Daily Dharma

In Zen, we are invited to see life as a question. We are encouraged to open to the 'don't know' mind and to embrace the insecurity of uncertainty. This does not make us confused; on the contrary it allows us to wonder at life like a child and to find marvels in the most ordinary. This is not an intellectual inquiry, we need to be engaged with the whole of our being. It is said that we have to question with the marrow of our bones and the pores of our body.

[...from Thorson's Principles of Zen by Martine Batchelor, pg. 16-17]

Comments

[Ananga Sivyer]

Thank you for this valid point. It's funny how people often see an enquiring and open mind as an unsure one - when in fact, it's the mind that thinks it knows it all and closes it's doors to the constant learning and adjusting process that should be part of life that is truly unsure. Unsure because it stops asking, learning and expanding and is, therefore, running an old and fixed program where it mistakes rigidity for certainty.

[J]

I happened to find this page randomly and this quote really struck me as truthful. I continually worry about what is or isn’t going to happen, or what someone does or doesn’t think. Being able to accept that I don’t know would really relieve me of unnecessary anxiety… but doing that is the hard part.

[CJ]

When you think about it, embracing insecurity is really the ultimate security. People spend their lives looking for certainty so that they can be rid of that feeling of unease. But it is so much better to be comfortable with uncertainty, which is a much more reliable way of losing that feeling of unease.