Wisdom is to know nothing
Knowledge takes root in the mind. When a mind is burdened by knowledge, it becomes difficult to move freely. A pliable mind is a mind free of any burden. Such a mind is able to investigate anything without the weight of knowledge. Such a mind is able to let go of any prejudice and opinions, and therefore is able to apply itself to any situation. Such a mind flows like water, so it can take any shape, and committed to no shape. Such a mind is an empty mind, so that any knowledge can fill it, yet cannot be retained. Only an empty mind is a wise mind, because such a mind understands that no knowledge is eternal, and nothing is constant.
When there is the attachment to knowledge, which is the same as prejudice and opinions, the mind is skewed. Whatever it sees then is through the screen of knowledge. This is the fundamental bias. Then, the mind cannot see anything as it is. Anything will appear to be something it is not. This is the nature of knowledge. Knowledge refers. Knowledge is reference, and in that reference is the division between the referrer and the referred. The referrer is not the referred. The knowledge about a thing is not the thing. The knowledge is itself. It cannot be anything other than itself. That is to say, there is not the other, but only this. The illusion of knowledge rests in the assumption that this can have any relationship to the other. There is no relationship. There is only what is. Knowledge is never the thing it knows. A mind that understands this simple fact breaks down the illusion of all knowledge, therefore become impossible to be attached to any knowledge.
When attachment ceases through this understanding, the mind becomes pliable and free. It can never say to itself that it is correct. It is never correct. It is what it is. There is no right or wrong. There is not fact and non-fact. There is only what is. The struggle between correction and incorrection ends. Then the mind can flow like water. It does not retain anything, because nothing is absolutely true. There is no longer the need to defend itself, to maintain its accumulated knowledge and opinions. This is wisdom. Wisdom is to understand the futility of knowledge in the face of reality. Reality cannot be known. Reality is. Wisdom is to know nothing, and to begin there, and to be free to go in any direction. The mind might take on a journey of investigation, but whatever conclusions it might reach has no importance whatsoever. No knowledge can stay. Nothing can stay. Nothing abides. Wisdom is to see that nothing abides. Therefore, wisdom transcends all knowledge.
Cover photo by Aman Upadhyay on Unsplash
