{"id":1038,"date":"2026-08-01T12:25:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T12:25:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/?p=1038"},"modified":"2026-08-11T09:03:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T09:03:10","slug":"of-knowing-unknowing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/01\/of-knowing-unknowing\/","title":{"rendered":"Of Knowing & Unknowing"},"content":{"rendered":"

RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The conscious self and the divine self are two sides of the same coin. When the two coalesce, it is akin to the mind acquiescing to itself, while relating to the whole self, or consciousness. In the process, it seamlessly integrates with self-awareness, but not so much with the unconscious self-awareness, or unconscious god-awareness. You\u2019d call it a sort of reflexive mechanism that has not actually altered, while the centre of consciousness has transformed. Any which way you look at it, it translates to the emergence of the \u2018true self,\u2019 provided the mind continues to bend itself.<\/p>\n

Such a mind-bending \u2018balancing-act\u2019 holds the key to a different dimension of knowing. It also bids fair to the idea of the mind\u2019s unconscious seeing an empty void \u2014 which is called the \u2018third eye\u2019 \u2014 a spin-off, or consequence, of the \u2018cloud of unknowing entity,\u2019 or, seeing everything, and seeing nothing too, as it were. In other words, when the mind sees the divine, it sees nothing; yet, it also sees the true compass, or radar, of knowing. The whole process \u2014 of the mind seeing nothing \u2014 may, to begin with, \u2018blight\u2019 its normal function. This slowly percolates to the skin of our thought, and insight, while elevating the whole doctrine of perception, empathy and understanding of all the myriad facets of knowing.<\/p>\n

It takes time for one to reach such a heightened podium of knowing. For some, it may take years. For others, it may take just as much time \u2014 but, the good news is once the process of adaptation is complete, the whole experience ceases to be a dilemma. You guessed it right \u2014 the experience of the \u2018third eye\u2019 is reflexive consciousness, or the knowing-self, seeing its own empty centre. Put in pr\u00e9cis, it simply means seeing nothingness, to start with, and eventually seeing it as the divine expanse. Some philosophers refer to such a breadth of knowing from the inside-out as \u2018unknowing.\u2019<\/p>\n

While it is agreed that the transition from knowing to unknowing, and vice versa, may not always be experienced at the conscious, or reflective level, it is imperative for one to keep in mind the whole process of acclimatisation with the divine \u2014 at all times. The reason is simple. It is also profound. Constant divine awareness not only connects to life, but also the core of our being. If there is a \u2018disconnect,\u2019 the outcome is everything outside of the empty centre \u2014 shallow and fragile.<\/p>\n

All this is not as [un]complicated as it appears to be on the surface. As some philosophers point out the true centre of consciousness may not be self at all. Just like the hole in a popular confectionary is not mint. Well, the simile is apparent \u2014 the self relates to what is conscious, or divine centre, even when it is not itself the centre. For the centre to be expressed as centre, it ought to possess a circumference. Let\u2019s delve into the obvious \u2014 if you do away with the centre, you will do away with the circumference. What does this suggest? That the divine is the centre and self-consciousness is the circumference. When you do away with either \u2014 the self or divine, centre or circumference \u2014 the duo ebbs together in sync.<\/p>\n

It takes two to tango, right? The progression of the divine into the unconscious releases enormous emotional energy \u2014 it also holds the celestial fulcrum for us to seek the centre of calm, stillness and peace. The more we harmonise such inner silence, emptiness, knowing and unknowing, the better is the repertoire of our feeling-self.<\/p>\n

This leads to the sum total of our lives, which encompasses a sequence of instances, including the past, present and futuristic moments. As author-philosopher Henry David Thoreau put it in pr\u00e9cis, \u201cFind your eternity in each moment.\u201d Whether you are keying in words for a presentation on the job, whether you are listening to lilting music to unwind, whether you are exercising to keeping fit, or beating anxiety, or whether you are lazing on the divan, the point is you are focusing on your \u2018in-progress,\u2019 or present, moment.<\/p>\n

You may be, in the midst of it all, awfully focused and resolute to get the work done. Yet, you spare a few moments from your frenetic activity to take a breath, or surmise your pace \u2014 and, live in the moment that engages all your energy. You will think that each moment is a gift; the more effective your outcome or result, the more precious the gift too. This is because all of us, at some point, have experienced the fact that one good moment can change our life, career and world \u2014 from niggling gloom to stunning success.<\/p>\n

All of us are endowed with a purpose \u2014 though not everyone gives attention to what it could be, or will be. To highlight a corollary \u2014 no one is extraordinarily smart, intelligent, kind, nasty, righteous, or witty, all the time. But, any which way you look at it, all of us have our cheerful and depressing moments. We are all doing something, or the other, each moment, even when we don\u2019t do a thing \u2014 because, the mind is never inactive, even when we sleep. It allows us to dream, chuckle and fulfil what we have not yet achieved in real life too.<\/p>\n

Life is made of dreams and dreams are made of life \u2014 they encompass both knowing and unknowing, from moment-to-moment. This is like particles that are scattered on a canvas \u2014 they relate to moments, big and small. They are like sea waves, or the blossoming of a flower \u2014 where each segment relates to a new moment, which is as fresh as the early morning dew. All of this and more happens in the present-moment, knowingly or unknowingly, when a few nanoseconds have passed rapidly and the present-moment has vanished at the speed of thought.<\/p>\n

\u2014 First published in The Himalayan Times<\/em>, Nepal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR The conscious self and the divine self are two sides of the same coin. When the two coalesce, it is akin to the mind acquiescing to itself, while relating to the whole self, or consciousness. In the process, it seamlessly integrates with self-awareness, but not so much with the unconscious self-awareness, or unconscious […]\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6],"class_list":["post-1038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science-philosophy","tag-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1038"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1142,"href":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1038\/revisions\/1142"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rajnidamboor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}