Video Blog Transcription:

(00:00):
Welcome to the Natural Way of Being Video Blog. This video is titled “The Dimension of the Unknown”. So there's this really cool practice in my tradition that I was trained to ask myself before I go into ceremony, or before you go into any experience of life, actually. And it's basically to say to yourself, “I am nothing. I know nothing.”

Now, if you think about it, it's kind of an odd thing to say, right? Our culture really values knowing things. We get trained for a job, we go to college, we study to take a test. It all is about knowing things. And here we're saying, “I am nothing. I know nothing.” So it's like taking all the things we know and putting them aside. So why would we do that? Why would we say that to ourselves?

(00:54)
Well, the reason is, it turns out that when you say that to yourself, it opens a dimension of being. And more specifically, it opens the dimension of the unknown. To explore this, I want to contrast and differentiate the dimension of the known and the dimension of the unknown. And first of all, what's in these different dimensions?

So the dimension of the known includes all of our experiences, all of the things that we're conscious of. It includes all of the things that we've learned, all the lessons, the cause and effect: when I do this, then this tends to happen. And so the dimension of the unknown basically includes everything else. And as it turns out, you may have noticed, the dimension of the unknown is really vast. And from what I can tell it’s pretty much unlimited.

(01:55)
So when you compare that to the dimension of the known, as cool as it is, we've worked hard for it, right? As cool as it is, it's fairly small compared to the dimension of the unknown and ends up being somewhat limiting.

So if you had this really challenging problem or question, do you want to know the things and the answers you're conscious of? Or do you want to know all of the answers and all the possibilities in all of life? So then this video is really about how do we access the dimension of the unknown so we can access all the possibilities of life.

So the next thing is, how do we access these different dimensions? So with the dimension of the known, what we do is, we have a problem or we ask a question, and then we scan and seek, and we go through and like accessing, accessing all of our previous experiences. And then we look for and find an answer or a solution.

(03:03):
And when we find that answer or solution, it closes the loop. It solves the problem. So then we can rest, and it's kind of a relief. Right? I had this problem, I found an answer, I'm good, I can move on. I can let it go. So the mind likes that. It likes to find solutions to its problems fairly quickly. And there's no quicker way to solve them by accessing the known.

So in contrast, when we're working with the dimension of the unknown, we're going to intentionally leave the loop open. So we're not going to go with the first answer or the first solution to our problem. We're going to say, “Okay, that's a cool solution, but what else?” We're leaving it open and then this presents to our mind and to our being that there's this unsolved problem, or there's this unanswered question.

(04:04):
And then what it does is it opens it up and we start having ideas, and we start having intuitions, and different things come to us to help us solve this problem. Now, this is a little uncomfortable because remember the mind likes things closed so we have to sit with it for a little bit. And what it ends up doing is it opens us up to all the possibilities.

The known usually has one possibility, two it best, right? The unknown has this infinite number of possibilities, and we just leave it open and new possibilities keep coming to us, as long as we're willing to leave it open. Now, understanding that leaving it open is uncomfortable and it's not always practical to leave it open for a long time. But as long as we leave it open, we're getting new possibilities that are going to present themselves to us.

(05:00):
So let's look at how this works in day-to-day life. So say life presents a problem to us, and we're trying to solve it. Say I'm at work and one of my clients is mad at me or hurt because I didn't return her email. And so to start with the known, and typically when we have a problem, we often start with the known dimension. I mean, not everyone, some of you are intuitive and have quick intuitive ideas that go beyond the known.

But let's just say for the sake of our example that we start with the known dimension. So it's like, “My client's mad at me, so let me think, let me access it. When clients have been mad at me before, what seems to work is I'm just really honest. I answer their email. I really work hard to regain their trust and blah, blah, blah.” So those are some ideas and solutions from the known perspective. And that's what comes to us first.

(06:15)
So if we want to go further than that, and we want to venture into the unknown dimension, that's a good place to start. But then what we say to ourselves is, “Okay, that's one possibility; what else is here?” see which opens the loop. We have one possibility, and we may use that one. It’s very practical and it worked before.

But it’s saying, “That's great. What else is here?” Which opens the loop, and then we can sit with it. And again, this isn't always the most comfortable thing, but then new ideas start coming in, new intuitions, new possibilities. It's like, “Oh, I could also do this. Or I could also do this.” And then a day later, “What about this?” Until we finally, what happens is, we can do this until we find one that really resonates with this. It's like, “Yeah, I like that one. That's the one I'm going to do.”

(07:16)
We've used both the known and the unknown, but the key is to access the unknown, we have to go beyond just the known. We have to like, “Yah, the known is one possibility, but we have to keep the loop open, which isn't always comfortable but can be very exciting if we're willing to stick with it.

So it's like sitting with things, not just going with the first answer, it's like, “That's good, but what else?” And just sitting with it a little longer, allowing our intuition, allowing our connection to all of life to kick in. And then all of a sudden it's like, “Oh wow, we can also do this and also do this.” Or we could even explore it with our client. But it's not closing the loop, it's leaving it open.

So anyway, that is my video blog for this week. I hope that you have enough courage to explore the unknown dimension of being this week and to sit with things a little bit longer to see if there are some other possibilities there. So thanks a lot for watching, and I will see you in a week.