The Three Knocks Series – Part I: Seeking and the Self

This episode explores the first phrase of the biblical pattern behind the three knocks: “Seek and ye shall find.” We unpack seeking as both a discovery process and a mindset—moving from raw curiosity into an iterative refinement of what we truly need to know. Along the way, we consider how openness, opportunistic attention, and the distinction between seeking and possession shape the self.

🔑 Key Takeaways

• Seeking and finding are linked through an iterative discovery and refinement process.
• “Seek and ye shall find” can be lived as a mindset of openness and opportunistic attention.
• There is an important difference between the desire to possess and the quieter posture of seeking.

💬 Featured Quotes

• 0:01:07 — “Seek and ye shall find, ask and ye shall be given to you, knock and it shall be made open unto you.”
• 0:01:29 — “It implies that there is a relationship between seeking and finding.”
• 0:02:50 — “Discovery process and then a refinement and iteration process is really kind of an important part of this seeking each of fine process.”
• 0:03:52 — “There is a big difference between that seeking and possession”

🔗 Explore Related Episodes

• The Entered Apprentice Mason Series – Part I: The Work of Beginning
  Explores how every Masonic journey starts with openness, effort, and the willingness to make imperfect first attempts—mirroring the seeking mindset at the start of any path. 
• The Ashlar and the Question of Growth
  Confronts why we bother growing at all and uses the Ashlar to frame growth as a choice to shape the self, not the world—deepening the stakes of what our seeking is really for. 
• We Meet on the Level — But We Are Not the Same
    Reflects on how different levels of development and experience color what we seek and how we interpret what we find, using the aprons as lenses into growth. 

Creators and Guests

Host

Brian Mattocks

Host and Founder of A Mason's Work - a podcast designed to help you use symbolism to grow. He's been working in the craft for over a decade and served as WM, trustee, and sat in every appointed chair in a lodge - at least once :D

What is A Mason's Work?

In this show we discuss the practical applications of masonic symbolism and how the working tools can be used to better yourself, your family, your lodge, and your community. We help good freemasons become better men through honest self development. We talk quite a bit about mental health and men's issues related to emotional and intellectual growth as well.

Like a lot of free masonry, which kind of takes symbolism from pretty much anywhere

I can find it and sort of slaps it into the ritual where it makes sense.

The three nox and the origin of the three nox is relatively easy to find.

It's biblical in nature.

And it speaks to a really interesting take on how we go through the process of integration

and acquisition and things like that.

So I'm going to go over this, over the course of this week, there will be just like the

others, kind of the practical behavioral component, the reflective component and the systemic

component.

And with the three nox, it's really convenient because they actually lay out in that manner.

So we'll start today with the behavioral side.

The way that the nox work, at least in description, is as follows.

Seek and ye shall find, ask and ye shall be given to you, nox and it shall be made open

unto you.

And today we're going to talk about that behavioral seek and ye shall find.

The component there is very in the seek and find kind of process.

It implies that there is a relationship between seeking and finding.

And I know that sounds maybe a little strange to think about.

When oftentimes when we are trying to figure stuff out or try and figure out what to do next,

there is a process by which that is refined.

It is a kind of a back and forth understanding that for example, if you have just gotten

the medical diagnosis of some sort, it is very common to then go and seek all sorts

of research, all sorts of knowledge about that.

And then take that and refine that into what, you know, answering the questions you really

kind of needed to know the answer to.

And the large questions you have in the beginning kind of fall by the wayside when they are

not appropriate or not the right kind of solution to the problem.

And you get to a level of knowledge and comfort and understanding that makes a lot of sense.

That kind of process where you are taking this searching activity and turning it into a

discovery process and then a refinement and iteration process is really kind of an

important part of this seeking each of fine process.

The other elements of this that kind of move into even more kind of a deeper dive will

get to in subsequent episodes.

But this seeking each of fine is also kind of a mindset that you can take on as well in

that you are in a seeking mode, you are perpetually identifying those opportunities for those

acquisition, right?

So it can be described as, you know, almost I want to say opportunists, but a perspective

of openness as well.

Seeking does not necessarily require the kind of awkward attention that you might have

when you are truly desirous of a thing.

There is a big difference between that seeking and possession as well.

The seeking process that you go through that learning or discovery process you go through

is rewarded by that refined solution and then the process starts over and over and over

again.

So seeking fine, seeking fine, seeking fine.

And that is kind of the beginning of the three-knock process.