We’re using the metaphor DC and AC current to understand the difference between thinking and knowing. The West invested its energy in thinking and choice (alternative current) while Buddhism invests in Direct Knowing. (I See). So we explore these two ways of knowing through the metaphor of the electrical current we use to light up our civilization. 

Whenever we have a choice, we are using Alternating Mind. So even the choice between Thinking or Knowing is the limitation of alternating mind. With Direct Knowing there is no choice. There are no possibilities. There are no alternatives. 

When you see your hand is on a hot plate, you don’t think about it; you don’t believe you have your hand on a hot plate. The seeing (knowing) your hand is on a hot plate is the action of taking your hand off the hot plate. There is no gap between seeing and action. 

With alternating thinking mind, there is a gap between thinking and action. We think this gap is normal because we think the alternating mind is the only legitimate mind. This mind makes stuff. But because we have dismissed Direct Knowing, we suffer. 

In Buddhism, Direct Knowing is the primary original mind, and the thinking mind is secondary. You know what to do, and then you think about how you are going to apply your knowing in time. The practice of Zen Buddhism (my favorite flavor of Buddhism) deconstructs the thinking current to reveal the direct knowing that lies beneath as the ground circuit. Direct Knowing is our face before our parents (alternating mind) is born.

The movie King’s Speech was a movie metaphor for discovering your Direct Knowing or your Word. The king stuttered, which is AC or alternating mind. But he was the King and he had to speak the Word, he had to discover his true voice. “Speak but the Word and My soul will be healed” goes the Catholic prayer. Speak but Direct Knowing and my alternating mind will be One mind. 

In alternating mind everything comes in pairs of opposites. Noah’s Ark is as metaphor for this reality. The One is Two, so whichever you choose, you are guilty for not choosing the twin. When there is no choice, there is no guilt. When you KNow what to do, there is no guilt because there is no choice. 

Direct Knowing is direct action. It is in the gap between thinking and doing that creates existential guilt and its handmaiden anxiety.

Awakening (enlightenment) is simply Direct Knowing that penetrates Alternate Thinking knowing. Alternating thinking fixes reality (experience) in form so we can catch a bus. Direct Knowing fixes nothing. Knowing unfixed everything. Thinking fixes everything into this and not that. Direct Knowing breaks through the up versus down, good or bad, and just knows and that knowing IS action, is Being. Knowing is Being, Being is Knowing. In yoga that is Satchitananda. In my mythology we project Direct Knowing as our Savior, the Knowing rides in on a horse and restores unity.

We’re on a roll this morning. I hope you pick up and follow this exploration that works with our understanding of DC and AC as our working metaphor. You need a working metaphor in order to get a grasp, a Gestalt of our working mind. We are our mind, we are our OS, so we need a working metaphor as a tool that open up the OS while we are in it. Psychology is working on someone else’s mind, but not your own. Your mind is missing. 

Zen is opening up your mind while you are opening up your mind. Zen is direct knowing that penetrates the alternate thinking of the conscious mind. Direct knowing is, therefore, not thinking consciousness. Direct know is the pond upon which the bubble of thinking consciousness floats. Direct Knowing bypasses the dysfunction of thinking and the Thinker.