I may be coming from?
Are they still true or am I bringing in my biases and the past?
Is fear involved?
What else is there that I may not be seeing or considering?
And last but not the least, who is the I who is investigating all this?

Anything that fits outside our box of knowing feels unfamiliar and therefore unsafe and undesirable. The more through unawareness we relate with this frequency of the Mind, the more we stay tethered and conditioned to it.

One of the biggest collective conditioning which is a way of relating to the Mind and the world paradigm is the belief of our mortality and what is safe and unsafe. Naturally, the root of ‘safety’ arises from the fact that we sense something — perhaps Life — is a dangerous place.
This stance naturally brings up fear in us.
Don’t get me wrong, this Mind frequency really does a great job when it comes to watching out for our physical mortal self’s safety.
It’s cautious for a good reason. The physical form is mortal.
Unfortunately, though our unawareness of the truth of who we are makes this frequency of the Mind, not the right tool of service when it comes to the growth and evolution of our other aspects.

In unawareness, this frequency of the Mind rules as the master.
The culture around us which additionally approves this and offers further proof that is not only our truth but the truth of everyone we see around us.
Everything fits now and life makes sense.
We all live this way and feel a sense of belonging.
Finding answers through this Mind becomes our purpose.
In turn, we, even more, concretize the belief that this knowledge is what is essential to a well lived life.
We continue to choose this paradigm of illusions feeling knowledgeable, intelligent, and safe in a world that is inherently dangerous to the one we think we are.

Of course, there is value in knowing and feeling the comfort of the known.
But this is not knowing that can help us evolve at all if it keeps us from seeing the bigger and fuller picture.
The pain of this is only felt when we are feeling the limitations and scarcity in particular moments of our life.
Without learning the skill of how to be with the unknown and experience all that we are called to explore, we struggle.
The loop of limitations continues. We fear. We move into safety and comfort again.
We now yet again feel locked into the same paradigm we so desire to be free from.

“The Mind is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master.”
— A quote in Buddhism

So what is the point you ask?
Well, when we awaken to our truth — experientially, we embody a new way of being and live in a newer paradigm. We realize Life is always serving us perfectly. No experience is a waste. This experience of being in the loop serves us very well too.
Ask me.:) I have played in the loop for years!
It helps give birth to a deeper desire to be free from it. Our suffering so to say, burns the fire of our innate impulse to grow, explore, and play brighter.
The human spirit is indomitable.
This human spirit is Life itself.

OUR SYSTEMS ARE AN EXPRESSION OF US
When we truly open our eyes in inquiry, we truly start to “see” what was unseen before.
We see it in our way of being, in the ways we relate, and in our systems.
For example, being a parent I see it up close in our school systems.
Rather than allowing the children to learn from the impulse of their own innate spirit of inquiry, we load them with so many books filled with concepts of the past and future unwittingly teaching them that knowing — the knowledge in the head is a superpower over self-driven real-time exploration in the present.

How many schools have the luxury of giving their children the time or pacing needed so the kids can perhaps read a book, do a project, contemplate and simmer in the unknown parts that tickled their curiosity?
The gift and the ability to truly listen and receive are forgotten.
In the current paradigm of this world, even the experiments one may take on are hardly done from a space of true openness.
They simply are explorations in the structure of the same Mind.
The questions arise from unquestioned preassumptions and hardly bring forth any new true solutions.
This type of exploration is regurgitation at best — simply a new polished face to the same old.

We and our systems are all unwittingly conditioning our children into the same limited paradigm.
We together now see a world where ‘what we know’ determines our value.
The information in the head gives us a persona of intelligence.
Our degrees and education give us permission to be an authority.
Mind based debates are taught and are seen for the most part as the highest form of intelligence.
A perceived intelligent person who offers quick and smart answers now becomes a leader who we feel we can trust to know and follow.
Knowledge then gets equated to Power.
To know or to show that you know is to win this game of Life.
All our systems are subliminally based on this paradigm as they are expressions of ourselves and our deepest collective beliefs.
It is no wonder then that when it comes to creating any real change, we feel so stuck.
It feels hard at so many levels. This paradigm shift may feel like an ask to show up and therefore to un-belong.
To stand out as the odd one out. To live this “crazy” truth when no one else is or very few are. To be open to rejection.
The ask to be available for this change relates as willing to fail and be wrong because this is new.
It feels like a high price to pay.
It’s no surprise then that very few venture down this path.

