There are two kinds of minds. One is an open mind. Another is a closed mind. A closed mind says, “This is how it is, I know it, and that is it.” A closed mind gets hardened. An open mind says, “Maybe, perhaps. I do not know.” Whenever you seem to understand a situation and you label it, “I know this is how it is,” that is the beginning of your problem.
Problems always arise from thinking you know, but not knowing. If you do not know, your mind is open. You say, “Oh, maybe, something, perhaps, I don’t know.” You wait. You cannot label something when you say you do not know. Whenever you think an injustice has been made to you, or whenever you think you are suffering, or you think you are a victim, this all falls under the category of “I know it. This is how things are.”
Whenever we attach a label “not good,” it comes from knowledge. Suffering is a product of limited knowledge. A question is a sign of limited knowledge. When there is amazement, patience, joy, you are in a state of “I don’t know.” Life shifts from the limited “I know” to a state of all possibilities. Thinking you know the world is the biggest problem. This is not just one world. There are many layers in this world.
When you are upset, you are upset for a reason. There is some other string that is being pulled. When your mind is open for all possibilities and an event happens, there could be many possible reasons for that event to be that way. The possibilities are not just in the gross field of existence. There could be some other causes which are more subtle.
Suppose you come home and find your roommate has made a big mess in your apartment. You start feeling very irritated. You think the reason, the cause for your anger, is because of your roommate and the mess, but there could be something more going on, something happening in the subtle space. Perhaps there has been some anger that created vibrations in that space. At that moment, something else is in the air, but you could only see that person creating a mess around you, and you attribute all your anger to that person. This is what limited knowledge does.
There is a step we can take to free ourselves of this cycle. First, detach the emotion from the person and the event, and recognize the role of space and time in our lives. This is the science called astrology. Astrology is the knowledge of oneness of the universe. If a pin is stuck into your hand, your whole body, everything in the body knows it, feels it, right? Just one pin prick in your hand is felt by the entire system.Every cell is connected with the whole of you. In the same way, everybody is connected to the whole entirety of creation and to everyone else. At a very subtle level there is only one life in this universe. Though it appears to be many on the gross level, when you go deeper and deeper there is only one existence, one divine.