On Knowledge

One of the startling discoveries I have made recently is that I seem to know where I need to get to and where I'm going in life. Or perhaps I should say I have a sense of knowing. On one hand the past few years have seemed quite isolated (spiritually speaking) as well as being a random collection of various 'experiments' with different ways of thinking, philosophies, religions etc.
Looking back, though, I see a definite pattern. A journey that has been going in the right direction all along, somehow intuitively guided by a force I have come to know as being my Soul. I'm not saying that I'm perfect or have it all together. It's more of a realisation that there has been more happening than I was previously able to see.

I am busy reading Joan Halifax's stunning book "The Fruitful Darkness". In it she makes the following quote by Thich Nhat Hanh:
"Our own life is the instrument with which we experiment with truth"
She then goes on to say:
"the information and inspiration in this book are rooted in my life. This is inevitable, for neither Bhuddism nor shamanism are 'revealed' teachings. Both emphasize direct experience and personal realization over doctrine"

Coming out of a religion of 'revealed' teachings, it's taken a while for me to get my bearings. I guess one could say I've been waiting for the next 'revealed' teaching to come along. Searching in what seemed to be the dark, though, I have somehow found my own way.

I've often reflected on the fact that we know more than we know we know (and it sounds really cool to say that). If I cut myself, I know how to heal myself. Perhaps not intellectually, but I do have that knowlege. I'm starting to think it's the same with spirituality. When we move beyond the illusions of intellectual knowlege and the belief that we are somehow superior in our knowlege to the deep and wild knowlege of the Earth, we start to see ourselves for who we really are - part of Nature and connected in an intimate way to this Ancient Knowlege.