Those of you who are fans of the classic book/movie “The Princess Bride” may have a smile and a laugh come to your face when you hear the term “ inconceivable!”. The Buddha himself used this term for four matters, but In my own practice I’ve also extended it to far more.

The Buddha said that there are just some things that you can’t really ever know, and trying to think about them will lead you nowhere but causing your head to explode. We humans tend to really get trapped into concentrating on so many things that we can’t know, that it actually harms us where we are, right here and now in this life. Lets go to the Suttas here :

AN 4.77 PTS: A ii 80 Acintita Sutta: Inconceivables

_“Bhikkhus, there are these four inconceivable matters that one should not try to conceive; one who tries to conceive them would reap either madness or frustration. What four? (1) The domain of the Buddhas is an inconceivable matter that one should not try to conceive; one who tries to conceive it would reap either madness or frustration. (2) The domain of one in jhāna is an inconceivable matter … (3) The result of kamma is an inconceivable matter … (4) Speculation about the world is an inconceivable matter that one should not try to conceive ; one who tries to conceive it would reap either madness or frustration._

So the four major inconceivables may need some explaining to the non-buddhist. The range or “domain” of the Buddhas is related to the powers and deep knowledge of a Buddha, you just can’t know and people in the Buddha’s time would debate and even fight over stuff like that, same thing with the range of someone in Jhana, which is a deep meditative state of concentration.

The last two are a bit more understandable I think. People have a variety of views of Kamma/Karma and even today humans debate on how much of an effect Kamma has on specific occurances and events etc. People use Kamma as a weapon and as a tool for unskillful behavior, but the truth is we just cannot know it’s true full inner workings in our lives.

The fourth being speculation on the “world”, essentially means trying to ponder/debate questions such as , was the universe(or multiverse) created, how was it created, how will it end, is it infinite? is it finite? All of the questions that will most likely always remain outside the scope of natural human reasoning and logic(aka Science).

This last one especially is not a way of trying to say “ well we can’t know so might as well not do any scientific investigations into it. It is a skillful means to keep us from spending too much of our time on big questions when, according to the Buddha, the biggest question is "there is suffering in this life, how do we overcome it and find true lasting happiness”.

I love science, even now I enjoy learning about the cosmos and looking up at the stars, but there is a balance to that. You can look up at the stars and say “wow there are 50+ billion galaxies in this universe each with 50-100+ billion stars with untold billions of Planets…. where, what, how… when… how… head explodes.

I saw a year ago on the great show ” through the wormhole with Morgan Freeman" that There is a scientist now has actually done these mathamatical computations and computes something like half the knowledge that exists in existance cannot be known to us. Even if we as a species survive for a billion years and colonize multiple galaxies, there will still be “inconeivables”.

These things can keep us away from being mindful in this moment, where we are alive here and now. WHen you read the ancient discouses and stories you see that ancient India was a place where people debated, argued, and wasted time over EVERYTHING, in fact one sutta shows 64 views, which range from “ there is god/gods- there are no gods” to “ after death there is existence - after death there is no existence” and everything inbetween. The Buddha called this a “thicket of views”, and is always guiding us to right now, and the power we have right now, here in this very life, to make things better for ourselves and those around us. This is a good lesson for us and a reminder to keep ourselves centered in our crazy day to day lives.

“ let be the past, let be the future, I shall teach you Dhamma” - Buddha