Known By Those Who Do Not Know

 He by whom Brahman is not known, knows it;

He by whom it is known, knows it not.

It is not known by those who know it,

It is known by those who do not know it.

Kena Upanishads 

What the fork? 

The above quote is not a mind twisting riddle, though it may seem to be. It is an  excerpt from the Kena Upanishads, a very important Hindu text dating back to 1000 BCE.  This text attempts to describe what God is...or probably more accurately...what God is not while constantly reiterating the limitations of concepts and words, the limitations of our thinking mind and our idea of knowledge  to describe, understand and to know something as hard as this source of everything we call God or Brahman is to know. If we think we know God "conceptually"...we do not know God at all.  If we understand there is no real way to know God with our limited minds...then we know God. 

There truly is only one way to "know" something and it is through what Wayne Dyer referred to as  "conscious contact." He goes on to say, in the linked vide below, that there is big difference between knowing "about" God and  knowing God. Most of us know about God without truly knowing God. 

Now many of us, whether we know it or not, are seeking to know God.  We go to religious centers, to scriptures, to dogma, to practices like prayer and meditation,  to Gurus in hope that they will create in us a conceptual knowledge of God. We seek to attain that "knowing" that will free us. We may devote most of our lives to doing this but Alan Watts tells us, in his recorded lecture ( see link below), that we are simply chasing our tail...going around in circles, getting nowhere when we do this.

Why? Because we already have that knowledge within us but we do not "know" it. We do not "know" it  because we do not know" ourselves in the "conscious contact" way.  We really do not know or experience who we are:

The God head cannot be the source of its own knowledge just as a knife cannot cut itself (somewhat paraphrased)

So just as we need a mirror to see our head, we look outside our self for God , depending on concepts and ideas and practices. Our minds have no way of handling "non-conceptual knowledge" that a true knowing entails. We seek knowledge from others. 

We may be told in our practices, in the scripture or by our priests, teachers or gurus...to "let go" of all these concepts...to "let go" of thinking. Following their directions, we shift gears and begin "doing the work" of letting go. We strive, we seek, we put effort into  attempting to "do nothing", to stop thinking these thoughts which are so much a part of us.  We meditate maybe to get to a state of trance induced  emptiness, mindlessness...the blank slate.  We think the trance like state of the meditator or seeker is enlightenment but Watts warns us that seeking this is just another trap leading to another tail chasing experience.

Meditation, Jhana yoga, prayer, listening to wise teachers is all wonderful, having  so many benefits to us in all realms of our existence but they are  not the be all and the end all of our evolving.  It is a medicine not the nutritious diet we need to sustain ourselves with. (paraphrased somewhat. ) Each element of our practice is merely a tool we use... a raft that takes us across the river. Once we get across...we are not finished and we do not pick up  the raft and carry it with us on our journey...we leave it there.  

You do not need anything to hang on to.  You are it. 

I love this:

You can't sit to meditate unless you are already a Buddha, in which case, why sit?

We meditate, not to get somewhere or to gain some special knowledge or to seek anything. That is counterproductive.   We meditate to connect to the stillness we already are, to have "conscious contact" with what is. There really isn't anything to gain from our practice because everything is nothing,

Hmmm! Something to think about.

All is well! 

Wayne Dyer/ Inner Self (n.d.) Just Stop Doing This and You Will Be Healed Permanently/ Wayne Dyer The Secret Powerhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1waHtJwcRaw

Alan Watts /Mind Awakening ( n.d.) Everything is Nothing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCk-5QB7aaQ