Knowing vs. Certainty

I’ve spent, so far, 20 years in Landmark.

The most important thing I learned there was that all the power for you lies in the part of reality that you don’t know that you don’t know.

They demonstrate the proportions with a pie chart: the whole pie is all that could be known. A thin slice is what you know. Another thin slice is what you don’t know and you know that you don’t know. For example I know I don’t know how to fly. These things you can learn if you have the time, money, etc. But what about the rest of the pie? That is the 99% of reality. The part that you don’t know that you don’t know. The part I considered non-existent until Landmark. The part is that is like water for the fish.

Imagine a fish swimming around happily in an aquarium. Do you think the fish knows it swims in water? Don’t guess, it doesn’t. That is the only environment it knows, and it is invisible for him.

Now, imagine the fish jumping out of the water, flying in the air looking down at the water, gasping: “Oh my Gosh, water!” Just before it plops back into the water.

In that split “Kaizen second” he suddenly gained access to the DKDK (don’t know that don’t know) paradigm.

Very easy to notice and promptly forget. Or explain away. Like my last boyfriend’s alcohol breath at 11 am at our first date.

But when it jolts you out of your normal sleeping mode, it is invaluable. That is why I stayed in Landmark for 20 years.

One of these moments were when, at age 40, after complaining all my life that my mother didn’t love me, I managed, for a split “Kaizen second” see, what it must have been like for her to have a child whose attitude was “My mother never loved me.” For a split Kaizen second I saw it, and I could never complain about her again. I couldn’t. Because I suddenly had no idea what she would have been like, had I complained about her loving me too much. Or, G-d forbid, hadn’t complained about anything.

That Kaizen second was my first foray into the 99%.

For many it is the “Necker Cube Demonstration.” (see illustration)

The power of those seconds to alter past, present, and future is the “Real Power”.

The power to become well, wealthy, fulfilled, connected, significant, exuberant, and to making a difference. Even to becoming thin, or having a clean house, or having a wrinkle free face at age 61.

Once you “really” know about that whole big paradigm, the 99%, you arrive to the state of certainty. And you will appreciate the Kaizen seconds, you will even become diligent at generating them, instead of waiting for them to pop up.