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There's a koan "Not Knowing is the Most Intimate" in the Shinji Shobogenzo - there is a relationship between "knowing" and "not knowing" that is dynamic, as Dokan and Dosho have both pointed out. I, like Dosho, do well to be in a place of "not knowing" - it keeps me open to the fact that my life is right now, rather than wanting it to be some other way..... but wait..... that is the "knowing" that comes with liberation!
The koan reminds me that being stuck in "not knowing" prevents me from moving beyond and being open to the present - which is a form of "knowing"- direct experience - perhaps there is a dynamic cycle of "not knowing" and "knowing," like that of vow and repentance.... attachment and liberation? "Knowing" in this case is transient.... moment to moment...... just as reality is composed of delusion and enlightenment....
Standard practice in every Kwan Um school sitting was.. "Only Don't Know!".... and a slap on the floor. Sometimes just a slap on the floor.. and once a slap on the floor and "the red floor is red!"
ha, this great! Even though we don't know, we should want to know, but not be attached to wanting to know; it's wanting to know that makes us human. If we just say don't know, ok no big deal, we could fall into complacency. But isn't true not knowing, still wandering the path of wanting to know all the while accepting what you don't know? If I drank, now would be the time for me to have a few. hahahah
ha, this great! Even though we don't know, we should want to know, but not be attached to wanting to know; it's wanting to know that makes us human. If we just say don't know, ok no big deal, we could fall into complacency. But isn't true not knowing, still wandering the path of wanting to know all the while accepting what you don't know? If I drank, now would be the time for me to have a few. hahahah
First questions and answers have absolute value and are tied to the gut, so they are dukkha. Then all questions and answers are resolved at their root in "don't know"... non-dukkha. Then questions and answers return, but are not longer an absolute value, no longer tied to the gut, and are not dukkha.
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