Posts Tagged ‘uncertainty’
Asking Is The Answer
“We never cease to stand like curious children
before the great Mystery into which we were born.”
“The important thing is not to stop questioning.
Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”
~ Albert Einstein
“What I see in Nature is a magnificent structure
that we can comprehend only very imperfectly,
and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling of humility.
This is a genuinely religious feeling that has nothing to do with mysticism.”
~ Albert Einstein
“Ask, and it will be given to you
For every one who asks receives.”
~ Matthew 7:7-8; Luke 11:9-10
The quest is in the question.
The question is the answer.
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“I claim to be a simple individual
liable to err like any other fellow mortal.
I own, however, that I have humility enough
to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi
Asking Is The Answer
In asking, we are curious.
In asking, we don’t know.
In asking, we are humble.
In asking, we are ever open to inspiration.
Ever asking,
ever curious,
ever open,
ever humble,
ever unknowing:
This is the answer
to the enigma of the Unknowable,
to the mystery of Divinity –
The sacred secret of Life.
Ron’s audio recitation of “Asking is the Answer”
Ron’s explanation and dedication of “Asking is the Answer”.
Dear Friends,
The above “Asking Is The Answer” sutra poem summarizes one of the most important lessons I’ve learned so far from living a long and blessed lifetime: viz. to always keep curious and open minded, just as when we begin our lives as unacculturated children.
Since my midlife spiritual awakening, I’ve learned that open-minded curiosity and humility are crucial for life-long learning and spiritual advancement.
One of my greatest joys has been to continuously learn from life, while realizing that we live as part of Nature, in a world of infinite mystery with infinite possibility.
In his wonderful poem “Certainty” Sant Tukaram reminded us that nothing is “certain” in this world of permanent impermanence; that inflexible certainty – even about God – “can become an illness that creates hate and greed”.
And similar perennial wisdom was expressed and demonstrated by Albert Einstein, a scientific genius who was always intrigued by the eternal mysteries of Nature. Einstein, who described himself as a deeply religious man awed by the mystery of the eternity of life, and the … marvelous structure of reality, observed that:
“We never cease to stand like curious children
before the great Mystery into which we were born.”
“The important thing is not to stop questioning.
Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”
~ Albert Einstein
Especially in these extraordinarily turbulent and divisive times of worldwide interpersonal and international challenges arising from our “leaders’ and our species’ harmful and unsustainable behaviors, we can best address life’s challenges by heeding and following perennial wisdom demonstrated and counseled by our wise ancestors like Einstein and Sant Tukaram.
So let us learn, individually and societally, to get along with all others, especially our supposed adversaries or enemies.
Let us remain open-minded, humble and curious, always remembering and compassionately honoring the spiritual essence and divine equality of everyone everywhere, without mistaken certainty or hostility about them.
Invocation
With stilled minds and opened hearts, may we resolve current crises and compassionately live with peace and justice everywhere, without immoral exploitation and discrimination against the world’s most vulnerable sentient beings, and the iniquity of inequity in our societies.
And so shall it be!
Ron Rattner
Certainty ~ by Sant Tukaram*
“Certainty can become an illness
that creates hate and greed.”
~ Sant Tukaram
“The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning.
Uncertainty is the very condition
to impel man to unfold his powers.”
~ Erich Fromm
“Since no one really knows anything about God,
those who think they do are just troublemakers.”
~ Rabia of Basra (first female Sufi saint)
“Never lose a holy curiosity” . . . .
“The important thing is not to stop questioning”.
~ Albert Einstein
“The whole problem with the world is that
fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves,
and wiser people so full of doubts.”
~ Bertrand Russell
When questioning begins, certainty ends.
When certainty ends, wisdom begins.
The fewer our certainties, the greater our possibilities.
With complete uncertainty, we have infinite possibility.
Everything is possible when nothing is inevitable.
We are shackled by illusory bonds of belief.
Freedom is beyond belief.
So, we seek relief from belief.~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
Certainty
Certainty undermines one’s power, and turns happiness
into a long shot. Certainty confines.
Dears, there is nothing in your life that will
not change – especially your ideas of God.
Look what the insanity of righteous knowledge can do:
crusade and maim thousands
in wanting to convert that which
is already gold
into gold.
Certainty can become an illness
that creates hate and
greed.
God once said to Tuka,
“Even I am ever changing –
I am ever beyond
Myself,
what I may have once put my seal upon,
may no longer be
the greatest
Truth.”
~ Tukaram*
Source: “Love Poems From God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West”, with interpretation by Daniel Ladinsky
Footnote: *Sant Tukaram was a 16th century Indian devotional poet-saint, still widely regarded as one of India’s greatest and most influential poet-saints.
Ron’s Comments About “Certainty”:
Dear Friends,
Are you absolutely certain about anything in your life?
Have you ever been absolutely certain about something or someone, and later learned that your certainty was mistaken?
If so, please consider the foregoing quotations and wonderfully translated poem by 16th century devotional poet-saint Tukaram, one of India’s greatest and still most influential poet-saints.
