A Prayer of Unknowing by Thomas Merton

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following Your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please You does in fact please You. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that, if I do this, You will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust You always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for You are ever with me, and You will never leave me to face my perils alone. Amen.

– Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude, page 79.

The Power of Unknowing and the Global Crisis

As the human race, we’ve gotten ourselves into quite a pickle. So much so that, if we don’t address climate change and biodiversity loss (not to mention a host of other issues) soon, we will drive ourselves – and much of the rest of life – to extinction.

Our Addiction to Certainty

One facet of the mindset that has driven our behaviors to such an extreme is our addiction to certainty. Certainty gives the illusion of security. The price of this is disconnection from reality. Certainty, in most cases, is an illusion. We no longer live in naked contact with the world itself, but rather do our best to force our surroundings to operate within the confines of our imposed ideas.

The tradition of Zen Buddhism reveres the state of not knowing. Shunryu Suzuki, one of the most prominent Zen teachers in the West, speaks of Beginner’s Mind.

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few”
― Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice.

As Jamie Holmes says in his book, Nonsense: The Power of Not Knowing, “Not knowing doesn’t leave us without a compass, in some relativist nether land. Owning our uncertainty makes us kinder, more creative, and more alive.”

There are many aspects to the psychic virus that is driving the mass extinction that humans have created, and the addiction to certainty is only one. But it is worth looking at and providing a remedy for.

As far as remedies go, the Prayer of Unknowing by Thomas Merton is a fine start.

Prayer of Unknowing: A Remedy to Our Collective Psychosis

“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end.“

Are we not in the very same place, not just as individuals, but collectively as a human race? And more broadly, as life forms on planet earth? As the systems that underpin biological life are upended and climate chaos ensues, we can predict very little about our future. We do not even know if we will survive as a species.

Nor do I really know myself…

This has never been more true of the collective. Modern, industrial, Western culture has stripped us of the wisdom-ways, ceremonies, and traditions designed to create self-knowledge. Each of us, individually, has lost our own soul.

But collectively, our entire culture has also lost its soul. How else could our society do such egregious harm to the natural world and to other humans?

…and the fact that I think I am following Your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.

It is easy to mislead ourselves, as much of the religious establishment has demonstrated. These days, those who claim we are following “God’s will” are just as likely to be enacting harm through prejudice and violence as they are to be healing the wounds of the world.

One key difference between them, I believe, is this: the first group tends to be closed-minded and fundamentalist, intent on forcing their viewpoint on the rest of the world. The latter group tends to be openminded and flexible, intent on finding the divine in places where it’s difficult to see. In short: those who heal the wounds of the world tend to be comfortable with not knowing.

But I believe that the desire to please You does in fact please You. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.

In this critical moment of human history, we cannot be so arrogant as to think that we have the answers to solve the global crisis we have created. Einstein said, “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”

Even those who are trying to do something about the crisis are large part operating from the same consciousness of control, certainty, and human exceptionalism that created the crisis in the first place.

And I know that, if I do this, You will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it.

What if we opened ourselves to guidance from the divine and the earth itself? What if we allowed ourselves to take each step towards healing our planetary predicament in harmony with what life itself is asking us to do?

What if addressing the global crisis begins by decreasing carbon emissions and stopping clearcut logging, but doesn’t end there? What if something more than a reconfiguration of resources and habits is being demanded of us?

If we are driven by a need for certainty, how will we ever find out?

Therefore I will trust You always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for You are ever with me, and You will never leave me to face my perils alone. Amen.

The human race certainly seems to be lost in “the shadow of death.” It is telling that, in his prayer of unknowing, Thomas Merton actually makes a declarative statement at the end. You are ever with me, and You will never leave me to face my perils alone.

This is when unknowing meets a different kind of knowing: a faith born not from the mind or belief, but from deep inner experience. This is a kind of knowing that does not live in the head, but in the body, the heart, in the world itself.

Could it be that, at this terrible moment for our species, the divine is with us? Could it be that that presence is, even at this late hour, closer than breath?