“I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it is much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers that might be wrong. If we will only allow that, as we progress, we remain unsure, we will leave opportunities for alternatives. We will not become enthusiastic for the fact, the knowledge, the absolute truth of the day, but remain always uncertain … In order to make progress, one must leave the door to the unknown ajar.” —Richard P. Feyman
“Let go of certainty. The opposite isn't uncertainty. It's openness, curiosity and a willingness to embrace paradox, rather than choose up sides. The ultimate challenge is to accept ourselves exactly as we are, but never stop trying to learn and grow.” —Tony Schwartz
“We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty!” —Douglas Adams
Human beings abhor uncertainty. Ego and civilization are both built upon the illusion of certainty, cushioned by pleasure and comfort and designed to reduce uncertainty wherever possible. We try to rationalize uncertainty, placing ambiguity into discrete mental categories like “worst case scenarios”. Our society has become so addicted to predictability that, when predictably unpredictable events shake the foundations of our reality, we suddenly feel like we no longer have any place to stand. And when that happens, our ego’s first reaction is usually something like panic, fear, and self-preservation.
Sound familiar? Have you had any trouble finding toilet paper recently?
But there is another way to manage uncertainty — to surrender to it, to fully inhabit it, to embrace ambiguity and discover the incredible source of wisdom, curiosity, and anti-fragility that can only be found in the heart of the unknown. Because when the ground opens beneath our feet, there’s an opportunity to make contact with a far deeper and more enduring ground — the Ground of All Being, the unmovable mountain at the very center of you.
Watch as Ryan and Corey invite us to deepen our practice in the face of uncertainty, finding strategies in all four quadrants to help us better acclimate ourselves to the massive pressures, social responsibilities, and societal realignments that are coming to the surface as we plunge into the opening act of the Transformation Age.