Quiet friend who has come so far,
feel how your breathing makes more space around you.
Let this darkness be a bell tower
and you the bell. As you ring,
Practice: Embracing the Unknown
Today as you start your solo meandering walk, preferably in Nature, bring this theme of Embracing the Unknown with you on the path. As you meander, forget about reaching a specific destination, or walking a number of miles, or being on a schedule or navigating a given trail. Let go of the need to know where you are going. Notice when your mind is busy trying to figure things out and pause to reconnect with your intention to practice Embracing the Unknown. Experiment with walking as if in a liminal space where you do not know what is next: whom you may encounter, what the next turn may show, or what else you may discover on the path. Pay special notice to what you may be attracted to in this special state of awareness and of any insights that the natural world may give you about Embracing the Unknown. When you get back home, journal about these images or insights to further understand the wisdom that you may received about releasing the need for certainty in life.
Epidemics and Beautiful Harvests- Another Form of Pilgrimage?
Today, pre-corona virus era, I would have been on a flight to Japan to start the walk of the 88 temple pilgrimage route. Instead, I am finding myself in a different type of pilgrimage, but, very similarly in the betwixt and between, this liminal space between the old and the new. What is different here is that the entire world is in this transition, a season of waiting, a state of not knowing what is coming next. And being in the liminal space of not knowing is not easy: it brings doubt, anxiety, stress and a sense of having lost agency in one’s life. But it also can bring a sense of openness and curiosity and allows for new possibilities to emerge.
When I lead pilgrimages, after a few days of walking, I invite the participants into a practice of Embracing the Unknown. I usually start the conversation with the following Zen koan about not knowing:
Two Zen teachers meet; one is carrying his bags. “Where are you going?”, inquires the first teacher.
“I’m going on a pilgrimage”, the other teacher responds.
“What’s the purpose of pilgrimage?” asks the first teacher.
“I don’t know.” he responds.
“Not knowing is most intimate.” Replies the first teacher
What the teacher in the koan is saying is that not knowing is just right.
Marc Lesser, author of Seven Practices of a Mindful Leader- Lessons from Google and a Zen Monastery Kitchen, while commenting on this koan, writes:
“With not knowing, I am open, ready, willing to learn, to be surprised. I can see and hear others beyond my own ideas. Though my experience and knowledge are important, they can get in the way. When I let go of my own ideas, I can be present, humble. When I am humble, I am not afraid. I can enter this moment, engaged, moved, open – intimate.”
Being comfortable in the not knowing space needs practice: I am inviting you into this practice during a solo contemplative walk.