"I Don’t Know" Redux

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I received an email late last night that went like this:

These days all I can hear myself say is "I'm not sure” and "I don't know."
A friend told me to stop saying that, as she thinks I know quite a bit.
The jury is out on that one!
Do you want to have tea sometime? Where did that come from?
"I don't know."

To which I replied:
You do know. We all know.
It's just that it has to come from a place of Silence
and our entry into That is often blocked by fear or grief or shame
or any other strong emotion.
Any agitation that stirs the mud up makes it seem like we do not know.
So, before you can sit with your knowing, you have to sit with the emotions.

If you don't want to run away from others, stop running from yourself.
Just stop.
Just sit quietly and feel what's going on in your body.
Have tea with her.

This approach of feeling What Is in the body is what Eckhart Tolle or Adyashanti might recommend.
The body knows.
It remembers.
It serves us warnings when we wander from the Truth.
Sitting and being with What Is inside may very well bring out the pain body.

(Pain body? Here’s a good definition – I have no idea who “John” is and this is NOT to be taken as any kind of endorsement of his work beyond – good definition.)

But, continuing to sit with the discomfort, will let it be soothed and healed.

This is one way forward, via the body.

There is also a more cognitive approach: accepting What Is in the mind,
as found in The Work by Byron Katie.

Sometimes it’s easier to work with in the body.
Sometimes it’s easier to work with the mind.
One approach does not exclude the other.
In fact, one leads eventually right into the other.
After all, it’s called “mind-body,” right?

So, here are some Katie quotes to get you rolling, if that be your preference.

Katie-Isms (are the words in bold):

Thoughts aren’t personal. They just appear, like raindrops. Would you argue with a raindrop?

Thoughts appear; beliefs create. (Very much like Adya, yes?)

You either believe what you think or you question it. There’s no other choice.


There’s only one thought to question: the one appearing now.

There are no new stressful thoughts. They’re all recycled.

Stress is an alarm clock that lets you know you’ve attached to something not true for you. (Such an important clue! Listen to the body.)

All sadness is a tantrum.
(I really like this one! Once you learn to catch yourself secretly enjoying your misery, trouble dissolves So Much Faster, because you have learned to recognize your own self-indulgence.)

Mind needs the drama to stay identified as a "you" and mind is NOT you.
(Often AKA the Pain Body pitching a fit.)

Everyone is a mirror image of yourself—your own thinking coming back at you. (So, why am I getting these midnight emails? “The Self unfolds Itself, by Itself, to Itself.”)


You see only what you believe. Nothing else is possible

Nothing you believe is true. To know this is freedom. (Adyashanti’s “thief in the night. … and still Nothing I believe… how very radical – I’m not there yet.)

We suffer only until we realize that we can’t know anything.

“I don’t know” is my favorite position.


If you want to see the love of your life, look in the mirror.