In the world of forms, “knowing” often means “learning concepts.” We will study for a test in school and say we know the material and if we get a good grade, it is confirmed that we knew the material. But this kind of “knowing” is really “believing” and being “conditioned” to accept a mind-derived concept as something real or useful.
We are conditioned from a very early age. The moment we have some understanding of language, we begin to conceptualize everything. Before a tree was a “tree” it was something of wonder. Before we could call the tree “tall” (“knowing” what tall meant) we would look at the tree and observe its majesty or its presence. As we grow older and have more experiences, we will have moments when the concepts don’t work anymore. Try standing next to a Giant Sequoia and call it a “tree.” The concept “tree” just doesn’t work anymore. The concept of “tall” really has no meaning. All you can do is look in wonder at this immense living expression.
This Sequoia experience is life. This kind of experience is living. This encounter, fully aware and not limited by the concepts of form, is an intimate moment of divine truth. The concepts fade away. Awareness is all that there is. The mind is quiet and your conditioning no longer applies. You are having a real “knowing” experience.
Jesus used a few different words that are translated as “knowing” or “to know” in the Christian bible. In the original language the Greek words can be translated as other than “knowing” or colors of knowing. Sometimes Jesus “knew” something as an observation or an understanding or a perceiving. Sometimes his “knowing” was like our modern expression of how we would describe our relationship with form. He “knew” concepts just like we do. But sometimes he used a special word. This word (translated as “to know”) is a word that implied intimate experiencing. As an example: “Adam knew Eve and they had a child.”
This kind of intimate knowing is why the formless manifests as form to know the formless.
And they said, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven
Let’s take the concept of “ice cream.” “Ice cream” is a name we give a frozen substance that we like to eat. If I say “I like ice cream”, you can relate. We find common ground in the world of form to have a conversation. We can be very scientific in our description and talk about how ice cream is made, what flavors we like, the different kinds of ice cream and so on. This is the mind categorizing under the false illusion of control. We believe as the egoic illusory self, we can control the future if we understand the past. As a separate-self, we are certain that creating concepts can control a circumstance. It isn’t good or bad. It is just the way it works in the world of form.
But we aren’t just a form. We are the formless having the experience of form. The infinite self localizes or constricts to a limited form to have the limited experience of the form. It is kind of like this hourglass:
And this is the great paradox of the formless manifesting as form to know the formless. To really “know” the essence of all things, to “know” the oneness of all things, to experience the eternal, to “know” the kingdom, to be aware of the awareness that we are…the infinite constricts itself down to an infinitesimal, focused point of light to pierce through the shadows of form.
OK, that is pretty ethereal so let me give you an example.
If I say “I like ice cream” then something happens in your mind. You begin to pull from memories of concepts and previous experiences. In a general way, a very shallow way, we make a connection through conceptualization. But if I go deeper and say “I love Ben and Jerry’s Chunky Monkey ice cream” we might pierce the shadows of from as the light we are. Like the great Sequoia tree, we might have had an experience with Chunky Monkey that moved us beyond the limits of form. We can’t describe it with words. We can’t give the experience to another with words. We use phrases: “you know its like a refreshing, ice-cold breeze on the morning of the first snow of the winter” or “it is heavenly” or “it is an explosion of flavor like the grand finale of the Central Park fire works on the 4th of July.”
As the formless, we experience the infinite through the finite of form when we intimate an experience. We are living when we are living as awareness. We go beyond the limits of form to “KNOW” the limitless through a form.
How is this possible? We let go of the concepts of form. We let go of judgment. We don’t think “I only like one kind of ice cream because it is the only kind that is worth my time.” We don’t think “I’ve seen a tree so I don’t need to go to the Sierra Nevadas to see a giant Sequoia with all those other tourists that will ruin my day.” We let go of our life of form to experience the eternal life that we are. We experience the oneness of our beingness in the absence of the limits of form. We pass through the neck of the hourglass, opening up to the unlimited nature of the divine.
And it is possible without going to the Ben and Jerry’s factory or the high Sierra mountains or the beaches of Fiji or the caves of Carlsbad or the top of K2 or the white cliffs of Dover. Eternal life is ever-present. It is just on the other side of paradox. We surrender to what IS to know truth. We let go of our judgements and concepts and categories. We let go of our incessant desire to control and to “know” as a form. We let go of having to “know” in the form sense. Instead we go deeper and deeper through the limits of form into the expansiveness of the formless.
We pause in the present moment to experience the present moment as the present moment. We let go of past or a future. We can’t pass through the neck of the hourglass if we are carrying the baggage of control, illusory egoic identity, past and future or mind conceived concepts. We surrender to the present moment. We can pause, go deep and let go. We can look at a blade of grass and know a Sequoia. We can smell of cup of coffee and know every flavor of Ben and Jerry’s. This is why we (God) manifested as form to “KNOW” the formless through form. It is why we are what we are; to live the eternal life.
“KNOWING” is a great pointer to the formless. Take a moment today and “KNOW” something you thought you knew before. Let go of your ideas of something and “KNOW” it for what it is. This is an incredible miracle of wonder that we ARE. Go ahead and let go to “KNOW” what you are.
Yay God!
Lance
alancetotheheart 