Jack Kornfield: Awaken the One Who Knows

The practices included in A Lamp in the Darkness are not positive thinking, quick fixes or simplistic self-help strategies to navigate temporary difficult times. The practices here are profound tools for doing the work of the soul. They awaken your inner knowing. If you pay careful attention in the midst of your crises, you will begin to sense a witnessing consciousness, a wise presence inside of you that could be called “the one who knows.” This knowing presence is consciousness itself, your undying spirit, present in every moment of your life, even when it feels far away from you. Even in the toughest times of illness and loss, in your deepest depressions and griefs, underneath even your most catastrophic challenges and fears, the one who knows in you remains calm and clear. It already accepts whatever’s going on. It sees beyond the immediate situation to something much larger. It knows that whatever change has come—no matter how much of a surprise it was to you—was going to happen. It knows that whatever is, Is—whether we accept it or not. The one who knows is even often able to see grim humor in the most difficult situations. And it knows long before we do that the end of our suffering begins when we turn to face our suffering and embrace its truth and healing wisdom.

Loss and betrayal tear open the heart. 
Look through this gate
for the wisdom that lies there.
What matters now? 
What would the wise ones do now?

But how we can find this “one who knows” in the midst of our most overwhelming difficulties? Go to the mirror. Look at your face. You will see someone who looks older than you looked several years ago, though inside you don’t feel any older. This is because it is only your body that has aged. The timeless awareness through which you see your body is the one who knows. Your body is only a temporary vessel for this awareness. It is a temporary and impermanent container for the undying consciousness of the one who knows.

- Jack Kornfield

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This excerpt is taken from the book, “A Lamp in the Darkness: Illuminating the Path Through Difficult Times”