Knowledge is knowing that you know that you know nothing?

Question

The more we know, the more we do not know that we know nothing. Discuss

Answer 1

Somewhat similar question was posed by one gentleman

Question:

MY UNDERSTANDING
IS THAT KNOWLEDGE
IS UNDERSTANDING.
THE WISDOM OF THE SAGES
IS THE WISDOM OF THE AGES.
PLEASE LEAD
ME TO
WISDOM.

In one question there are three questions. First: MY UNDERSTANDING IS THAT KNOWLEDGE IS UNDERSTANDING. No, sir. Knowledge is never understanding. Knowledge is a deception of understanding. Knowledge is a pseudo-coin, a substitute; it is not understanding. Knowledge is borrowed, understanding is never borrowed. Understanding is yours, knowledge is always of others. Understanding arises out of your awareness, knowledge arises out of your learning. And the process are totally different, diametrically opposite. If you want to understand you will have to unlearn all that you have learned. Knowledge functions as a barrier, knowledge has to be dropped. The known has to cease for the unknown to be.
Understanding is of the unknown, knowledge is of the known. Knowledge is your memory, understanding is your very being. Knowledge is borrowed light. Knowledge is like the moon, understanding is like the sun. The moon lives on the borrowed light; it reflects sunrays, it has no light of its own. The sun has its own light.

You say, `My understanding is that knowledge is understanding.' Then you have misunderstood, sir.

Second: THE WISDOM OF THE SAGES IS THE WISDOM OF THE AGES. No, not at all. The wisdom of the sages has no relationship with time. It is not the wisdom of the ages. That is a totally different thing.

The wisdom of the ages is nothing but the collective knowledge, the collective experience of humanity. People have lived, people have experienced; by and by, they go on deducing some knowledge out of their experience.
The masses... the wisdom of the ages comes through the masses. It is a mass product: it comes out of time, out of experience. And the wisdom of the sages never comes out of time, it come out of timelessness. When a person goes beyond time then he becomes wise. When a person moves into time he becomes knowledgeable. An old man is knowledgeable; an old man is not necessarily wise, remember. An old man is not necessarily wise-and a wise man is not necessarily old.

Shankaracharya was very young; when he was thirty-three he died. But he was tremendously wise. Buddha was near about forty when he became enlightened. Mohammed was near about forty when he became enlightened. They were facing older people than themselves; that was one of the conflict. When Buddha went to his own father, of course, the father was the father. And as fathers are, the father laughed at the stupidity. He said. `What? Do you want to teach me? You are my son. I am older than you, I am your father. I have known the world, I have known life -- its miseries, its blessings. Certainly I know more than you know!' And Buddha said, `That's right, sir. You know more as far as knowledge is concerned, your memory is far bigger than mine.

But I have not brought knowledge to you. I have brought something totally new an inner light has arisen in me, a flame. And I see you are living in darkness.' The father felt hurt. His ego was hurt, he was angry.

Certainly, Jesus was very young. And if the old rabbis were not ready to listen to him, it seems absolutely okay. Why should they listen to a young man who has not known the world, who has not lived yet? Jesus was only thirty-three when he was crucified. He started preaching when he was thirty -- very young -- and suddenly. People had known him working in his father's workshop, cutting wood, polishing wood. He was a carpenter's son. Nobody had ever dreamed that this boy suddenly would become a wise man. The one day he declared that he is the Messiah, that he is the son of God. Certainly, how could people believe it? They had known him as a carpenter; he was making furniture for them, and he was doing ordinary jobs in the town -- and suddenly he declared? `He must have gone mad.'

Remember, it is always wisdom which is crucified on the cross, because the knowledgeable people cannot tolerate it. It offends, it is offensive.

Wisdom is always timeless; it has nothing to do with your life experience. And what you call `the wisdom of the ages' is totally different -- it is a mass product. People have lived on earth so long, and they have experienced many things, and of course they have deduced, they have come to certain conclusions.