These wisdom writings remind us that nothing is “certain” in this world of permanent impermanence; that inflexible certainty – even about God – “can become an illness that creates hate and greed”.
Throughout recorded human history, individuals and societies have been compelled to abandon previously cherished inflexible beliefs about religion, science, philosophy etc. which limited learning, impeded progress, and motivated evil and harmful behaviors.
How could we have advanced believing that the earth was flat, or that it was the center of our solar system, or that intuitive women should be burned as witches?
Thanks to quantum science ‘uncertainty’ theory, we have learned from physicists that what we’ve believed to be physical ‘reality’ isn’t really real; that ultimate “Reality” is indescribable consciousness.
“Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real.”
~ Niels Bohr, quantum physicist
“I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.”
~ Max Planck, Nobel Prize-winning physicist
After an unforgettable midlife spiritual awakening, I have learned that open-minded curiosity and awareness are crucial for life-long learning and spiritual advancement. My awakening epiphany completely and irreversibly changed prior paradigms of Self-identity and Reality, and began a new life-phase of previously unimagined new discoveries.
One of my greatest joys has been in continuously learning from life itself, especially from inevitable difficulties and challenges. Thus I’ve found that we don’t need college or post graduate academic degrees to learn our most important lessons.
In recent years, many people worldwide have been experiencing and behaving from polarized fearful and reactive states of mind directed to others with conflicting political perspectives. To address this disturbing divisiveness, and consequent turmoil, we can follow principles of ageless wisdom revealed by Sant Tukaram’s critique of “Certainty”.
Although purported world “leaders” may seem insanely “certain” of themselves, Earth’s suffering citizens can best address crucial interpersonal and international political challenges, by compassionately honoring the spiritual essence and divine equality of everyone everywhere, without mistaken certainty about them.
Invocation
May Sant Tukaram’s wisdom inspire us
to transcend mistaken certainty
“that creates hate and greed”.
With quiet minds and open hearts
may we compassionately honor
the spiritual essence and equality of everyone everywhere.
Thereby let us overcome exploitation and discrimination
against the world’s most vulnerable sentient beings,
and the iniquity of inequity in our societies.
May Sant Tukaram’s wisdom inspire us
to transcend mistaken certainty
“that creates hate and greed”.
With quiet minds and open hearts
may we compassionately honor
the spiritual essence and equality of everyone everywhere.
Thereby let us overcome exploitation and discrimination
against the world’s most vulnerable sentient beings,
and the iniquity of inequity in our societies.
And so shall it be!
Ron Rattner
Certainty and Uncertainty
“The whole problem with the world is that
fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves,
and wiser people so full of doubts.”
~ Bertrand Russell
“When questioning begins, certainty ends.
When certainty ends, wisdom begins.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“There are only two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
~ Albert Einstein
“We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us.”
~ Albert Einstein
“There is no certainty, there is only adventure.”
~ Roberto Assagioli
“The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning.
Uncertainty is the very condition to impel man to unfold his powers.”
~ Erich Fromm
Certainty and Uncertainty
Q. Is anything certain in life?
A. In space/time “reality”, the only certainty is impermanence or change.
Thus in this world, uncertainty is the only certainty.
But, in Absolute Reality beyond relativity there is only Mystery – the Mystery of Life.
So, ultimately, the only certainty in life, is the Mystery of Life itself.
For further consideration of uncertainty and Mystery here are a few apt sutra sayings:
Sutra sayings about certainty and uncertainty
Uncertainty is the mother of Mystery
– Mystery of Divinity.
In relative reality nothing’s certain but uncertainty.
Certainty certainly masks Mystery.
As we open to Mystery,
we transcend shackles of certainty,
ever enhancing possibilities
of realizing our potentialities.
The fewer our certainties, the greater our possibilities.
With complete uncertainty, we have infinite potentiality.
Everything is possible when nothing is inevitable.
So, absolutely, we seek absolution from absolutism.
Ron’s recitation of Certainty and Uncertainty sayings
Ron’s Comments About Certainty and Uncertainty :
Dear Friends,
Have you ever been absolutely certain about something or someone,
and later learned that your certainty was mistaken?
If so, especially in these turbulent times of worldwide pandemic panic, controversy and divisiveness, please consider the foregoing writings about certainty and uncertainty.
Throughout recorded history, in order to evolve, human societies have been compelled to abandon previously cherished inflexible beliefs about religion, science, philosophy etc. which motivated evil and harmful behaviors, limited learning, and impeded progress.
How could we have advanced believing that the earth was flat, or that it was the center of our solar system?
Thanks to ‘uncertainty’ theory, we’ve learned from quantum physicists that what we’ve believed to be physical ‘reality’ isn’t really real; that ultimate “Reality” is indescribable consciousness emanating from an ever mysterious matrix.
“Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real.”
~ Niels Bohr, quantum physicist
“I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.”
