“The most important thing is to remember the most important thing.”
– Zen Master Shunryu Suzuki Roshi
[For those prone to “tl;dr”, maybe at least read the bolded parts? They’re “important” *wink*.]
To succeed in “Birthing the Beautiful New World” our hearts most desire for ourselves, our loved ones, and the countless generations of human hearts to come (as explored in Our Collective Ascent) — amidst this incredibly overwhelming, confusing, messy, yet miraculously opportune time in human history — what could be more important than to continually remember “what is most important?”
Without a doubt, in the “Age of Distraction” and information overload — in the midst of this War for our Attention (and thus our precious life energy) — maintaining healthy attentional (mental and emotional) boundaries and recovering and developing our degraded capacities for embodied mindfulness and concentrated focus are absolutely essential to our present and future health and happiness, both personally and collectively.
But embodied mindfulness and concentration honed and attuned to what, and for what? Are we even consciously clear on what most deserves our mindful awareness and concentration? And is it our “monkey mind” or our “heart of hearts” deciding what is most important at any given moment or in any given situation?
In Our Collective Ascent I wrote, “all that is required is the alignment of belief, with a steadfast will, and cooperation that insists on transcending all ideas and agendas that serve to divide Our Human Family”, but in order for that alignment to actually take us where we would be overjoyed to go, we have to get and stay clear on what is most important, not just for us personally, but also what is most important to all of us — this is the common ground we can all confidently stand on and peacefully build upon together.
That is why it is crucial to frequently zoom out and tune in by asking yourself the open-ended question, “What is most important (right now)?”
Is there more than one important thing? Sure; but to avoid overwhelming ourselves or getting lost in the labyrinth of our own minds, we allow the question to be singular, one-pointed, whenever we ask it, so we can tap into flow and the true power of the question.
A question is most evocative, most powerful and fruitful, when left unanswered by the intellect. (If a thought comes to mind as an answer to the question, that’s fine — notice it, thank it, and gently set it on the shelf for a time. Jot it down in your journal if you feel a strong impulse to, so you can allow your mind and your Being to fully open up to the question again.)
Naturally, it can be very helpful to ask yourself, “what is the most important thing for me to remember: in this life / in this relationship / with what I’m working on / this year / this month / this week / today / in this moment?” I invite you to incorporate such questioning into your meditation and journaling on occasion, as long as you don’t overthink it and you invite your “heart” and “gut instincts” into your inquiry. Having a vision that you love, that excites you, and that gives you a sense of meaningful direction is truly important.
Keep in mind though that in order to stay aligned with our vision and the callings of our heart, we need to continually access a greater intelligence and wisdom in real-time, through being consciously intimate with our non-conceptual subjective experience in the moment. By tuning into our somatic experience1 and the Field of Life seemlessly intermingling with us, we can directly “read” the information-laden life energy moving through our field in an integrated and effortless way, as what we call feelings, intuitions, instincts, and spontaneous inspirations. It is through a deeply felt sense of our lives, in intimate and intuitive communion with the flowing fabric of Life, that we are most informed and guided by an intelligence far greater than our own, in support of our highest good.
“Enlightenment is to be intimate with all things…”
– Zen Master Dogen Zenji
While the conceptual intellect has its valid uses, in order to try to “wrap our mind around” what happens, it necessarily creates dead, static mental objects that it then segregates into limiting boxes for comparison and reductionistic analysis, and proceeds to project that as an over-simplified mental overlay that distorts our perception of reality — we find ourselves deluded and handicapped in relating well with the real world through our veil of mental projection (instead of being in direct, holistic, intuitive communion with the living, breathing interwoven Reality we actually are.)
“A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it and flow with it.”
– Frank Herbert (Dune)
It is almost always more beneficial to feel and explore our way into an answer to the question — to let ourselves flow with the process of the questioning in a way that the answer reveals itself to us in how it is spontaneously lived into being.
When we allow ourselves to remain open and curious, to give genuine space to the question — as if the question were a seed of wisdom we’ve planted inside our Whole Being — and we patiently give it the freedom to blossom in the best way it can, subtler, deeper, more novel and deeply meaningful things will come to light and flow forth from the question as a living expression of revelation that blesses everything.
After all, how would you prefer yourself and others to navigate the Great Mystery of our lives together:
to fabricate or otherwise think we know the answer, mentally struggle to “figure out” how best to execute on that, and then charge on ahead; or,
to allow the question itself, guided and supported by the innate wisdom and dynamic intelligence of the entire Universe (our entire Being), to blossom into an answer that guides us into bearing forth the best fruition possible — even if we never end up fully intellectually understanding the what or the how of the process?
“Not knowing is most intimate.”
– Book of Serenity, Case #20
This week, consider experimenting with surrendering your mind to a good question left unanswered — see what happens when you let your entire life become the flowing embodiment of the answer to the question: “What is most important…?”
Please leave a comment and/or share this post with your own perspective on navigating what’s most important.
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soma (noun & verb): “the body living in its wholeness” (borrowed from this article)
“This week, consider experimenting with surrendering your mind to a good question left unanswered”
Phrased beautifully. Great read 🙌🏼