Originally published September 4, 2020
There are many unknowns this year, uncertainties that evoke basic emotions—fear, anxiety, frustration, anger. How long will the pandemic last? Will I or a family member get sick? When will things get back to “normal”? How do I help my kids with doing online school at home?
There are other kinds of unknowns. The “bigger picture” kind, some that could seem mystical. Is there a god? Or is this unknown an inner voice that speaks an unfamiliar language, a language that takes silence to hear and be understood? Contemplating these unknowns can take us to a deeper level of understanding and can, perhaps, provide a useful context for the more mundane unknowns of daily life.
We can’t know everything, yet each of us can live an enriching life by using what we have, making the most of each hour, each day. Even in the midst of unknowns, we can experience gratitude for what we have. We can direct our imagination to awe and wonder about life in its many forms.
When life presents situations that are disconcerting, we may come up with some understanding that settles the mind temporarily, but unease may still be present in the back of the mind. Sometimes there are no answers. We are left with an uncomfortable feeling, doubts, uncertainties.
If we can let go of those emotion-laden thoughts for a while, we can consider another way of looking at the unknown. We can start with a few words, like Energy, Consciousness, Light. Capitalizing these words hints there’s more to these words than the day-to-day meaning can convey; that these words are difficult to define in a way that goes beyond the day-to-day. What could that “more than the day-to-day” mean?
One of the most fascinating books I have read about these “capitalized-word” subjects is Swami Radha’s Light & Vibration: consciousness, mysticism and the culmination of yoga. This book is a compilation of manuscripts intuitively and artfully edited by Swami Lalitananda and brought together with many questions about the unknowns in life. Here is a glimpse of the world of Consciousness in Swami Lalitananda’s Introduction to Light & Vibration:
“…Swami Sivananda Radha contemplates the most subtle understanding of the universe, and attempts to ‘explain the unexplainable’ as she would often say. Through metaphor and nuance, she offers a pathway to Liberation, a way to connect the invisible and the visible. Her own mystical experience of Light is the basis of the work, which gives it an immediacy and authority that differ from a mere theoretical or academic exercise.”
There will always be knowns and unknowns. Be in the moment with all of it, whatever is there in your life. Caution is wise, but living in a straightjacket of fear isn’t. Know that it’s the challenges in life that help us think more deeply: What is the purpose of my life? What gives my life meaning? How can I be of service? Remember that you can still experience gratitude, awe and wonder not just in spite of the unknowns, but sometimes because of them.