Unknown Comfort. . .
We spend a surprising amount of our lives trying to know what happens next. Will this work out? Will I be okay? Did I make the right decision? What will happen to my health, relationships, work, family or future?
The mind loves certainty because certainty feels safe. So when answers aren’t available, we often manufacture them. We predict, assume and worry. We create entire futures inside our heads and then experience emotional reactions to events that haven’t actually happened.
Buddhist practice offers another possibility: What if we became more comfortable with not knowing? This doesn’t mean becoming passive or careless. We still plan, prepare and make thoughtful decisions. But eventually every plan reaches the edge of what we can control.Beyond that edge is uncertainty. And much of our suffering comes from insisting that uncertainty shouldn’t exist.
The Buddha’s teaching on impermanence reminds us that conditions are continually changing. Tomorrow isn’t sitting somewhere fully formed, waiting for us to discover it. It is still becoming.
People will make choices, circumstances will shift, new information will appear and we will change too. So perhaps instead of continually asking, “What’s going to happen?” we might ask: “How do I want to meet whatever happens?” That question returns our power to the present.
We may not know what tomorrow brings, but today we can practice patience. We can strengthen compassion, become more adaptable, and repair relationships. We can take care of our bodies, pay attention to our health needs and appreciate what is here before it all changes.
There is something wonderfully freeing about admitting: I don’t know. Not knowing leaves the door open – the conversation isn’t finished and the path hasn’t ended. Possibilities still exist.
Buddhist wisdom isn’t always about finding better answers. Sometimes wisdom is developing enough courage, curiosity and presence to live peacefully while the answer is still unfolding. And perhaps that is what life has been asking of us all along – not to know every turn in the road. Just to be awake enough to take the next step.
Peace and Love, Jim
#forward #thedailybuddha #tdb
