Beyond the Known
What we perceive as “the known” is a mental image—a construct of thought designed to help us navigate life with a semblance of certainty. This construct is merely a map, a working hypothesis for practical use. The problem arises when we mistake the map for the terrain it seeks to describe. Confusing reality with our ideas about it leads to frustration, misunderstanding, and conflict.
The word bread cannot satisfy hunger, nor can the image of a lake quench thirst. Concepts are tools, not realities—they are arrows pointing toward direct experience, which is entirely different in nature. To say, “I know what this is,” is to impose a static and oversimplified concept onto something alive, dynamic, and infinitely complex.
Reality exists before we think about it, name it, or attempt to understand it. No word, theory, or image can encapsulate its fullness. The stronger our attachment to concepts as truth, the more we entangle ourselves in confusion. Reality, unfiltered, lies beyond thought, beyond knowledge, and beyond concept.
What we call the known is like ripples on the surface of an ocean—an ocean of unfathomable power and depth. There is no fixed boundary where the wave ends and the ocean begins. They are not opposing forces but fluid, interconnected aspects of the same energy. However, mistaking the surface for the whole is to sever ourselves from the true source of life, creativity, and meaning.
How can we access the unknown in our lives? Perhaps the better question is, how could we not? Can there be a path to something that is everywhere? The unknown is not reached through effort or searching, rather, simply by removing our unquestioned beliefs in the known. When we let go of our attachments to what we think we know, boundless reality reveals itself—ever-present, always accessible and free.
The wonder of a starry sky, the beauty of music, the intimacy of love, or the stillness of a tree—anything can become a doorway to the infinite and the formless. Anything is a mirror back to the source. Truth infuses every experience, every thought, and every state of mind.
At the root of all experience lies not the objective world, but the non-conceptual awareness that precedes it and makes every experience possible. That presence-awareness is itself the formless, the wholeness, the completeness, and the freedom we mistakenly seek in the outer world.
The known is not the end—it is a step toward the infinite, a mirror reflecting our true universal nature. By daring to venture beyond the surface, we access a space where the true heart of reality pulses. Stepping into the unknown does not lead to chaos or disintegration; it is a return to our primordial home—the source of everything—where all things exist as one.
IMF, September 2024
