Solar Eclipse INSIGHT
INSIGHT on Knowing
About five weeks ago, I turned to Natalie and told her that I could feel that my body wasn’t working as hard to heal.
As the weeks went on, I kept resting my awareness on that subtle sense in meditation, and the intuition that repeatedly came through was as clear as can be - the cancer was gone.
Turns out it is.
A recent CT scan showed all tumor sites are completely clear.
While we celebrated, and I absolutely welcomed the affirmation from Western medicine, the experience of having such a clear and profound sense of knowing has required the most processing.
Seeing the vision of my body free of cancer in meditation is one thing.
Being in the knowing that my body is free of cancer is another thing entirely.
Recently, Natalie read me a line from her ‘One Line a Day’ journal. It was from March 14th, 2023, and it said: ‘Kevin keeps saying that he feels like he is dying.’
Turns out I was.
Two months later, as we know, I was diagnosed with stage four cancer.
Reflecting on it after this 11-month journey, I can see that my sense of knowing was present then, just as it is now. This insight is a profound revelation for me.
I am taking time to integrate, and quite frankly, I’m in awe. And my ability to recognize my knowing power is just as much a part of my healing process as everything that preceded it.
To see an object is one thing.
To be in the knowing of it is another.
It’s a subtle but powerful distinction that I want to explore today as we celebrate this new moon solar eclipse.
What does it mean to be in our knowing? The mind does what the mind does, but when we get beyond the mind, what is there for us to behold?
The Knowing Power of the Mind
Inner knowing is like a signal—a pulsation from within. We all have it, and we can all gain greater access to it. While there are countless ways to access it, the yoga tradition offers meditation as one of the surest paths.
We’re taught that meditation quiets the monkey mind, down-regulates the nervous system, and induces a calm state.
While that is true, the tradition suggests there is something more going on under the surface.
We meditate and are driven to meditate partly because of the magnetism of the mind's knowing power.
What is the mind’s knowing power?
Imagine the mind as an illuminated light bulb.
It casts light onto its surroundings, picking up sights, sounds, textures, tastes, and smells through the five senses. The light being cast from the light bulb is one thing; the senses perceiving it are another. This describes our waking state.
But that doesn’t account for the power that enables the light bulb to turn on in the first place.
Much like the moon borrows the light of the sun to illuminate, the mind gets its power from another source. In the yoga tradition, this is called pure consciousness (purusha).
So how is it that we can get closer to the mind at its source?
How can we begin to experience the mind’s knowing power with more clarity?
The Monkey Mind
Meditation helps us to strengthen our awareness.
As the power of awareness builds, we slowly and steadily gain the aptitude to place awareness in the field of the knowing power of the mind.
The frequency of knowing is very different from the thinking of the monkey mind.
The monkey mind is the faculty that endlessly creates commentary and opinions about our experience. It likes and dislikes, accepts and rejects, and the pendulum swings constantly.
Another facet of the mind, awareness, is what we employ to experience thoughts, feelings, and sensations.
Awareness witnesses the monkey mind in motion.
In time, the more we feed the power of our awareness and allow all mental fluctuations to be as they are, the quieter the monkey mind becomes.
As that mind quiets, a dawning of higher perception emerges. Awareness begins to perceive that which is beyond it. We begin to sense the vibration and pulsation of the field that is beyond the mind.
In yogic terms, this is the Knower. So, as awareness arrives at the edge of the knowing power of the Knower, it slowly and steadily absorbs into it and becomes it.
Generally speaking, this field is the fundamental fabric of the universe. We can call it the quantum field, the essential nature of reality, cosmic intelligence, or whatever word suits the tradition we are speaking from.
Knowing is a frequency. It is a field of unique intelligence that is beyond the thinking mind. Our awareness is the subtle instrument of perception that perceives that frequency.
We Are What We Seek
Rumi said it like this, ‘What you are seeking is seeking you.’
The teachings suggest that the driving force that inspires us to ask questions or to seek in the first place is this knowing power within us, propelling its way to the surface.
Within our questions is the answer making its way to us. What’s more beautiful than that?
Call it prajna, jnana, gnosis, insight, inner wisdom, intuitive knowing—call it whatever suits your tradition.
The mind, our awareness, and the breath are instruments we can learn to play. In our meditation practice, we become the conductor of these instruments, and our meditative experience becomes the symphony.
New Moon Solar Eclipse
There may be no better day than this celestial event of the new moon solar eclipse to take a seat, slow the breath, quiet the mind, and listen within.
If nothing comes but the static of the monkey mind, offer yourself the grace and patience to be with what arises. Allow for all of it, and keep letting go of effort.
No matter what thoughts, feelings, and sensations arise, remember that beneath the surface is the power and force of your knowing.
The wisdom is alive within us.
The knowing is alive within us.
Remember that the pulse to seek an answer is the answer within us, knocking on the door, so we will open it up and let it in.
With love,
Kevin