What you don’t realize is that most of your life is unconsciously determined.

- Milton Erickson

So starts one of many books about the teaching stories of Milton Erickson. With his unique way of working with people, Erickson told stories that communicated on many levels and helped people change their lives. He often felt his stories were more potent when the listener didn’t take them as lessons at all but rather developed amnesia about them and completely forgot them.

Some research has shown that our conscious attention can only hold about 10 bits of information at any one time. That’s not much. Like having a flashlight in a dark room, our illusion is that we feel we know our environment because we are free to shine our limited perspective in any direction. We count only what we see as “knowing” and would like to think of the fact most of the room is dark as unimportant and maybe even irrelevant.

Acknowledging the darkness is, of course, terrifying. Like fighting blind, what can one do with this apparent lack of “knowing”? As soon as we direct our attention to one thing we expose ten thousand openings. When our training brings us to this problem we may find it as difficult to answer as a ZenA school of Mahayana Buddhism emphasizing the value of meditation and intuition. koanRiddle in zen.

Koans are intended to baffle the conscious mind and trying to unravel them can sometimes make you wonder if you are wasting your time. Maybe. But if you are one who senses that an insight is needed to penetrate these questions, you probably realize that a small viewpoint won’t help. Shaking loose habitual focus and narrow perspective is a difficult practice. Even with the best intentions we often fall back into set ideas of what we think practice is or should be. When this happens something is likely to come and hit us on the side of the head in some unexpected way.

So, if most of our life is unconsciously determined what can we do? Whether we realize it or not we have a practice where the opportunity to change perspectives is regularly presented. Through all of the suffering and sacrifice we practice to stop trying to save ourselves, to hold more in our care, even the safety of an assailant. To expand our view until there is no enemy at all. Day after day, we come to the dojoPlace of the way; a place for strengthening and refinement body, mind and spirit; training hall so that when we are frustrated, we can be encouraged; when we get stuck, challenged; and when we won’t budge, exploded. No status quo here. Beyond ideas of, good and bad, right and wrong, light and dark… we have a practice that challenges us to sense beyond borders, break down barriers, and give up self, so that we might break through to a wider view than we ever thought possible.

When Erickson’s method worked his listeners didn’t imagine that their breakthroughs came from listening to his stories. One thing we could say about them though is that they were engaged. Our task, our practice, is the same; remain open minded and engaged. If we can do this we might also be surprised to discover that insight, growth, and maturation come in unexpected, unforeseen ways from seemingly unknown sources.

The capacity for us to expand is ultimately within us. We don’t have to check our flashlights at the dojo door, but if we cling to them it’s limiting. For each of us the manifestation of this lesson will be different. For some it will be harder than it will be for others, but potential is there for all of us.

If all of this sounds too mystical for you, don’t worry. Just keep in mind that when your practice brings you to the end of your rope, let go.