Not-knowing is the first tenet of the Zen Peacemakers. Not-Knowing is entering a situation without being attached to any opinion, idea or concept. This means total openness to the situation, deep listening to the situation.

It is the role of the Bodhisattva to bear witness. The Buddha can stay in the realm of not-knowing, the realm of blissful non-attachment. The Bodhisattva vows to save the world, and therefore to live in the world of attachment, for that is also the world of empathy, passion, and compassion. Ultimately, she accepts all the difficult feelings and experiences that arise as part of every-day life as nothing but ways of revelation, each pointing to the present moment as the moment of enlightenment.
Bearing witness gives birth to a deep and powerful intelligence that does not depend on study or action, but on presence.
We bear witness to the joy and suffering that we encounter. Rather than observing the situation, we become the situation. We became intimate with whatever it is – disease, war, poverty, death. When you bear witness you’re simply there, you don’t flee.
Loving Actions are those actions that arise naturally when one enters a situation in the state of not-knowing and then bears witness to that situation. It has nothing to do with the one’s opinions or other’s opinions as to whether it is loving actions or not.

2 Responses

  1. It is a wonderful discussion which is to be focussed at this time, hope everyone will be interested and encouraged .may the blessings of the buddha with you

  2. The most difficult part of understanding THE THREE TENENTS OF ZPO is that there is nothing to understand. The tenants denote a way of being in the world of, anger greed and ignorance, which according to the historical Buddha is suffering.What does that mean? It means that there is at some point a realization of body, mind, soul, and spirit of those tenets and the manifestation of the ONENESS OF THE UNIVERSE/COSMOS. The issue, in my opinion, has to do with the action which relates to THE NONITHIGNESS OF THING, And my opinion is that challenges to the human BEING to live standing on the very soft changing ground and using a spiritual braille that listens to the sound of joy and suffering of the world.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *