Should We Be Seeking Knowledge Or Not?

[How to be wise]

In more recent episodes like 'Developing big picture understanding' and 'Becoming a sage', Leo is telling us to read more books and seek more knowledge.

But in the episode '10 thing you don't know you want', Leo said that we don't want more knowledge, and that it is a big trap.

So, my question is, should we be seeking more knowledge or not?

[Prabhaker]

5 minutes ago, How to be wise said:

Leo is telling us to read more books and seek more knowledge.

There is path of knowledge on which you simply try to see what is the case – whatsoever it is. That’s what Krishnamurti  goes on teaching. That is the purest path of knowing. There is nothing to be done.

You have just to attain to clarity, to see what is the case. You have just to see that which is. You are not to do anything. You have simply to drop your prejudices and you have to drop your concepts, notions, which can interfere with reality, which can interpret reality, which can color reality. You have to drop all that you carry in your mind as a priori notions – and then let the reality be there. Whatsoever it is, you just see it. And that changes you.

10 minutes ago, How to be wise said:

Leo said that we don't want more knowledge, and that it is a big trap.

Knowledge is a thorn, so is ignorance. It is exactly like when you use a second thorn to remove a thorn from your body. What do you do with that second thorn? Do you keep it safely in the old wound? No, you throw it away too. A moment will come when both of the thorns will be thrown away.

[How to be wise]

1 hour ago, Snick said:

When you removed your ignorance there will be a time where you unlearn all the knowledge you use to get rid of ignorance! 

And finally you are free from both ignorance and knowledge! You are enlightened! 

 

But to develop a big picture understanding you need actual real theory.

Yet according to Leo, we don't want that.

Should we develop big picture understanding or not?

[phoenix666]

Isn't this is one of the biggest paradoxes of enlightenment work? I guess it can only be understood the moment you awaken - until then you need the theory. I think knowledge and theories are like a latter you use to climb to the top. once you're there, you don't cling to it and can free yourself from it. that is, you can still make use of it, but you don't need it like a baby-blanket. 

I don't know if my point came across though  some stuff is just so hard to put into words

Edited June 15, 2017 by phoenix666

[SOUL]

Knowledge is the ornamentation of understanding and awakening is the ceremony of enlightenment.

[Shin]

You have to learn until you realize there was nothing to learn.

That's kind of retarded, but unless we brainwash you, it has to be done.

[cetus]

@How to be wise Knowledge is 'occupied' consciousness. Nothing wrong with knowledge per se, As long as you see it for what it is.

[Emerald]

13 hours ago, Prabhaker said:

Knowledge is a thorn, so is ignorance. It is exactly like when you use a second thorn to remove a thorn from your body. What do you do with that second thorn? Do you keep it safely in the old wound? No, you throw it away too. A moment will come when both of the thorns will be thrown away.

This is an excellent metaphor.  I have always been seeking knowledge with intense curiosity, for my entire life. It was only during my ego-transcendence experiences, that I had absolutely zero craving for knowledge. I didn't need to learn anything at all. I already knew everything that I needed to know in the form of access to infinite wisdom. But I had no desire to hoard or rifle through that wisdom either. I was content in simply using wherever it was needed and leaving the rest. But I suspect it is, in part, my knowledge seeking that has lead me to be able to experience transcendence in the first place. I recognized that transcendence was always what I was seeking in my knowledge seeking pursuits, despite not knowing that I was seeking it. 

So, @How to be wise , this is how I would answer your question. If you are intuitively drawn to seek knowledge, then seek it with utmost intensity. But if you find that you are using knowledge just to fill your mindspace with more knowledge and you don't feel a sense of expansion from it, then you know that it's time to let go of knowledge seeking and simply spend time being. You will know when you're using knowledge to avoid being because it will feel like you're straining yourself and will feel drained afterward. But if you're still in the knowledge seeking phase and that's where you're supposed, you will feel very passionately drawn to it and it will feel expansive. It's because your knowledge is helping you let go of the mental limits you set for yourself. This process is more about using knowledge to subtract knowledge and create space in the mind, like in the thorn metaphor. Then, once you've cleared space in the mind, you can then just be and observe reality for what it is much more easily. 

[AstralProjection]

On 6/15/2017 at 6:33 AM, How to be wise said:

In more recent episodes like 'Developing big picture understanding' and 'Becoming a sage', Leo is telling us to read more books and seek more knowledge.

But in the episode '10 thing you don't know you want', Leo said that we don't want more knowledge, and that it is a big trap.

So, my question is, should we be seeking more knowledge or not?

I think you need to put what he said into a bigger picture context.

[Shin]

@How to be wise

On one hand you seek knowledge because you think it will complete you.
(Some other people will pursue money, sex or drugs, it's the same mechanism.)
In this case you seek knowledge because you think it makes you a better human being, because it defines you and because you think you'll find at some point THE insight that will make you whole.
Of course it does not seem that way, but that's what you're doing inconsciously, just like any other addict.

On the other hand you seek knowledge because you know it can be useful, and because it can open your mind more and more.
In this case you don't need this knowledge, you just learn because there is no reason not too when you face a difficulty or want to improve at something in your life.

 

Edited June 16, 2017 by Shin

[How to be wise]

On 16/06/2017 at 8:58 PM, Shin said:

@How to be wise

On one hand you seek knowledge because you think it will complete you.
(Some other people will pursue money, sex or drugs, it's the same mechanism.)
In this case you seek knowledge because you think it makes you a better human being, because it defines you and because you think you'll find at some point THE insight that will make you whole.
Of course it does not seem that way, but that's what you're doing inconsciously, just like any other addict.

On the other hand you seek knowledge because you know it can be useful, and because it can open your mind more and more.
In this case you don't need this knowledge, you just learn because there is no reason not too when you face a difficulty or want to improve at something in your life.

 

But according to Leo, knowledge is a distraction.

[Shin]

41 minutes ago, How to be wise said:

But according to Leo, knowledge is a distraction.

Leo's job is to give you knowledge every week ...

[How to be wise]

On 19/06/2017 at 8:01 PM, Shin said:

Leo's job is to give you knowledge every week ...

So do you think it's not a distraction?

[abrakamowse]

On 6/15/2017 at 7:33 AM, How to be wise said:

In more recent episodes like 'Developing big picture understanding' and 'Becoming a sage', Leo is telling us to read more books and seek more knowledge.

But in the episode '10 thing you don't know you want', Leo said that we don't want more knowledge, and that it is a big trap.

So, my question is, should we be seeking more knowledge or not?

Knowledge will awake your consciousness, what you have to avoid is to seek for "information"... read those things that resonate in you, follow your intuition and the knowledge will give fruits.

[How to be wise]

On 16/06/2017 at 1:23 PM, AstralProjection said:

I think you need to put what he said into a bigger picture context.

What do you mean?

[Joseph Maynor]

Absolutely.  Become a knowledge beast. Be a sponge.  Go out there and soak up all the knowledge you can.  

[Tano]

On 16/06/2017 at 6:08 PM, Pinocchio NTO-Dingu said:

I stole it from Jed's books

You used to be the Jed forum member. Perhaps, still are?

Jed keeps a tight grip on it. I ran into him in Cambodia a few times.

http://www.enlightenmentmyth.com

[ajasatya]

@How to be wise this is the knowledge we need to transform ourselves:

the more egoistic we are, the more we suffer from jealously, impatience, greed, loneliness etc.

[Tano]

1 hour ago, Pinocchio NTO-Dingu said:

You must be Gromer/Nessa.

And campaigning again (or still).

You came to the right place. I suggest you PM a lot of people around here and ask them to join you. Maybe offer an enticement for the chosen ones.

PS. No I'm not a Jed forum member.

I remember your user name from the forum. You sound hostile in the above.

[Tano]

3 minutes ago, Pinocchio NTO-Dingu said:

I'm hostile to missionaries, wanted to see if you'd go for it. My appologies if I misjudged. It wouldn't be the first time someone came around here to recruit people to their cause.

I've been reading on your website a bit in the meantime, and you seem like an insightful person.

If you could give me a link to this other pinocchio I'd appreciate it. I do lurk on his forum from time to time and I don't recall seeing it.

 

I am not recruiting. I found it a tad difficult to know what I came to know - on my own, hence the website. If people come and look and decide for themself - that is all the intent. The real Jed, outside of his book and forum image.

The username Pinocchio' and the same image was on Jed's old forum. I was never a member of that one, but read a few times, before he closed it down. I can try to find the link, but only through the web archive, since the site is now closed. There may not be a page saved with this particular image.