What do you know?

Here’s a quick exercise. First of all, imagine a typical Twin Cities suburban resident. Probably white, definitely middle class, probably with a family with two incomes. Now write down at least 10 things that this person “knows” about the Northside of Minneapolis. Please don’t censor the list; go ahead and include things that may be stereotypes or have racist or classist assumptions. (It’s usually the knowledge that we don’t want to acknowledge that is the most important to look at.)

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Consider the list. Do you know these things to be true? Not true? Partially true? Or do you not really know?

Now make a list of 10 things that you “know” about the Northside.

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Then consider your list. Where does that knowledge come from? Is it based on first hand experience? Professional training? Political beliefs? Is your knowledge influenced by the stereotypes that society at large has about the Northside?

Now specifically think about what you “know” needs to be done to improve life on the Northside.

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Where does that knowledge come from? Is it based on first hand experience? Professional training? Political beliefs? Is your knowledge influenced by stereotypes that society at large has about the Northside?

Knowledge is something our society trusts an awful lot (think about how much time and money we spend on education). But sometimes it’s a blind trust and we would wise to step back from our knowledge for a while to gain some perspective on it. In the Zen Buddhist tradition, this is described as living in a state of Unknowing. Bernie Glassman is founder of the Zen Peacemaker Order, a group of people committed to Zen Buddhist religious practice and active peacemaking in the world at large. Glassman says:

“When we live in a state of knowing, rather than unknowing, we’re living in a fixed state of being where we can’t experience the endless unfolding of life, one thing after another. Things happen anyway—nothing ever remains the same—but our notions of what should happen block us from seeing what actually does happen. We get upset because our expectations aren’t met. When we can let go of them we are in accord with things as they arise.

…This [unknowing] is very, very hard. Many of our members have spent years doing social action and have extensive knowledge in community development, ecology and the environment, education, the business world, psychology, social work, medicine, or the arts. In the past they believed that the way to become more effective was to know more. But when they join the Zen Peacemaker Order they train in unknowing, in unlearning all their previous conditioning and preconceptions about how to make peace… We help them develop the openness to see things as they are.”

Glassman later clarifies that living in a state of Unknowing doesn’t mean discarding all of our knowledge. But it does mean discarding our certainty that our knowledge is complete, or that our knowledge applies to whatever situation we have in front of us at the moment. Instead, living in a state of Unknowing means being open to experiencing what is in front of us at the moment, and then, and only then, determining if what we know can help us respond to the situation.

Stepping back from our knowledge can be especially important for allies. By definition, we allies are involving ourselves in things we don’t have complete knowledge about. We haven’t lived on the Northside. So our knowledge is a mixture of observation, things learned in relationship with Northside residents, preconceived beliefs, and stereotypes. Our development as allies should involve a constant openness to ideas or ways of doing things that may not fit our usual patterns and expectations. We must be open to being wrong, being confused, to having our judgments challenged. In short, we must be open to not knowing.

Father Wresinski, a French priest who founded an international movement to eradicate poverty, once said, “[Poverty] forces us to stay as we are—men and women to whom the poor can say, ‘You can do all you want but you will never be able to understand because you haven’t experienced what we are going through.’ If they couldn’t say that to us, we wouldn’t be forced to give them the right to speak… The volunteers and the allies have the task of transmitting what has been witnessed. However, we cannot transmit what we have not really taken in; we have to take time to reflect and internalize real experiences if we are to convince other people. Otherwise, very soon, we will lead another struggle, and it will be our own. Then the poor would be merely the objects of our combat; they would no longer be combatants or masters of their own cause.” As allies, recognizing what we don’t know helps remind us that we do not own the struggle, but are allies to the cause.

Sometimes situations arise that give us no choice but to face our own unknowing. When we stand at a peace vigil for a young person whose life has been extinguished much too soon, we can’t avoid being confronted with all that we don’t know about violence and its tragedies. But when we let go of our knowledge, we open ourselves to thinking creatively, and responding authentically to the world out of our instinctive compassion and hope.

Sources:

Glassman, Bernie (1998). Bearing Witness: A Zen Master's Lessons in Making Peace. Bell Tower, NY, NY.

Anouil, Gilles (2002). The Poor Are the Church: A Conversation With Father Joseph Wresinski, Founder of the Fourth World Movement. Twenty-Third, New London, CT.