Knowledge, eating from the tree - Act 6
In the last Act we looked at the role that trust plays in our behaviour and arrived at the following conclusion:
"The greater our desire for something not apparent and the greater our concern over something that appears to be, the more we will be compelled to seek trust. Where can we find trust? In skills born of experience or in beliefs.”
This led into looking to knowledge to see how that fitted into the trust model of behaviour. Knowledge is like a belief that has been qualified either through direct experiment, critical examination or by trusting experts or peers to review for us.
To know, I must interact directly with my sensory apparatus - see, smell, touch, taste and or hear.
Knowledge, however grants accepted or pre-qualifed “facts” as satisfactory evidence for a “thing” to be known.
Know - to recognise or identify
Knowledge - facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject.
We have gone from something that is personally verifiable to the outsourcing of validity, this leaves us in very uncertain place.
While the scientific method is just, in that it is open to all to test, replicate and form new hypothesis from the findings, it is not without its challenges.
These are the challenges that I see, (as a non scientist)
What is a thing? - Facts are pieces of a larger moving picture
The scientific method used to qualify facts is only as good as the instruments and techniques used to make the observation and of course, the observer and qualifiers themselves may have agendas or blind spots.
That leaves us with 3 main challenges
1 - Facts are separated from a dynamic interrelated reality. - they are stripped of context.
2 - Sensitivity of instruments and limitations of methods. - ability to measure
3 - As the observations become more complex and expensive, fewer “peers” have the ability to access and replicate or decide which questions will be asked - who is measuring and what are they are looking for effects the quality and usefulness of what is concluded and “sanctified”.
1 - Stripping context, dissociates consequence
To be able to apply a pattern to different circumstances, we must create labels, classifications and “variables” that can later be added in, to reflect the new scenario.
Before we can establish a predicable relationship between two objects, we have to label them and assign values to them, these conveniences form the conventions of our language.
Our ancestors use stories, we use science. Either way, leads us to think in terms of our world as being full of separate “things” that we have values for and possibly opinions about.
How to mine and refine concrete, how to mix it with metal and sand, how to add it steel structures is very generic information, that can be shared relatively easily. The downstream consequences of doing so,(on other people and even other species) is much harder to know.
When our ancestors taught a skill such as making fire, throwing spears or tracking, hunting and killing animals, there were rituals and ceremonies built around them. They may of taken years to master so the consequences of learning the skills came together with the knowledge.
Knowledge of mathematics, chemistry, physics, engineering and even marketing have advanced rapidly compared to evolutionary or geological factors. We have shared extremely powerful modalities for changing both the environment and individual behaviours, long before we even understood the potential consequences for doing so.
2 - Knowledge is a matter of dates
What is a fact today, is often found to be dependant on previously unknown “factors” or it may simply be found not be true at all in a year, a decade or century from now. Knowledge is at best a temporary map or framework to be added to and updated, yet we argue about differences in these maps as though they "Are” the reality that they represent.
3 - In experts we trust
Very few of us, take the things we need from nature directly, mostly we trade using money. We get that money by selling goods and services, which we value based upon the emotions we attach to them. The amount of money we earn is derived from our ability to influence those emotions, by creating both real and perceived benefits.
Our expertise determines the amount of respect, money and influence we have. We take knowledge very personally because it determines how we will be valued and treated. We store knowledge for our benefit and we feel threatened when its validity comes into question. When we become attached to knowledge, it goes from being a temporary framework to a rigid opinion.
Even well trained scientists, unless they have a practice of searching for and clearing such attachments, are incapable of objectivity. Meditation or anything that requires deep commitment to pure sensation can be seen as the practice of developing and maintaining integrity. Of not taking knowledge, memory and concepts personally.
Conclusion:
We can not put the genie of knowledge back in its bottle, nor should we try. What may perhaps be more useful is looking more closely at how it effects our ability to remain objective about its applications.
How knowledge is used to build social as well as physical structures, and how anything that is unyielding creates conflict and turbulence in an organic and flowing world of ecology.
How we become attached to knowledge, how we use it to build fragile identities that are reactive and easily upset.
Knowledge is tricky, and to be truly valuable it must be given context, it must be reassessed and easily updatable upon receiving fresh evidence.
That evidence can only be found in the realm of our senses, yet the more attached to knowledge we are, the more time we spend lost in our thoughts as we try to make sense from the conflict we creating.
Knowledge is awesome in its power, when we remain curious and allow it to grow and be updated, it can be a source of great joy. The more we cling to it and use it for personal gain, the more it ruins relationships, between people and between peoples and their habitats.
Remember, the reason we turn to from outward awareness to inner memory and concept? Is it not because we wish to alter or influence the flow of events that would otherwise occur?
