This concept of the “eternally nameless” aligns with much of what Roberts has previously described concerning God and also echoes what the Christian mystics describe in their experience of Omnipresence. That alignment includes the notion that God (Tao) is not a thing but a what, something fundamental to the underpinnings of what we call life and the universe. I’ve heard it explained that similarities between all the great mystical faith traditions are like the spokes of a wheel. The farther out you are from the center the more differentiation you notice, both in practice and doctrine, but as you travel down the spokes towards the center you end up in much the same place. You end up with Love extending out in all directions. 

I’m in absolute agreement that people see It all the time. As she says, the simplicity of it seems so innate that we take for granted that which is a great seeing. I honestly believe that most everyone have had moments of transfixed seeing; the beauty of the sky speaking to you, the calming tranquility of the sea’s presence, a baby’s innocence melting your heart, morning bird song preparing you for the day. We know in those moments something revelatory is occurring even though we can’t say exactly what is occurring.

The invitation this text extends to me is the importance and exploration of “wow” moments. This exploration does not mean grasping for such moments or even an expectation that they occur, but instead an invitation to cultivate a slow and steady stance towards receptivity. What does it mean to be in nature and be open? I’m I attuned to the weather, season, or plant life near me? Why am I rushing by what is around me on my way to something else believing that something else is what holds the key to some imagined future happening? The Dalai Lama said “ rushing is a form of violence.” I agree, if you pay attention to rushing you will feel the energetic signature of violence, the pushing, the overbearing, the dismissing. 

I honestly believe that everyone has encountered this simple definition of knowing and two examples spring to mind. The first example is the experience of the sunset. You were not expecting it, but there you are, rapt, and for a few moments you are one with the sunset. You have dropped your stories, your worries, and you are just there. This “thereness” is what Roberts means by knowing. You are not sure what you are knowing, except to say it is lovely. The other example that comes to mind is witnessing a birth. There is something extraordinary about new life and all the innocence and vulnerability it bears on you. Again, for a few moments you are moved beyond words, and there really is no expression of what you are experiencing, except to say that your heart is full beyond measure.

These paragraphs feel like a wild ride indeed and her experience of people either getting it, this idea of a knowing beyond our intellect, or not getting it is a true statement. For some people, Roberts’ words may seem no more than an unsolvable riddle and for others, who may be interested in such riddles, the obtuseness of a knowing that knows is difficult to apprehend. Frankly, in sitting with these words I am wondering what I could write or add to what she has already said that would make any sense at all.

So what am I understanding her to be saying? There are a couple of things that come to mind. First, we can not insist, grasp, or intellectualize our way to this This. The second is implied, but given there are many mystics, masters, and teachers who write about revelatory things from a place of certainty than there must be a path we can traverse in order to come in contact with such “knowing.” Such a path seems to open us to both a new way of “knowing” and the “knowing” itself; the This. There are, of course, many paths and practices, but as Jim Finley says, “once you find your path, practice it.”  A.H. Almaas would say “worship it.”

The question you may ask is how does one build such a capacity? One way is through practices, meditative and inquiry practices for instance, but also through trial and error. There is no better way to find the truth than blunder upon it. Our society doesn’t reward or recognize such a method, but trial and error takes a certain fortitude and courage that is particularly underrated by today’s standards. There is a certain joy in trial and error, even a certain playfulness. Jesus said we must be like children, who seem impervious to results. May you be full of joy today!

I love this paragraph because of its hominess and messiness, which depicts so well what happens within the confines of our ordinary lives. Just like Roberts, we often have a certain something in mind that feels like a direction in which we are moving only to find that pieces of what we wanted to do are just not going to be possible. We must stop, take stock, pivot, and then carry on. I do not sense from her any frustration or disappointment with this (common) development, but instead a mature ability to pivot her essay in a direction that still meets the need of what she is trying to convey. 

We find today in Roberts’ text a final word on integration, of which I would call surrender. She has said it in many ways, not just through this subsection, but throughout her text, that the mind alone can not understand the Mystery that is at work in our soul. In my experience there is a sort of relinquishment of the reins (surrender) when the mind can’t understand what is happening at the soul level. She has also said in various ways that this “mind” or “intellectualizing” is a pitfall that comes easy to us. We will be tempted to do it therefore we must learn another way to move forward. 

From this recap we can understand why “bookish knowledge of the journey” will not suffice. It ties back to the “two different modes of human knowing” that were laid out earlier in her text. She classified these modes of knowing as “thought and experience” and it is her position that these ways of knowing are of “two totally different dimensions.” Roberts’ “this” then refers to the human propensity to miss the mark, the inclination to stay on the surface of things where we feel we have control over the outcome of things. Not to trivialize the surface, but there is a whole lot more under the surface of almost everything.