I was reading the book Bearing Witness by Bernie Glassman this morning and came upon this statement – As soon as we know something, we prevent something else from happening. When we live in a state of knowing, rather than unknowing, we’re living in a fixed state of being where we can’t experience the endless unfolding of life, one thing after another.
Many causes create an effect – a known fact when you observe the play of the mind frequently. When I put something into linear, I prevent the reality of nature to come to my vision. Nature is non-linear. It has been proven in quantum physics that past, present and future does not occur in sequence as what we normal know. When I bring knowing into my space, I collapse what is truly outside there into a flat experience. How then can I know what is Truth?
The work of the mind is know. In Buddhism, the basic nature of consciousness is know. In my early blog I mentioned that the mind can’t not know as a stand alone experience as it comes together with a knowing – you know you do not know. That’s the nature of the mind. And when I am blind to the limitation of this function I prevent myself from exploring the future what is right in front of me. My ability to recognize this function and to move beyond it is wisdom at work. Wisdom is impersonal and has the capacity of looking at things in many many different perspective.
Wisdom too has knowing as an end result. If given choice I would use the word understanding instead. Wisdom brings about understanding. And from understanding I know the situation. Knowing is a second symbol of understanding. Knowing has memory as its base. If I don’t stop recognize this, I end the journey of understanding and instead fixed myself in knowing. Knowing is dead. Wisdom is alive. There is nothing wrong with knowing – in fact knowing allows me to probe deeper, to question what I really know, to enter into the unknown with inquisitiveness and curiosity. But when I don’t recognize the limitation of knowing, I outgrow my capacity of being open, of being humane – of being wise.
I just realized an extra K on the word Now makes a world of difference between Now and Know. When I am aware I am in the Now. When I am not aware I am in the Know. Awareness has the capacity of possibilities, allowing wisdom and understanding to arise. Know has the incapacity – limiting, flattening and collapsing everything in its way.