Many in our culture believe that knowledge comes to us only via the senses; that the only legitimate source of knowledge is via empirical science and conclusions drawn from empiricism. Some in our culture believe that true knowledge is also given though divine revelation via sacred scripture. And some believe that legitimate knowledge is also obtainable through intuitive or psychic means. As a culture, we have a very mixed and conflicted epistemology.[1]
Truth can be revealed in an infinite number of ways because truth is what we are. To be is to know. “Truth lies within ourselves: it takes no rise from outward things, whatever you may believe.” [2] But in egoic identification we separate our sense of self from both being and knowing; we seek truth as if it were outside of us.[3] Only if we feel separated from our essential nature do we seek it outside of ourselves.
Virtually all of us alive today are in the mental structure of consciousness as described by the philosopher Jean Gebser [4]. As such, we perceive time and space as absolute; we perceive the material world to be essentially non-living and devoid of meaning; and we perceive ourselves to be embedded in, yet separated from, the world around us. Present-day humanity, deeply embedded in this structure, feels trapped and isolated in a dead and meaningless universe.
At another level of consciousness (Gebser’s Integral structure of consciousness) we experience the world to be alive with meaning and ourselves an intrinsic part of that meaning. We experience a profound sense of belonging and a deep intimacy with the universe. At the Integral stage of consciousness we know the universe to be endlessly revealing itself to us.
Several years ago I was speaking at a church on the island of Maui, HI. At the church service a young Japanese girl, named Kamiko, played a very beautiful piece of music on the piano. After the service I introduced myself and told her how I appreciated her performance. I did not recognize the composition that she played, so I asked her the name of the composer. With a shy smile, she said “me.” Kamiko then told me the following story.
About three years earlier (she was thirteen at that time) Kamiko was with her parents vacationing on Maui. She was swimming alone in shallow water when she noticed three dolphins near her. They were about thirty feet away and began swimming in a circle around her. She was spellbound. They swam in this circle for several minutes and then disappeared.
That night she was awakened by the sound of piano music. Kamiko soon realized that she was the only one who could hear the music--it was coming from inside her. She began to see musical notes in her mind’s eye so she copied these notes on paper. She did so until the music stopped. This scenario continued intermittently for several nights until she had recorded the complete score. The melody that I heard her play was the first one she had recorded. She “composed” several more pieces in this manner. Eventually the phenomenon ceased, but she began to consciously compose music in a more conventional—yet very creative way. At age sixteen it seemed that she was well on her way to a shining career in musical composition and performance!
I tell this story not to imply that dolphins have supernatural powers, but to illustrate the point that we live in a universe far more intelligent and interconnected than we can imagine. We live in a universe that loves to reveal its nature to us. We just need to be open… and listen.
I met many people today who are “seeking guidance” about something. This is good as long as we don’t become too fixated on how that guidance is to appear. Often I hear it portrayed as some kind of “divine download” --as if the guidance we seek is floating about in cosmic cyberspace. The guidance that we seek is closer than our next breath when we release the mental constructs that create the illusion of separation.
Often the problem is not that we aren’t getting the right answers, it’s that we are not asking the right questions. Perhaps we need to focus more upon forming the question than getting the answer. I have found much wisdom in these words from Rainer Maria Rilke:
…have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, liked locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day.[6]
Conscious evolution involves asking relevant questions and mindfully living out the answers. The questions we ask are shaped by the intentions that we hold in mind and heart; the answers we receive are forged by the quality of our attention.
[1] Epistemology is the philosophy that addresses the question: How is knowledge acquired?
[2] Robert Browning. “Paracelsus” Masterpieces of Religious Verse, New York: Harper and Brothers, 1948, 431.
[3] Information may exist outside of us, but true knowledge is always from within.
[4] Gebser, Jean. The Ever-Present Origin. Noel Barstad, Trans, Athens Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1949/1985, xxvii.
[6] Letters to a Young Poet. Joan Burnham Trans, San Rafael CA: New World Library 1992, 35.