…Tree Of Knowledge, Mind, Brain, Thinking About, Thinking…
Do You Know The Difference? You are wired to want to know
You are wired to avoid uncertainty, wired to want to know how it all works so you can be safe. Understandable. Makes sense… you must use the MIND to accomplish that: feel safe, believe you are safe, dream of safety, crave safety, shrink, become nearly nonexistent.
Safety is a myth. Life is not safe. Safety is not attainable.
Humanity is so addicted to answers that it has a history of making up s-h-i-t, myths, fables, miracles, gods, angels, saints, aliens, ufos, law of attraction, and such. All serving humanity’s addiction to answers, but fostering a behavior where the faculties of the brain are dormant, not used, not active.
Asking questions
Asking questions seems to be in vogue, volumes are written about using questions to become successful, slim, attractive, safe… whatever… Just ask questions…
Certain questions can alter your state, your mood, your focus, I agree. I’ll demonstrate it at the end of this article… But regarding reality, regarding finding out how things are, most questions are useless.
Things become knowable only when the right questions are asked. And the questions are asked, not of another person, but of yourself. The answers to those questions, at some point in time, reveal something that points to what was thus far unknowable to you. Inquiry. Penetrating the unknowable.
Other types of questions, the usual questions I get from students, or readers of my blog, don’t come from the same place: they come from what they already know… questions only asked to cement the ‘knowledge,’ (90% inaccurate or made up,) with the intention to cement that knowledge so the questioner can feel safe and smug in their false knowledge.
The kind of curiosity that can’t wait to get ‘the answer’ is Mind wanting to justify itself: asking questions like this are useless, and harmful for your vibration.
What do your questions say about you?
In essence, almost every question you can ask another person expecting an answer is an indication that
1. you are unwilling to do your own thinking
2. you are afraid to do your own thinking
3. you are hungry for tree of knowledge stuff
4. your mind wants justification
A reader asked:
I am wondering where ‘discernment’ comes in. I don’t think you are asking me to check my brain at the door, merely to get out of it as many times as possible each day. So where is the intersection between following orders and discernment? Does it have a place?
My answer was:
Total misunderstanding.
I don’t and I never ask you to not be discerning. And I ask you to use your brain, but don’t live in your mind: i.e. get the calculating bits from reality, not your memory.
Discernment
1. the ability to judge well.
‘an astonishing lack of discernment’
2. (in Christian contexts) perception in the absence of judgment with a view to obtaining spiritual direction and understanding.
‘without providing for a time of healing and discernment, there will be no hope of living through this present moment without a shattering of our common life’Discernment is recommended… Discernment is the opposite of the person who only uses their mind…
What is discernment?
Discernment is a thinking process, very involved, and the mind can’t do it. Discernment is attempting to separate the wheat from the chaff, according to certain criteria. True/false, supported by experience/not supported by experience…
It is the faculty you use when you read what other people wrote… of course first you need to comprehend, distinguish their context (that they forget to add, so it is hidden), evaluate their pretext (that they ignore to tell you, as if it didn’t matter…)
What was puzzling in the question, for me, though, where and how the reader connected ‘slipping out of the mind’ and ‘not using the brain’.
Even a question that looks intelligent (=not from the mind) is just a trick of the mind: trying to prove something that the mind knows or afraid of.
Insidious.
As usual when I am in testing mode, I don’t have much to say, so I don’t write a lot of article.
But this morning, reading the Monday Morning Memo as is my habit, I suddenly felt a wave of grief wash over me.
‘I am not smart enough to market myself right. I am not smart enough to attract the right people to me…‘ and I wept. The fear is not being able to survive, to sustain myself, unless I am a master marketer…
Then Buckminster Fuller‘s words came to mind (I am paraphrasing, because I don’t remember what he said verbatim): If I am doing the right thing, if I am doing what I do for only for humanity, then Providence will provide… 1
Daring thing to say. Most people would be afraid to live like that. Do I have the courage to have Providence judge if my efforts are for the good of the Planet, for the good of Humanity?
Now that thus I managed to shift the question away from mere survival and whether I am smart enough or not, I am in a territory where I can feel home, although there is NOTHING to stand on… the space of foggy, unknowable.
What you don’t know you don’t know… From where all the power comes. The answer to which you can only connect when you are not in your mind.
The space you can only connect when the answer doesn’t matter: what matters is who you are in the matter.
The opposite of cheap closure, the opposite of smug knowledge, the opposite of what the mind is interested in you doing.
The space of inquiry.
Here is two short clip dealing with inquiry… from youtube
- another version of this quote is on Wikipedia: ‘From now on you need never await temporal attestation to your thought. You think the truth. You do not have the right to eliminate yourself. You do not belong to you. You belong to the Universe. Your significance will remain forever obscure to you, but you may assume that you are fulfilling your role if you apply yourself to converting your experiences to the highest advantage of others.’ Temporal attestation to your thought probably means other people agreeing to its value, and maybe even pay for its usefulness…
In the seven hours long lecture I have a recording of, this is what he actually said, thus releaving himself of the concern for money. Being concerned with money ‘colors’ one’s thinking, allowing only the thought that seem useful in generating agreement, followers, assignments, and therefore money. That is how politicians think, that is how 99% of humanity thinks… and that is why the world has to depend on the rare individual for all growth of knowledge, all growth at all.If you are interested in actually listening/watching the 7 hour long lecture, let me know. The size of the file is over 1 gigabytes.
Thank you, Sophie, for sharing these videos. I’ve never seen or heard Erhard before and I got the ‘already always listening’ through his analogy. It’s becoming more clear to me, especially after you caught me on on it on the last two path sessions, that my ‘already always listening’ is wanting to impress.
By the way, I’ve found the 7 hour conversation between Erhard and Buckminster Fuller in the related videos. Perhaps it’s the same one you had in mind, so here’s the link, should anyone would like to see it:
Regarding your comment on my question: “What was puzzling in the question, for me, though, where and how the reader connected “slipping out of the mind” and “not using the brain”.
I didn’t connect those two things. I never said you were not asking me to be discerning. I have never heard you mention the word. I meant the exact opposite when using these words: “I don’t think you are asking me to check my brain at the door, merely to get out of it as many times as possible each day.” By this I meant: you are not asking me not to use my brain, just not to live from the mind. I asked the question because I didn’t fully understand what you were stating in the article I was responding to, (were you asking for unquestioning obedience or does discernment have a place?). Remember, I am new here. I don’t know you. What you say feels authentic, but I wanted to make sure that I am welcome to use my discernment (as flawed as it no doubt is). I think discernment is vital and important and I am glad that my question has led to a longer post on the subject, which is very helpful. Thank you.