The Power of Humility
by John English • Phoenix, AZ

Perception is our first consideration in working with the known and the unknown. Let’s assume you are sitting in a room while you are reading this book. If you pause to look around the room, at yourself and the other contents of the room, as far as your perception is concerned in this moment now, all that you perceive in this room represents the known.

Now let us consider another room in the place where you are currently reading this book. This other room represents the known and the unknown simultaneously. You may know all of the contents of the other room because you’re intimately familiar with them through your experiences. However, as far as your perception is concerned it’s the unknown, because you’re not in that other room now so your perception can assemble the room.

To consider that our perception of something assembles that thing is a deep point indeed. Yet it’s important enough to consider within our context. Let’s take the example of the other room that you know but that’s outside the scope of your awareness in this moment. Someone could have gone into that room and completely rearranged it without your knowledge. This might be highly unlikely, but it could still be true. This is how the other room is the known and unknown simultaneously. It’s the known because you’ve experienced the other room and it’s the unknown because your perception is not there now to assemble it.

How many times have you made a move in your life based on a decision about something you assumed was known, and it didn’t work out for you as anticipated? Interesting point to ponder, isn’t it? How many times have you had a challenge in your life and no matter how many different tactics you took, you just didn’t move beyond the challenge?

Your answers to these dilemmas lie in navigating the unknown. If you knew the answer to whatever problem was causing your suffering, you wouldn’t be suffering anymore. The problem is like the other room. We so often think we know the answer and when we set out to navigate the unknown we’re only looking for information that confirms we’re right! The need to be right comes from the ego. Most of the time this results in passing right by the solution to the challenge.

When we navigate the unknown we have to use the power of humility. This is true whether we’re trying to find a solution to a challenge in our lives or whether we’re trying to access different levels of being. Humility, like so many qualities, is not what we think it is. It is, among other things, realizing our true nature and its relationship to all of life. It’s realizing that currently we don’t know the answer we’re seeking and we’re humble enough to own this. The irony is that this is all so powerful because it insures that when we navigate the unknown in our lives we don’t look to be right or assume we know where we’re going beforehand. This leaves us open to all possibilities. By working with the power of humility we can move our lives from the probable into the possible.

John English is the award-winning author of The Shift and The Little Book on Relationship. English is the founder and chairman of DreamTime LLC, a company whose mission is to assist others to make positive shifts in their lives and to live in the power of their spirit. John is an international speaker, shamanic healer, and a successful entrepreneur. He writes about a variety of holistic subjects; meditation, energy healing, shamanism, and the medicine wheel.

Excerpted from The Little Book on Relationships: How to Guide your Life with Meaning Purpose and Power by John English, with permission from Dream Time Publications ©April 2009.