Wisdom is not a conclusion. It is not out of experience; wisdom is illumination, wisdom is revelation. It is sudden, like lightening. It is unproved, it cannot be proved. In the very nature of its truth, it cannot be proved. You have to fall in love with it or not. It is so sudden and unrelated with your life situations and experiences -- how can it be proved? What proof can Jesus give to you? He gave his own life, but he could not give any proof.

Do you remember? The last thing he was asked before he was crucified: Pilate, the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate asked him, `What is truth?' And Jesus remained silent. He looked into the eyes of the governor but he didn't say a single word. Why did Jesus remain silent? He should have said something... but truth cannot be said. And it is foolish to ask a person like Jesus, `What is truth?' Jesus is not a pundit; he is not a professor, he is not a philosopher. He is not going to give a theory about truth, he is truth himself. He stood there absolutely in silence; he made himself available, he made his presence available.

But Pilate could not understand it; he could not see truth. He was hankering for a few words, that this man would say a few words. And this man didn't say a single thing -- and yet he asserted everything that can be said about truth. He revealed himself: he was there, his presence was there, his vibe was there.

If Pilate had been a little perceptive, he would have known what truth is.

Truth is not out of the experience of ages; truth is not an experience at all. When all experiences disappear, and only the experiencer is left in pure consciousness....

Consciousness without content is what truth is. It is not an experience; it is not that you experience something. No, nothing is left to experience, nothing whatsoever -- just a pure sky, no object, only the subjectivity, throbbing with totality, dancing; just the subjectivity, just pure consciousness without any content. It is not an experience.

Let me tell you in this way: God is not an experience, it is beyond experience. The world is an experience, God is not an experience. Experience is possible in duality only. When I am separate from you I can experience you. When I am one with you, how can I experience you? How will I divide the experiencer and the experience, the knower and the known, the seer and the seen? No, it is not possible. The subject and the object have lost their boundaries; they have become one -- now who is the knower and who is the known?

Wisdom is that lightening where the known and the knower become one, when the seer and the seen become one, when all duality disappears and only one remains, only one. In experience the other is needed; experience is other-based, other-oriented.

You say, `The wisdom of the ages is the wisdom of the sages.'

It is not. The wisdom of the sages is timeless: it is beyond experience, it is transcendental; and the wisdom of the ages is mundane, temporal, based in experience.

And third: PLEASE LEAD ME TO WISDOM. That is not possible. If somebody else leads you, it will be knowledge. Again you will be trapped in knowledge. Nobody can lead you into wisdom -- because the other will be the cause of knowledge. Only you can be the cause of your own wisdom. Then you can ask, `What are you doing here?' I am not leading you into wisdom. I can do only one thing, a negative thing: I am trying to destroy your knowledge. I am simply removing the hindrance, the barrier; I am simply removing the rock in your path, that's all. And the rock is knowledge. Once that rock is removed you will start flowing. The fountain is there, blocked by the rock.

Your wisdom is with you; it is your life energy, it is your vitality, it is your ELAN. It is there. Once you become daring enough to drop knowledge, once you become daring enough to be innocent, daring enough to be ignorant; once you can say `I don't know'; Once you have gathered that courage to declare, `I don't know, and all that I know is just illusory, all my knowledge is borrowed, bogus, empty' -- the moment you drop your knowledge, wisdom arises.

I cannot lead you to wisdom. Wisdom will arise in you, it will well up in your being.

Just drop the rock that you are carrying -- and that rock is of knowledge.

And if you think that knowledge is understanding. then how are you going to drop the rock? Then you will protect it. If you think knowledge is wisdom, then of course I will look to you like an enemy who is trying to take your wisdom away.

The Master can only be negative; the Master cannot give you anything positive. And avoid anybody who says to you that he is going to give you something positive. Avoid.... The Master is just a help to remove the barrier, The Master is VIA NEGATIVE; he's the path of negation. He simply takes away: he says, `This is not true, This is not true, this is not true' -- he goes on eliminating. One day suddenly he has taken all the props away from you: you collapse, you collapse in wisdom. One day suddenly, when all your endurances have been taken away, something arises in you, pops in you -- like lightening. That's what wisdom is: it is your innermost nature. It cannot be given to you.

