The Asana of Not Knowing
Q: Did John Troy write that Asana of Not Knowing that you posted on your timeline? And can you please tell me what you see in it? Thanks.
A: Yes, JT wrote that. I shared it because it’s akin to something I might say and because I like John’s manner of writing and speaking—fluid but highly focused and without contrivance.
I see a profound critique of the idea that the supposed “dreamer” can awaken from the so-called “dream,” which is a trite truism--an inaccurate, unhelpful meme that circulates like a virus, misleading and confusing those who catch it. John is quite explicit:
“The more significant portion of spiritual seekers are intent on rescuing the dreamer from the dream. It is nothing more than an escape or survival mechanism. It is a strategy of “becoming.”. . . . The sanctuary of not knowing is prejudiced by even the slightest belief. Believing that one is the dreamer is one of those beliefs.”
Q: Thank you, Robert. I do not have the benefit of the awakening experience yet, so some of this is vague to me. What is the “argument” regarding becoming? Because it takes a separate, independent individual to “become” anything?
A: Well, that’s it right there: “I do not have the benefit of the awakening experience yet.”
The word “yet” is the argument regarding becoming.
Nothing becomes anything. Everything just is what it is.
Q: (slapping my forehead) Realizing that is what awakening is! You say it a hundred times and tell me a hundred different ways, and I still want to become. Damn. It is like AA, it is so simple, but we make it difficult.
A: Yes. You and I are in the same boat--faced with the same unknowns. There’s nothing to become. This is it.
Q: That sunk in. I am done.
The questioner is not "done," they are (potentially) awake. But there's something about "awake" that is overlooked way too often for my taste. The point of waking up is to BEGIN to live an intelligent, creative, full life. It doesn't happen until one wakes up, because before one wakes up, one believes a total lie and acts based on that fantasy.
This is akin to the difference between "self realization" and "self actualization." Self realization meaning awake, and self actualization meaning reaping the benefits of that. If there's no benefit, who cares if one is awake or not? It would not matter.
It doesn't matter ultimately, but the point is, it matters to the one who is awake (or not). Getting out of bed in the morning, enjoying being safe and just fine, eating, listening to music, brushing my teeth: in other words CARING what happens, is just part of "what is." Not happily living after finding "awakeness" is not being awake, it's hiding inside an idea that one is awake.
To me, "There’s nothing to become. This is it." is a statement dripping with "knowing" though. It's a conclusion. To me it's just a belief spoken in opposition to another belief.
If we REALLY want to embrace not-knowing, then we have to also discard firm beliefs and conclusions like "There’s nothing to become. This is it."
I'm not saying that there is (or isn't) something to become, but certainty is suspect, regardless of what one is certain of. Voltaire went as far as calling certainty is absurd.