No Answer
How many times have we heard the phrase “Older and wiser?” Enough times to be sick of it! And yet, age can bring a certain wisdom, a certainly a wealth of life experience. In fact, when participants introduce themselves in a workshop focused on conscious ageing, I ask them to use a different form of telling their age. “Hello. My name is Felice and I have 79 years of life experience.” The total number of years lived often approaches 1000. Do we bring 1000 years of collective wisdom to the circle? Does wisdom imply knowing everything, knowing the right way to do everything? What does it actually mean and how do we manifest it?
Richard Rohr, a retired Franciscan friar and writer on spirituality (and a favourite of Oprah) tells us that “Encounter with not having an answer begets wisdom.” Rohr is in good company with the revered Zen master Suzuki Roshi. He tells us “If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything, it is open to everything. In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are few. ” If we have all the answers our minds are closed, without many possibilities and devoid of wisdom.
Yoga students are often reminded of a particular sentence in the foundational “Yoga Sutras”…’yoga citti -vriti-nirodahah’. This instruction is usually translated as ‘yoga is stilling of the fluctuations of the mind’. Translations are often a bit off. Words do not always convert easily to another language. They lose nuance. We might read this profound sentence as, “yoga is the stillness of the whole of our being”. (Beth Kempton, “Kokoro: Japanese Wisdom for a Life Well Lived”) This overarching translation brings us to the stillness of the encounter with no answer.
With a mind that is fresh and eager, a beginner’s mind, we can listen to other’s thoughts and ideas. We can learn and explore. While we bring much life experience, and understanding, to conversations, not having all the answers brings us to a place of wisdom.
The process of coming to wisdom might ask us to let go of certainties, to release opinions, to open to new possibilities. We expand our experience through listening, both to others and to our own heart-mind. “Not having an answer” allows us to adapt to current situations and to be fully present to what is, right now. In beginner’s mind we can modify, we can adjust. We may continue to hold the same opinions after the encounter, though we have given ourselves the opportunity to gain wisdom.
There is wiggle room in this mind and we can allow ourselves to be open, and yes, vulnerable. Vulnerability is a quality all living creatures share. Knowing this in our heartmind is wisdom, and brings us into community with all that is. This knowing allows a response grown from compassion and sensitivity. From that space we can do the next right thing. We didn’t know the answer to begin with. We discovered it with beginner’s mind, don’t know mind, no answer mind.
Finding beginner’s mind is a surprisingly herculean task for many of us who have lived into the third or fourth phase of life. I often have to rein in my mutinous mind who seemingly has all the answers. Knowing how the world should be, knowing how to change it to my liking, keeps me stuck in the “expert’s” mind where possibilities are limited. Beginner’s mind, the encounter with no answers, allows for acceptance of what is and willingness to open to it.
Beginner’s mind can be frightening to the sense of who we are, our identity. Suddenly, we are no longer in our sixth, or seventh, or eighth decade, but 6, 7, or 8. Our small, unformed self surfaces and we find ourselves confused and unnerved. We had learned, over endless trials and errors, what to do, what to think, what to believe. We formed an identity.
Yet, somehow, we continue to be confronted with situations for which we have no answers. A shocking diagnosis, the death of a friend, a fall onto the pavement can instantly put us in don’t know mind, compelled by life to pay attention. Familiarity with don’t know mind allows us to respond by doing the next right thing…consultations, tears, antiseptic cream, stillness, breath.
A stunning sunset, a lover’s kiss, a cup of fragrant tea can also usher us into beginner’s mind, where we encounter no answer. For that instant we simply are present to what is, and then do the next right thing.
That’s wisdom.