Certainty is a very funny thing.
Most of us crave at least some degree of certainty in both the micro and macro aspects of our lives.
In our daily dealings, we like to be certain what time our flight will take off, how we’ll get to where we’re going, and where we’ll meet for dinner that night.
In the bigger picture, we’re equally eager to be certain we’ll find success in our careers, meet the right person, and stay healthy.
But life in the relative world doesn’t work this way.
“Uncertainty is uncomfortable, but certainty is absurd.”
—Voltaire
French enlightenment writer Voltaire understood that the only certainty (in the relative world) is uncertainty.
Knowing this, if we want to be certain of anything in the relative, our only option is to reframe and embrace this uncertainty.
“I’m certain that life in the relative world will be uncertain.”
There’s your certainty.
Spinning our wheels trying to make things around us more certain is surefire way to accumulate stress, and it’s as useless as trying to redirect the flow of a river.
With a lot of effort and stress, we may be able to create a temporary facade of control. Some people spend almost all of their energy this way [link].
That’s because the alternative is uncomfortable, as Voltaire observed—but with practice, we get better at it.
With practice, we can learn to relax into uncertainty.
We can learn to move like water.
And practice we must, because anything else would be absurd.
Just the other week, when I was in LA, I had a private student in New York confirm his course at 5pm on a Saturday, to begin at 8pm the next day—on the opposite coast. I had to immediately book a flight, book an accommodation, pack my bags, and get to the airport. On the last day of his course in New York, my accommodation fell through that morning. I had to pack up immediately, bring my luggage to a temporary WeWork space for the day to do a few Zoom calls for future courses, and wait for the evening course session before heading up to Harlem to meet my dad, who was flying in from Florida that day. As soon as I finished my Zoom and was getting ready to teach, I got a call from my dad that his flight had been canceled. At the same time, my mom had been sent to the ER with facial paralysis and might have been experiencing a stroke.
Luckily, I had meditated that morning, and regularly for the last 8 years.
In the past, the tumultuousness of this day might have caused me to lose it.
But thanks to my meditation practice, I’m more able to remain “grounded in Being” and less affected by the ever-changing world around me.
My teacher, often pressed by world leaders and Fortune 500 CEOs for his secret to success, will simply say “grounded in Being, perform action.”
So, grounded in Being, I started taking action, and while wheeling my luggage from WeWork to my student’s house, I was able to help dad get rebooked and get mom into the care of one of the best healers I know before starting the course.
When I arrived at my student’s apartment, there was a full-blown punk rock showcase with at least 100 people happening directly outside his window in Brooklyn that was so loud I had to end my phone call…because of course! We relocated to a nearby park.
Life in the relative never gets more certain.
And we’ll never make it so.
But by deepening our connection to the Absolute, we can get better at taking the relative as it comes.
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi summarizes this central concept beautifully in his commentary on the Bhagavad Gita:
The experience of the objects of the senses and their effects, the experience of pleasure and pain, are just phenomena which come and go. Do not give importance to the consideration of the fleeting and impermanent phases of life. Rise to the understanding that the permanent Reality of existence will continue to be, while that which is temporary will go on changing. So take life as it comes.
Krishna makes clear to Arjuna that all influences of the outside world, and their consequences as well, will cling to him and affect him so long as he is out of himself, so long as he allows himself to remain in the sphere of relativity and under its influence. Once out of that sphere, he will find fulfillment in his own Self.
—Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, 1967
So two things are actually certain:
There’s no certainty in the relative
There’s only certainty in the Absolute
Each time we sit for our twice-daily Vedic Meditation practice, we dip the fabric of our being into the dye of the Absolute, and each time we emerge, a little bit more of it sticks, and our fabric is that much darker—until one day it’s completely colorfast, permanently imbued with and grounded in the Absolute. With each passing day, we find ourselves increasingly able to find balance, more certain of our selves and less reliant on relative certainty around us. My teacher’s podcast episode Trust vs. Certainty [link] is one of my all-time favorites and expounds further on the topic.
Let’s discuss these and other ideas in Collective Effervescence, our online group meditation series, at its new time(!) this Sunday July 9 at 9am LA / 12pm MIA / 6pm EU. Drop in for meditation only (first 30 min) or stay for discussion + Q&A on this and other life topics from the Vedic perspective.
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Music today is Take It As It Comes, Jim Morrison and The Doors’ 1967 ode to Maharishi.