~ Max Planck, Nobel Prize-winning physicist
Although some fallible world “leaders” may seem insanely overconfident and “certain” of themselves, Earth’s suffering citizens can best address critical crises by carefully questioning and nonviolently resisting all “official” certainties which can cause harm or deter needed advancement.
For example, multi-billionaire Bill Gates, a software technocrat and eugenicist, with absolutely no medical or biological academic or clinical training, is currently asserting with certainty (as a self-proclaimed health authority) that all humans worldwide must be vaccinated against current coronavirus pandemic pathogens, though no such vaccine exists, and it would take years to properly develop and scientifically test such a vaccine. But numerous expert research virologists, epidemiologists, biologists, health academics and clinicians have challenged Gates’ assertions. And independent researchers have adduced factual evidence controverting Gates, including reports by his former family physician that Gates refused to have his own children vaccinated. (See e.g. https://childrenshealthdefense.org/)
Similarly, many world governments and autocratic bureaucrats, especially in the USA, are rushing to install admittedly untested so-called 5G wireless networks, drones, and satellites as ‘certainly’ needed for progress, despite overwhelming independent scientific studies implicating these technologies as dangerously harmful to health of all humans and other bio-forms on this planet. (See e.g. We Have No Reason to Believe 5G Is Safe.)
Thus, to preserve all life on our precious planet and to evolve beyond imminently threatened cataclysms we must open-mindedly and nonviolently, but unrelentingly, resist all deluded autocrats and bureaucrats who could insanely and ignorantly end earth-life as we have known it.
Invocation
With quiet minds and open hearts may we ever remember that Nature is our nature, and compassionately honor the spiritual essence and equality of everyone everywhere.
May we thereby nonviolently resist and transcend all mistaken ‘certainties’ that create harm and greed.
And thus may we democratically overcome all insanely unsustainable and greedy exploitation of our precious planet, and unjust discrimination against vulnerable sentient beings, and the iniquity of inequity in our societies.
And so shall it be!
Ron Rattner
Tuned Out, to Tune In –
Being in the world, but not of the world
“That which is timeless is found now.”
~ Buddha
“Life can be found only in the present moment.
The past is gone, the future is not yet here,
and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment,
we cannot be in touch with life.”
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Tao and Zen
are NOW,
not then.
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Fools follow the desires of the flesh
and fall into the snare of all-encompassing death;
but the wise, knowing the Self as eternal,
seek not the things that pass away”
~ Katha Upanishad 2:1:2
“Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold;
happiness dwells in the soul.”
~ Democritus
“Wealth consists not in having great possessions,
but in having few wants.”
~ Epictetus
Tuned Out, to Tune In
I’ve temporarily tuned
out of temporality,
And tuned in to timelessness.
And an inner voice says silently:
Now it’s time to live
in timeless temporality –
In the world,
but not of the world –
NOW.
Ron’s audio recitation of “Tuned Out, to Tune In”
Ron’s explanation of “Tuned Out, to Tune In”
Dear Friends,
The above whimsical poem, “Tuned Out, to Tune In”, is about living timelessly in time, and thus being in the world but not of the world – a spiritually significant state.
Spiritual teachings often stress importance of living compassionately in the timeless NOW, while dispassionately letting go of ego attachments to constantly changing outcomes and occurrences.
Yogis and mystics in other times have attained and maintained elevated states of detached awareness by taking refuge in forests, on mountains, or in caves. But such stress-free environments or circumstances are now increasingly rare in wealthy materialist societies. Spiritual aspirants living in crowded and polluted urban environments are especially challenged to maintain such mindfulness, while acting skillfully and compassionately in this turbulent age of mental malaise, rife with suffering of most life forms on our precious planet.
Today’s whimsical verses were composed years ago, after I’d begun wondering about how to best live timelessly in time, in the world but not of the world.
Initially I was inspired by Jesus’ teachings to abjure earthly treasures and pleasures, but seek treasures of heaven. (See https://sillysutras.com/seek-more-than-meets-the-eye/) Thereafter, Hindu teachings about vairagya (dispassion), and Buddhist scriptures about avoiding attachments were influential.
And by observing the compassion with dispassion of my beloved Guruji, Shri Dhyanyogi Madhusudandas, and other spiritual masters (like the Dalai Lama), I gleaned great inspiration.
Thus, gradually I learned that with stilled minds and opened hearts it’s possible for us to psychologically transcend ego-mind attachments to outcomes of ever impermanent and uncertain worldly happenings, even though we have deep concerns about social injustice and suffering. And I have long aspired to attain such a skilled spiritual state.
Living dispassionately, skillfully and sanely in our stressful culture is an evolutionary challenge for all of us. So, “Tuned Out, to Tune In” has been posted today to encourage us to live more and more in the timeless present, yet to follow our heart while dispassionately letting go of ego-mind’s attachments to constantly changing outcomes.
May we thereby bless all Life by compassionately and dispassionately being in the world but not of the world, while letting go of ego.
And so may it be!
Ron Rattner
