Actually, we know too much. What we know are our own accumulated notions, memories, fears and experiences. This makes us unable to see reality, as it is, from moment to moment, an ever-changing, dynamic flux, creation forever in the making. We have labels of good and bad, we have labels of right and wrong, we have labels of great and small. We have labels for everything. We see through the lens of our own experience, of our own like and dislike, our pride and prejudice, our egoism and vanity, our fears and hopes. Through this distorting medium, we see and observe. This distortion is called our world and ourselves. It is fragmented, polarized and in conflict. Is the conflict in the world merely an unfortunate state of affairs or is it directly the reflection of the conflict within us, within our own minds?

To me, it seems that the fear, the conflict, the hatred, the violence and the misery in the world is a direct reflection of that within our own minds, in our own consciousness. Our experience of life is one of separateness, alienation, loneliness and despair because it is based on fragmentation and fear. This in turn is a vision of ourselves and the world as seen through the distorting lens of our own past, our memories and notions, our ideas and ideologies, our faiths and dogmas. Seen through this lens, the world represents mind-boggling multiplicity that is a potent cause for fear.

Obviously then, we will live unburdened and free only if we can see directly, both ourselves and the society we live in, free from the burden of our own knowledge. We need, in these times, more than ever, the wisdom of incomprehension. We need now, more than ever, a return to a childlike simplicity and joy. Can we remain uncomprehending of notions of rich and poor, of high and low, of beautiful and ugly, of great and small, of intelligent and unintelligent? Can we remain free of notions of separateness that divide man against man? Can we be free from ideas and knowledge that create division and conflict? Can we be free from the entire structure of thought based on dichotomy, teacher and taught, leader and follower, idea and reality? Can we see beyond the divisions and differences between man and man? Can we embrace the whole of humanity as one? Can we embrace our oneness with nature? Can we see with the simplicity and insight of undivided understanding?

An awareness of our uniqueness is different from a divisive and separative outlook. In the latter, there is judgement, there is superior and inferior, there is looking up and looking down. Superficially, we are different. Some of us are thin, some fat, some black, some white, some rich, some poor, some famous, some infamous - whatever be our particular circumstances, our image, our appearance, whatever be the name and form of our bodies, whatever be the quality and content of our minds and intellects, we are all, simply human. We are human beings who walk on this planet for a brief while and then die. In this brief journey, what is of the ultimate significance, for each of us, is to recognize our own essential oneness, our oneness with each other and with mother earth and nature. Our bodies will become fertilizer for plants and maybe food for animals. Every one of us, the greatest and the smallest will face the inevitable fact of death. Should we not, then, celebrate our oneness? Should we not rejoice at the essential oneness of creation?

Should we not celebrate the glory and grandeur, the wonder, the majesty and splendour of creation? Should we not marvel and acknowledge the vast forces that act on this planet, keeping us all alive? Should we not attempt to discover the infinite intelligence that animates the whole of creation?

To wonder at all these, to rediscover our imprisoned splendour as that infinite intelligence and unbounded awareness animating the whole creation, we will have to unlearn our mountain of misconceptions, our accumulated notions, our labels and tags, our categories of low and high, great and small, rich and poor. In discovering our own hidden potential, in reaching the wisdom of incomprehension, we shall become childlike again, living in simplicity, spontaneity, joy, contentment, unconditional love and an infinite oneness with the whole of creation.