The Place Where Intuition Lives

Zen practice can help us see another way of engaging with the world rather than just rational knowledge. Don’t know mind means keeping a mind that is open, clear, and curious. It is before thinking. It is like taking an onion and peeling each layer back until you get to the last one. What is left after the last layer? For example, if we are afraid, we could try to figure out what triggered the fear. Rational explanations can only take us so far. Rather than trying to solve the question with rational explanations, we can deeply inquire, where does this fear come from? Fear is a feeling. Where does feeling come from? It comes from thinking. Where does thinking come from? My mind. Where does my mind come from? Asking these questions honestly and sincerely, we eventually come across a question that we don’t know how to answer with our rational mind. This is returning to our don’t know mind. Don’t know is our enlightened nature which is before thinking. This is the place where intuition can manifest in our lives.

So, we need knowledge and knowing things in order to function in our lives, and we need a don’t know to perceive the moment clearly. We need to rely on our intuition so we can respond to the world in front of us as it is appearing.