The known is everything that exists in the memory of mankind, which includes personal belief, faith, opinion, theory, and whatever personal philosophy one has about life. Memory is the totality of everything that is known. The known is the past, which makes it a limited thing. It means all that is known is finite. Belief is finite. All ideas, theories, and concepts are finite. However, the unknown is not finite. The mind that empties itself of the totality of the known, which means all forms of belief, faith, and all the rest of it, comes upon the unknown. It comes upon that which is infinite. When that happens a fundamental and radical inner change takes place. The mind turns on as never before, which means it becomes highly alert and attentive. The mind that is attentive, which means an attentiveness that does not compare, expect, or judge in any way, is not bound to memory. It is outside the grips of memory, because the attention is immersed in the present. That means the act of attentiveness is what empties the mind of the known, which makes it the key that unlocks the mystery to the infinite. It opens the door to that which is infinite and therefore divine. The mind that comes upon this divine other discovers something tremendous. It discovers joy. It finds a joy that nothing else brings. When you have that joy, which is a joy that needs nothing, then all forms of personal faith, belief, and ideology drop. All ideas about Jesus, Mohammad, the Buddha, Krishna, Confucius, the Tao, spirituality, enlightenment, nirvana, and all the rest of it, simply go away. They go away because they no longer have any use. They are useless and get in the way of the other. Whatever idea one has about this divine other merely blocks it out. It shuts the divine out because all ideas are memory. They belong to the field of the known. When that block is removed the unknown manifests. The divine other comes. It appears together with a joy that no words can describe.
