The understanding of the small cannot be compared to the understanding of the great. A few years cannot be compared to many years. How do we know this? The morning mushroom does not know of the waxing and waning of the moon. The cicada does not know of spring and autumn, for theirs are but short lives.
~ The Book of Chuang Tzu, a snippet from Chapter One ~
Over one week ago in a post entitled, "A Limited Frame of Reference", I discussed the above concept in far less eloquent terms than Chuang Tzu. As the sage aptly points out, all we need do to understand our small perspective of the cosmos is to look at the natural world than surrounds us. Since we are part of nature, we likewise follow these same patterns.
We genuinely "know" only that which we can experience through our senses. While humankind has certainly been endowed with the abilities to imagine, contemplate and theorize, none of these abilities confers knowledge upon us. Since we can only experience death when we have died -- and we're not even sure we even can experience it then -- any discussion of what we believe re death is pure conjecture.
Likewise, any ideas we have about the ultimate source of life is also speculation. We truly don't know what it is and, like the cicada, there is no way possible for us to know as our lives are too ephemeral to grasp the length and breadth of infinity.
What can set us free is not what so many people think. Pretending that a person knows God (or whatever term you prefer) is both pretentious and delusional. Even worse, it doesn't really answer any of the key questions on the minds of the faithful. Religious adherents are just as apt as most anyone else to wonder what the purpose of life is and how does a person find the ultimate answer.
No, what sets us free is knowing that we can't know. When we come to understand that the answers are entirely elusive, we no longer incessantly need to ask the same questions over and over again. We just let them float away into the ether and embrace the absolute freedom that not knowing bestows.
We genuinely "know" only that which we can experience through our senses. While humankind has certainly been endowed with the abilities to imagine, contemplate and theorize, none of these abilities confers knowledge upon us. Since we can only experience death when we have died -- and we're not even sure we even can experience it then -- any discussion of what we believe re death is pure conjecture.
Likewise, any ideas we have about the ultimate source of life is also speculation. We truly don't know what it is and, like the cicada, there is no way possible for us to know as our lives are too ephemeral to grasp the length and breadth of infinity.
What can set us free is not what so many people think. Pretending that a person knows God (or whatever term you prefer) is both pretentious and delusional. Even worse, it doesn't really answer any of the key questions on the minds of the faithful. Religious adherents are just as apt as most anyone else to wonder what the purpose of life is and how does a person find the ultimate answer.
No, what sets us free is knowing that we can't know. When we come to understand that the answers are entirely elusive, we no longer incessantly need to ask the same questions over and over again. We just let them float away into the ether and embrace the absolute freedom that not knowing bestows.
It seems like one of the primary qualities of the fear of such uncertainty and un-knowing is the clinging to absolute certainty. How many evangelical Christians (to use just a local example) swear up and down that they KNOW God has changed their lives? I see a certain blindness or unwillingness to acknowledge that they might not be so sure of things-as-they-are.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog, by the way. Thanks.
I love Chuang Tzu and the way those passages say so much in such a simple, direct, poetic and often funny way.
ReplyDeleteIt seem to me that the wisest words ever spoken were "I don't know".
And there is great wonder and pleasure in that. How dull it would be if science or someone had an actual answer.
We genuinely "know" only that which we can experience through our senses.
ReplyDeleteBack up there. how do you even know that your senses are functioning normally? Have you been outside your senses to check?
No, what sets us free is knowing that we can't know.
Do we know for sure that the above statement is true? It seems to be self defeating to me
Most of what we think we "know" is used as a building block to more "knowing".
ReplyDeleteIn an enlightened state, I "knew" I was part of "God", but the knowledge was not a step towards anything else.
So: there are at least two kinds of "knowing".
One fills in part of a jig-saw puzzle.
One assures that "knowing" itself is irrelevant.
It would appear that true "knowing" is the realization that questions are irrelevant.
The mind needs to "know".
The God-mind needs nothing: it simply is.
One assures that "knowing" itself is irrelevant.
ReplyDeleteThat's not a self-refuting statement at all....
Great comments all!
ReplyDelete