There are three types of teachers in the world: one I call the charismatic, another I call the methodical, and the third I call the natural. These three divisions are also the divisions of therapists too; there are three types of therapist: charismatic, methodical, natural. The division has to be understood.
`Charisma' comes from a Greek word meaning spirit, full of spirit.

The charismatic leader is so full of spirit that if you go to him you will become a slave. He is so full of spirit, he will overpower you; he will not bother about you; he will become a leader.

I am not a leader, I am not a charismatic Master, a charismatic teacher, because a charismatic teacher is dangerous: he kills you, you are nullified, your being is effaced. To be under the guidance of charismatic person is like trying to grow under a big tree -- impossible. It is impossible. You may think the tree is protective but to grow under a big tree is impossible.

You see a big oak? Thousands of acorns fall under the oak and die. They never grow, they cannot grow. They may be deluded because they will be under the mother tree and there will be protection -- but the protection is poisonous. The acorn has to go far away, has to be independent; only then can it become a tree. Otherwise it will never become a tree.
The charismatic person is dangerous, and people are very much attracted to the charismatic person. The charismatic person is never a true Master; he becomes a slavedriver. The charismatic is more of a politician than a religious person. Adolf Hitler is charismatic, Mussolini is charismatic. Leaders are charismatic: they have to lead people, they have to make slaves people, they have to dominate and dictate.
The second type of teacher-Master-leader is methodical.

He uses methods, not spirits. He will not overpower you with his spirit, he will simply give you methods -- better than the first, because he will never make you a slave.

The word `method' again comes from a Greek root which means `to follow'. The second type of leader-Master-teacher will follow the disciple; he will give a method. He will never lead you, he will follow you. The second type of therapist will follow the patient: he will listen to the patient, he will try to find out what the patient's need is; he will listen to the student, to the disciple. He will look at you, and he will help you from behind. He will never be ahead of you; he will push rather than pull you. He will not drive you, he will simply persuade you.

The second is better. Of course, many people are attracted to the first and very few are attracted to the second.
The third natural Master, the natural healer: he never leads you, he never follows you, he accompanies you. He simply holds your hand; he is a friend. Buddha has said, `Next time when I will be coming, my name will be Maitreya, `the friend'.' And it is very significant.

Buddha says that in his life as Gautam Buddha he was too charismatic -- so full of power, energy, ELAN, spirits, that he overpowered people. Mahavira was more methodical. And Buddha says,`Next time when I come, my name is going to be Maitreya.'

Maitreya' means the friend. Very symbolically he says, `Next time, I am going to accompany you. I will be a friend. I will not lead in front of you, I will not push you from the back, I will just hold your hand as a friend.' This is the natural, this is the best. And this is most difficult to find -- because you attract, you feel attracted towards, charismatic persons, miraculous persons, or you become attracted towards the methodical.
The natural is the best but the least attractive. He is very simple and ordinary. He has no charisma, he does not dazzle you. And he is not very methodical, he is not very technological, he is not very scientific; he is more poetic, he's more chaotic. He's more natural, as chaotic as nature is.
I am a natural person. I have no charisma, and I don't believe in charisma. I don't believe in methods-even if I use them, I don't believe in them.

I am a natural person, very ordinary. I can be lost in a crowd and you will not be able to find me. So I don't lead you, I accompany you. I can hold your hand, I can be your friend.

Answer 2

I Agree! The more I know, the more I realize that the real answers come thru me but not from me. The greatest advice to any young person starting the Path, learn now you know nothing, it will save you much time & energy. Another anology to this same understanding is the closer I get, the farther I realize I am, till every step I take is on my way home.

Answer 3

Almost, but not quite.

I would say "Wisdom is knowing that your knowldege is never complete."

But in either case, one should not be paralyzed by uncertainty.

Answer 4

I prefer to say: "Nobody knows anything; we just assume".

Answer 5

jehen has it right