The ETERNAL UNBEKNOWNST

In trout fishing we call it structure.  It is those places in the river or stream or lake or body of water behind which, or under which, or within which a trout or the food that a trout wishes to eat may linger; remaining isolated and undetected. Places just beyond the beyond, out of reach of sight, or sound, of taste, of smell, or of a ripple that would alert the tiniest particles of touch.  Unbeknownst.

Because such places are partially obscured from being fully known, they hold and impart a deep sense of mystery.  In that green, brown,  golden tinge of water, it may be a fish; but, it may also be a plant or a fully submerged branch.

In a game of manhunt, or war, or of kick the can on Georgie Acker’s front lawn we called it a hiding place or a blending-in spot or really secluded.  To be camouflaged.  The ultimate act of invisibility and escape. Beyond all sensory detection. Unbeknownst.

Because these hiding places tuck us away; keeping us from being fully known or known at all, they hold and impart a deep sense of mystery.  In that shadow may be John or Jimmy or Mark, or the mere elusive mottled hues and blotches of faint light and shadow.

It takes some real doing to be unbeknownst or to find a sense of BEING in the unbeknownst. Especially in a universe that seems always to be revealing and unveiling itself - blossoming open; especially in a culture that holds fast its obligation of uncovering works always toward illumination to grow itself out of harmful ways of being and suffering.

It is APOPHATIC to be UNBEKNOWNST.  Wikipedia defines APOPHATIC as: "Apophatic theology, also known as negative theology, is a form of theological thinking and religious practice which attempts to approach God, the Divine, by negation, to speak only in terms of what may not be said about the perfect goodness that is God."  So this harkens to the teaching of UNKNOWING from either the Mystic of The Cloud of The Unknowing or the Pseudo-Dionysian writings of the early Church.  The Syriac Fathers and Mothers as well as the Hesychastic Fathers and Mothers all enjoin us to find the SILENCE of the GODHEAD and the MYSTERY.

Knowing is good.  But in infinity and endlessness there will always be mystery - a further darkness beyond which our light of awareness has yet to reach.  The structure of a black hole; or the shape of an emotion speaks to this.  Not being able to comprehend a thing much "HUGER" than we, also speaks to this.

We do well to measure the distance between something unknown and something ill or bad.  We sometimes confuse the unknown with harm or danger.  Something in darkness cannot be assigned a value until exposed to the light.  We suspend judgement until all may be seen - or at least more of a thing may be seen.  I am not saying that the unknown may not harbor peril, but we should be careful not to throw out the DIVINE with the BATHWATER - as it were.

While playing manhunt, when I thought I saw Scotty laying on the berm of the rhododendron bed just on and in the edging of the mound, I always checked a few different angles and also a few different times to be sure it wasn’t a raccoon or a skunk or a shadow cast from the streetlight through the maples.  There are illusions and misconceptions in the spaces beyond clear light.  There is nuance in that which is unbeknownst.

I find this layering of clarity ever present in knowing the DIVINE ONE.  Always beyond recognition and the strands of perception.  The ALL-WISE hangs often beyond the STRUCTURE of our days.  THE COSMIC IT lay partially knowable, like any sweet poetic truth and sensual sensibility.  Just out of reach.

I feel we have forgotten the wispiness of truth.  Digitally sequestered data and GOOGLING leads us to forget that not everything shall appear in the light of understanding.  And, even when a thing is seen and handled it does not mean we have the ability to integrate its presence into all we know and experience in an all encompassing fashion.  We may not be able to hold FULL TRUTH.  We may need to act in one way because of some other thing we know also to be true.  We may have to COMPROMISE the WHOLE for all we can handle or know at one time of the PART.

Consider the haziness of compassion and mercy.  This sort of thing was at play in the life of king David.  King David who while a man given over to selfish gain repeatedly is also known as a man after God’s own heart.  A mystery to be sure.  Like any good reader, we become willing to SUSPEND OUR DISBELIEF.  This is critical when coming up against THE MYSTERY.  Don't you think?

How do you approach the HIDDENESS of the UNKNOWABLE KNOWN?  A koan to ponder to be sure?  How approach ye the need to know everything?  Can you allow your soul the REST OF THE UNBEKNOWNST?  To ponder ABSENCE and EMPTINESS?  The DIVINE-TROUT or DIVINE-PLAYER-of-HIDE-and-SEEK hides behind the STRUCTURE of life, just beyond the beyond.  Are you willing to let go enough to know the UNBEKNOWNST?

Everything between your eyes of perception and the objects of that perception is invisible and

UNBEKNOWNST to the eye of the body.  So it is with ALL there is and the EYE of the soul.