May 2022

In this issue:

unknowing

Unknowing
Rev. Master Koshin Schomberg

A person who thinks he or she knows enough does not even consider the possibility of seeking another person's advice. But, of course, no one ever knows everything there is to know in any area of life. So we are more capable of learning if we are humble enough to recognize that sometimes we can benefit from the experience and understanding of others. This is as true in religion as in any other area of human life. This is why we have the refuge of the Sangha in Buddhism: the refuge of “those who know the Eternal.”

But there is another dimension in religion—the dimension of taking refuge directly in the Eternal. The primary job of a Zen master in relationship to the disciples is to give the disciples a living example of someone who recognizes that he or she does not have all the answers, and who, as a direct consequence of this recognition, seeks, and relies upon, the guidance of the Eternal. In order for that reliance to become very deep, the conviction of unknowing must also become very deep.

Unknowing is not the same as lack of spiritual certainty. For one may have a profound conviction that one does not know anything, and at the same time, and in the same degree, one may be meditatively relying upon the Eternal. There is a whole universe of spiritual certainty in such reliance.

The deep cry of the heart for help is the gateway to unknowing. The limits of our own humanity—all our suffering and all the causes of our suffering—bring us one day to that cry for help. It is said that when the disciple is ready, the master appears. This fortuitous coming together of master and disciple at just the right moment is an answer from the Eternal to the cry of the heart of the disciple-to-be.

It is the disciple's duty to follow the master into the profundity of unknowing. This is going to require more than one cry of the heart. And it is going to require more than one hour or day in which one is conscious of the utter futility of attempting to find a refuge in opinions and emotions. In truth, it is an on-going adventure.

The profundity of unknowing is the reverse side of the intuitive recognition of the Eternal. These are two aspects of one reality. Both simply bypass the brain and all our thoughts, theories, and opinions. Yet the Eternal does not despise anything. So it also happens that when we abide in unknowing, the Eternal can get a word in edgewise and make use of our capacity to think and understand (along with all our other capacities) to benefit beings. We may appreciate such use and be grateful for it, but it is the height of folly to claim ownership of it: that which comes from the Eternal belongs to the Eternal.