Knowing and knowing from Steven Kaufman's blog

Do not look to form for certainty.

Do not look to the Formless for definition.

 

The Formless can give you certainty.

Form can give you definition.

 

Do not look for in one

What can only be given

By the other.

 

The certainty that the Formless gives

Is its own Presence.

 

The definition that form gives

is its very existence.

 

The definition that form gives

Is knowledge.

 

The certainty that the Formless gives

Is Knowledge.

 

So it is that

The Formless cannot be defined,

Cannot be known,

As an object,

As a form,

But can be Known,

Directly,

As That which Is

In the absence of form,

And as That which still Is

In the presence of form.

 

The Knowledge that the Formless gives

Is the Consciousness of Itself.

 

Formlessness apprehending Formlessness.

 

The knowledge that form gives

Is the Consciousness of an object,

The Consciousness of a form.

 

Formlessness apprehending form.

 

Thus, both Knowledge and knowledge

Are apprehended by the same Formlessness.

 

It may seem that the Formless

That knows itself as an object,

As a form,

Is different or other than

The Formless that Knows Itself

As It Is,

As the Formless.

 

And so we venerate the Latter,

While denigrating the Former.

Seeing one as higher

And the other as lower.

 

But this is an illusion,

As the Formless Is One.

Non-dual.

Neither higher nor lower.

 

Only when viewed through the lens of duality,

The lens of form,

Does the Formless appear to Itself

As something other than One.

 

When viewed through the lens of form,

The duality inherent in form

Becomes superimposed upon That

Which Is forever Non-dual,

Eternally One.

 

A river may diverge for a short span

Before it meets up with itself again,

With one branch flowing smoothly

While the other may contain much turbulence.

 

If only the branches are seen,

There seem to be two different rivers.

 

But from a broader perspective

There is seen to be only one river

With two ways of flowing.

 

Those who Know

Only venerate,

Because they see only the One.

 

Those who only know

Both venerate and denigrate

Because they see the one and the other.

 

Those who Know

Are not better than

Or other than

Those who only know.

 

Those who only know

Just know something

That those who Know

Do not.

 

Those who only know

Are filled with the forms that arise

Where the Flow of the River Is turbulent.

 

Those who Know

Are filled with the Formlessness That Is

Where the Flow of the River

Is smooth or turbulent.

 

Sometimes I Know,

While at other times

I only know.

 

When I Know

I Know that whether I Know or only know

Does not really matter.

 

For when I Know,

I Know that when I only know

That I am not something other than

What I Am

When I Know.

 

But when I only know

That Knowledge is obscured,

And it then seems

That when I only know,

That I am something less

Than what I was

When I Knew

What I no longer Know.

 

And so when I only know

I try to add to myself,

To find myself,

And in so doing

Just create more turbulence.

 

And when the Flow becomes rough enough

I wake up again

And Know.

 

Such a game.

Such a ride.