Which brings us to the next Act in the series - Desire
Knowledge is a bit of a sacred cow, in the past, I have annoyed people I respect greatly by trying to have this dialogue. So I am really curious to know if this resonated with you, or if I have wasted your valuable reading time? Its ok, I won’t take it personally I promise…(been there done that).
Thank you as always for reading
=8-P
Wisdom as Action Series
Act 1 - Do you remember?
Act 2 - What is Love?
Act 3 - Feeling Swell
Act 4 - Bound to be Free
Act 5 - Trust Issues
Act 6 - Knowledge
Act 7 - All you Desire
best explanation of knowledge i have ever seen . i totally agreed with you because our knowledge never prove ourself wrong what ever situation .
if we thing by our mind and use our knowledge every difficult situation will be easier of us . because knowledge comes not only through book but also also from experience . It shaped our mind according to every situation and we can fight easily . @freemoceanisnow Thanks for this beautiful blog .
I used to try to turn this blog into knowledge
That will always fail
The real world is out there and can not so easily be captured with words lol.
To inspire curiosity and a return to sensation with less rigidity and more appreciation for wonder of both life and death is the best I can hope for
even to let go of that is to have one less desire that needs to be met :)
But of course I forget
I forget to cease remembering lol
hee hee
Thank you, it would be so boring with out the insights of others such as yourself.
Very Nice. Knowledge is like a BRAIN FOOD for everyone who wants to grow up. BRAIN is always learned us about NATURE. Our life depends on only NATURE.
Totally brother!
Food is in flow, when it becomes stuck, does it remain nutritious or become toxic?
Same with thoughts and ideas - when we cling for selfish reasons, do we become toxic?
Nature is so diversely inter-connected and totally impermanent - why would we take anything personally?
Ah but of course we do, its like a game, but if we are only happy when we are winning, then we will be very poor losers :)
If we are happy to be playing the game, and the score is just to make it more fun, to encourage greater quality of attention - ah...now we have a game everyone can enjoy, even those too old or young to move well can watch and share the emotion of a body flooded with the chemical reactions of life :)
If our "needs" end up limiting the diversity of life or "morality" restricting which life gets to be part of the food web, the game changes... there is less time for play and its all working to a different plan..
But underneath all our stories is the operating system of nature... and it was doing far more interesting things before we "defined it" - assigned it - re designed it.
ahhh...just keep moving....feeling....breathing...allowing this moment to be as perfect as it surely is.. :)
Yes. Really True. Knowing the real facts of life is the reason for a man to be wise. And I am very happy that you are on the edge of wisdom. GOD always keeps you near nature forever.
As far as I can feel God IS nature , of which we are a part, so there is no god as a "separate" entity to pass judgement, just as our own judgement can only create the illusion of isolation through tension.
Very nice to feel that, like the dust from the stars from which we are made, god is all pervasive yet inseparable and unknowable as such.
this perspective relieves any morality, guilt, shame, blame or contractual emotional negativity from the word.
So that it can not be used to justify the handling of justice in the name of a "higher" authority. That would just be an excuse to control people who are not trusted, who are feared because they do not meet standards set by the illusion of inflexible, rigid and non present evidence based "knowledge" - dogma
Angle to see and think of something. This is the thing that makes us unique from other humans. Something we understand from late, we understand something quickly. Thanks a lot for nice talking. Take care.
@freemoceanisnow
Actually I believe the main problem with humanity is that we care more about what others think and less about what we ourselves think.
Yes, beautifully said.
What if we are actually selecting what to believe, (which is what creates and shapes what we ourselves think) based upon how that may alter how others treat us?
If, as you say, we focus on the quality of our own thoughts with less consideration for how others see us.
Would this free us to have more consideration for the actual consequences of our actions?
Might we slow down on collecting and selecting beliefs, and just do stuff with more skill and grace?
This is why I like to view wisdom and curiosity as an Action, that is allowed to flow and be updated, rather than a set of rigid rules to be applied for control or filtering.
Of course language is rather limited for building such fluid and temporary structures - moving pictures are wonderful but so slow to create.
Thank you for your insight anishag
....."We take knowledge very personally because it determines how we will be valued and treated..."
In my opinion, knowledge is like the worlds central museum of ideas. Only a few in their life time take the pains of mastering its pieces and artifacts, great genii always pay the price of revisiting often times to know more. while some never visit that place but rely on the stories told by those who have been there.
So knowledge in its context is a virtual power that separates humans on the terms of memory capacity.
I like your museum metaphor, I like to visit them and see how our ancestors technology and cultures interacted with each other and their environment.
I also love to visit pure wilderness and imagine what it would be like to live and survive there as they did.
Thank you for your thoughtful comment.