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.”
— Albert Einstein.

WHEN WE DON’T KNOW
So what happens when we experience unprecedented times like the one we are in now?
Where unknown is the name of the game.
This is new for ALL of us in some way or another.
We are scampering to look at our leaders in various fields to offer us an answer again.
We may find pieces of the puzzle but is that where we will find the complete picture?
In one person? In an isolated field of expertise?
In structures and systems that are set on an older paradigm?
These are questions worth asking.

When we truly know and accept that we don’t know, we fall into a space of radical surrender.
This sense of being at a loss is actually a doorway when we recognize it.
There is a complete relaxation and letting go of our attachment to the Mind.
And as paradoxical as it may sound, in this also rises an alert watchfulness.
In this alert open awareness, we step out of the old paradigm.
Allowing a new way of relating to the Mind and new facets of circumstances to emerge.
We are untethered and fully engaged.
We are not distracted by any particular chosen intention, vision, outcome, or presumptions.
We are listening…
Fully present in curiosity, we become one with what we are observing.
Beyond the thinking mind, our whole fearless being emerges alive.
This can be also seen as meditation in action.
This is a true Scientist and Spiritualist’s stance in life.
This is the state and space in which we truly hold the possibility to radically discover never before seen and felt observations.
A rich fertile space holds the possibility to reveal something radically new.
We are in service.

TO PLAYING IN THE UNKNOWN
What the ancients share deeply resonates with me.
They say we can cross the waters of the unknown when we come together as a community that holds the inner culture of wisdom that arises from this awareness and presence.
They ask us that we use our whole being to lean into our living breathing questions.
In equanimity, transparency, integrity, and connection, we gather, bringing together all our gifts as we link arms to support each other and the world. True knowing of fresh solutions naturally unfold in these sacred circles.
This is the heart and source of true creativity.
What transpires here almost feels miraculous.
Each member offers their unique emerging piece of wisdom which plays a part in creating the tapestry of solutions that will take us across to a new space and perhaps be the seed that creates the new Earth we all dream of.
The unknown holds this possibility as a gift.
This is what I am finding is the exciting invitation of our times.

Can we sense this?
Can we dare to step into this play for a little while?
Can we have the courage to truly let go?
Can we embody a stance of genuine curiosity and wonder?
Can we allow and watch what is desiring to be birthed?
Meanwhile, can we allow all that is to just be the way it is?

What will we collectively choose?
I don’t know.
As for me, most often than not, I find myself more and more willing now to lean in and play.

A standard P.S - Life is ineffable and words can be limiting. Especially when it comes to all these topics that I continue to explore. My desire to keep things practical often feels futile when I try to translate these explorations and experiences into form. And yet I am compelled to try. This human experience is complex. Paradoxes are a given. Setting context sure helps. While all the words, stories, and shares matter to me, I am cognizant of the fact that in the end, our unique life experiences are only our lived interpreted truths and that its multifaceted nuances many times cannot really be captured, expressed, or perhaps even understood accurately. One step at a time I stay present in the now and move towards living, embodying it the best I know how and sharing when inspired as an offering to myself and the world.
I welcome all reflections as it’s the questions that really help me dive deeper. If there is one thing in my experience that has shown up constantly as the truth, it is that we grow and evolve most when we come together in wholehearted conversations.
If this kindles your fire as well, I would so love to connect with you!
Message me or find me @
www.supriyakini.com
https://www.instagram.com/supriyaakini/

Thank you for taking the time to read!

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