Not-Knowing in Our Culture

Not-Knowing in Our Culture

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3:15 Before the earth was completely explored and charted, one feature of many world maps was this phrase at the edge of what was known:

“Beyond this place be dragons.”

Although it’s not something we normally consider as a culture—especially in the United States, where a “pioneer spirit” is high on our list of values—we still harbor fear and mistrust concerning the unknown, and especially the unknowable.

3:16 One largely unquestioned cultural assumption I’ve already mentioned is that not-knowing is bad. Look into evidence of this in your own life. Have you ever felt embarrassment regarding ignorance, as though it is something to be avoided or denied, like a rash or being caught with your pants down? Most people have. The understanding is that a good or smart person “knows”—knows how to behave, knows the right answers, knows what “it” is all about, knows how to make it in the world, knows how to please the opposite sex, knows what’s funny, knows what’s in and what’s out, and any number of other specifics depending on the group in which he or she lives. Knowing is always preferred over not knowing. At best, the absence of knowing is looked on as a temporary state of the uninitiated, and at worst, as a flaw or defect. We abhor being ignorant and fear being stupid, and we work hard to ensure that no one finds out that we’re either one.

3:17 The issue here isn’t whether not knowing should be allowed to occur—it already does. Our challenge is the ineffective relationship we have to its occurrence. Even using the term “not knowing,” we are drawn to hold it as a negative. Although we have no appropriate term for this state, this tendency of language indicates our cultural values and is not necessarily an adequate expression of what’s there.

3:18 Not-knowing is itself. It is primary. Before knowing can happen, there must first be a space for it, a state of non-knowing. In our culture that doesn’t matter—we avoid not-knowing. We avoid the appearance of it, the awareness of it, the existence of it as a primary state of being. You and I continually experience not-knowing, but our attention is on what we know and perceive, so we don’t discern—and don’t want to discern—the not knowing. Although not-knowing is the “source” of knowing and is indispensable for creativity, it remains a virtually unrecognized principle in our culture.

3:19 Not-knowing isn’t just acceptable, it is “so”; it is true. In every moment of every day there is much that is unknown to us. The very act and nature of knowing means that there must be not-knowing. It is a basic and natural part of our awareness, or consciousness. Not-knowing is a constant, ever-present aspect of “being.” Knowing some answers doesn’t change that or diminish it in any way. For us it may appear as an emptiness, as ignorance, or as a sense of disconnectedness from the source and absolute nature of life and being. It may appear as what’s yet to be grasped, as openness, or as room for understanding and wisdom. Not-knowing appears to people in different forms, and while many of these may seem negative, none of them is a defect.

3:20 Consider for a moment the experience of not-knowing as a state in itself, rather than as the absence of something we value. What if you perceived it as a harmless, even beneficial condition, such as being calm? Without reference to knowing, and so without a “not,” it would just be that fundamental experience, perhaps something akin to openness, or nothing, or freedom. It would be like a clear space or a blank canvas: the basis for what is to come.

3:21 Held in this way, it becomes easier to see how such a state would provide a wider perspective. Without the clutter of opinions and beliefs, we are free of bias, and free to look in any direction. We are no longer stuck in beliefs or conventions, or limited by our cultural histories or individual past experiences. We might even approach real wisdom, since rather than the usual sophisticated juggling of facts and opinions that frequently passes for intelligence, we are now receptive to genuine insight. At the heart of this state we also discover a freedom of being. Here is our primary self, the one that is original, unformed and open, creative but without mental chatter filling in all the blanks. This is the nature of the real-self.

3:22 The state of not-knowing is the mother of openness, questioning, authenticity, and freedom. Its nature is consciousness without form, possibility without limit, honesty without distortion. Not-knowing is a natural and healthy aspect of being alive, but in our culture we have no foundation upon which to understand it. Placing ourselves in a negative relationship to something that is fundamentally true in our own daily experience is a very silly and damaging thing to do. To go through life as though not knowing is bad—when, in every moment of our experience, not-knowing is true and always present—what does that leave us with? It leaves us with a constant struggle. It leaves us with an aberrant relationship to our own condition. And isn’t that what we’ve got?

3:23 As we begin to recognize and challenge the many assumptions we live by, we uncover a new freedom and open possibilities. It becomes clear that we need no longer take any of our assumptions as reality. At any time, we can set them aside, open up to not-knowing, and seek out a more genuine experience.

There is no freedom of thought without doubt.

—Bergen Baldwin Evans

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The Book of Not Knowing, Chapter Three, The Cultural Matrix

Peter Ralston