Ever felt lost? Confused? Uncertain?
Yeah, me too.
I like to joke about how I’ve never been lost geographically. Blessed with an acute sense of direction, hiking or driving from point A to point B has rarely been a problem for me.
I wish I could say the same about navigating life.
Should I take this job? Is this guy trustworthy? Why do I feel this way? Can I trust my feelings? Should I take the vaccine? Should I self-publish? Should I convert to Judaism? Is it time to put the cat to sleep? Is this a good investment? Should I marry this guy? Is it okay to let my relentlessly abusive alcoholic step-father die alone in a singlewide trailer in Florida without trying to rescue him? Can I count on my retirement benefits? My 401-K? My stock portfolio? My employer? My dog?
And that’s just the personal stuff.
Fake News has taken social uncertainty to the brink of insanity, and us along with it. Did Trump really win? Is Hilary really a pedophile? Is the media totally bought and paid for? Is Covid really as bad as it’s being presented to be? Can I trust my president? My senator? The CDC? Merck, Sanofi, and Pfizer? My local newspaper? The beat cop on my street? My bartender?
“In this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes,” quipped Benjamin Franklin. Yeah. No shit Sherlock.
And yet … haven’t there been times in your life when certainty was absolute?
I’m not talking about having a strong opinion about something (Jesus is the ONLY Son of God!) or being so sure that Frank Abagnale was the name of the guy in the movie Catch Me if You Can that you placed a $100 bet on it. (Abagnale successfully posed as a Pan Am pilot, a Georgia doctor and a Louisiana prosecutor while forging and cashing millions of dollars in fraudulent checks—all before the tender age of 19!)
I’m not talking about that kind of certainty. I’m talking about the inexplicable, unexplainable certitude that grips you out of the blue—a certitude that can only be called knowing—that whispers “Turn left here” or “We really are all ONE” or “OMG, I’m gonna marry this guy” and you only met 5 minutes ago.
Knowing.
Not belief. Not faith. Not facts, good memory, good vibes or logical extrapolation … knowing.
Knowing is a mystery. And it’s our default state of mind. The consciousness of the True Self. The mind of Who We Really Are: God. Source. The Divine. Christ Consciousness. ONEness.
The abode of Truth with a capital “T,” knowing is a shockingly absolute state in which the words “doubt,” “uncertainty,” and “confusion,” don’t even exist.
Knowing is an infinitely free, infinitely peaceful state of consciousness where the phrases “individual truth” and “personal perspective” don’t make any sense because individual and personal don’t really exist when ONEness is realized and being expressed. There is no individual perspective. No individual truth. Just THE Truth of God. One. Whole. Absolute.
(Yes, I know. If you want to get into a red hot argument try talking with someone about THE Truth and any sort of Absolute state. And yet this state is our inheritance and natural abode.)
It’s only recently that I’ve begun to be shocked at how “normal” uncertainty is in our society. How “of course” it is. How devastatingly painful our unquestioning assumption of the inescapable reality of uncertainty is.
And yet how not?
In the physical world of duality there is no absolute. There is not wholeness. There is only the conflict of opposing forces and the illusion of individual perspectives. This is our human “normal.” And yet we aren’t really human. We are spirit. And spiritual vision is of unity.
There is no understanding it. Unity (and the knowing that comes with it) cannot be grasped with the human mind. It can only be experienced … and we all do experience it.
Which brings me to my point.
Uncertainty and confusion are a huge part of the ego’s identity. Clinging to our (painful but familiar) human identity, we are indeed lost in the dark forest. To know is seen as an arrogant impossibility. And yet it is our only safe harbor and refuge.
In these times of turmoil and confusion I am leaning hard into knowing. I am asking to know. I am asking to come to clear vision because the Truth of God and clear vision are my heritage and inheritance … as they are yours.
As we ask … so do we receive.
And so it is