From a site visitor: I’m totally westernized--gulity as charged--so I’ve been trained to give great value to knowledge, which you’ve been knocking. I’m at least willing to listen to you and see if I can get your point, but looking at your bio info, you obviously attended university, acquired enough knowledge to convince someone that they should pay you to use that knowledge, and then paid your bills through use of that knowledge. Your vast knowledge in many subject areas is obvious. So, what’s the deal? Larry
F.: So to review, the Advaita philosophy is not about passing on knowledge but about eliminating learned ignorance. Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj said,
F.: So to review, the Advaita philosophy is not about passing on knowledge but about eliminating learned ignorance. Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj said,
"All knowledge is like the son of a barren woman."
At http://www.advaitaquotes.blogspot.com/, the following pointer is offered:
"Ultimately, Advaita Vedanta is the Teaching that has the 'goal' of becoming the non-teaching by way of un-teaching."
More unequivocally, Dennis Waite wrote,
“The knowledge, once it has served its purpose of pointing toward the truth, is discarded too."
Ultimately, the only "real" knowledge pointed to by the Advaita Teachings per se is Self-Knowledge. Once that awareness happens, it is never forgotten. Once that awareness happens, all else is forgotten.
Thus, no one else, other than an Advaitin, ever said, “You do not need to know more or gain more or grow. You already Are That Which You Are. The consciousness that You Are has been corrupted (or seeing truth has been hampered) as a result of lies and myths that are disguised as knowledge. Treat that condition alone. See the falsity of belief in learned ignorance and watch the (relative) effects of learned ignorance end.” No one else offered a method for addressing the corrupted consciousness that offered “the full and final treatment.” No one else said, “Realize, and then you don’t need to keep coming back.” No one else said, “Realize and You are finished with all the ‘spiritual work.’ Then, You may go and be free and enjoy natural living.”
Next, you have also drawn an erroneous conclusion from your reading of any bio information. I did not attend college, I did not acquire knowledge, I did not teach, and I did not pay bills. College attendance happened; the accumulation of information happened; teaching happened (or not, some days); and bill-paying happened (or not, some days). Furthermore, the accumulated information underwent the de-accumulation process almost immediately, post-examination. Little of it was relevant to a career in teaching, and that irrelevance was noted both as it was being presented by professors and later as it was being discarded.
Further, no “knocking” of knowledge has been happening. What has been offered is an invitation to avoid developing false pride in knowledge because that will support ego-states and egotism and thereby only stand in the way of continuing the Self-Inquiry process to completion. Too, "spiritual knowledge" and "religious knowledge" will block advancement along the remainder of the “path” to Full Realization since those “Knowers,” thinking they now know it all, will thereby miss it all. Persons assuming those two "new" identities will fixate at the third of seven steps to Full Realization.
So try this: from the third floor master bedroom window, it is possible to look down on a terrace that slopes gently to the edge of a lake. The green lawns of the terrace are landscaped with scrubbery and trees and beds of flowers. Within the next three weeks, in a bed just below that window, some wild lilies will begin to bloom. To the eye, they can have a certain appeal. To gaze at them in the silence and to appreciate their relative “beauty” is calming. Even though the curtain over the window was closed this morning, and even though the lilies have not be seen for eleven months, and even though they are not yet in bloom this season, their presence is realized.
In a few weeks, what more would you think needs to be known about those flowers to be able to appreciate their beauty, fleeting though it shall be? Nothing. Yet there is that which can prevent the flowers from ever being seen, namely, the curtain. If the curtain is opened, then the flowers will be seen and appreciated fully, at least during the brief period when the blooms manifest. Nothing new will be known about the flowers that will enhance their appearance. (A pedant residing nearby once said I should know that they are not “lilies” at all but are actually "examples of the lilium philadelphicum classification." His sharing that piece of knowledge illustrates exactly how pride in knowledge prevents the natural enjoyment of anything natural.)
"Ultimately, Advaita Vedanta is the Teaching that has the 'goal' of becoming the non-teaching by way of un-teaching."
More unequivocally, Dennis Waite wrote,
“The knowledge, once it has served its purpose of pointing toward the truth, is discarded too."
Ultimately, the only "real" knowledge pointed to by the Advaita Teachings per se is Self-Knowledge. Once that awareness happens, it is never forgotten. Once that awareness happens, all else is forgotten.
Thus, no one else, other than an Advaitin, ever said, “You do not need to know more or gain more or grow. You already Are That Which You Are. The consciousness that You Are has been corrupted (or seeing truth has been hampered) as a result of lies and myths that are disguised as knowledge. Treat that condition alone. See the falsity of belief in learned ignorance and watch the (relative) effects of learned ignorance end.” No one else offered a method for addressing the corrupted consciousness that offered “the full and final treatment.” No one else said, “Realize, and then you don’t need to keep coming back.” No one else said, “Realize and You are finished with all the ‘spiritual work.’ Then, You may go and be free and enjoy natural living.”
Next, you have also drawn an erroneous conclusion from your reading of any bio information. I did not attend college, I did not acquire knowledge, I did not teach, and I did not pay bills. College attendance happened; the accumulation of information happened; teaching happened (or not, some days); and bill-paying happened (or not, some days). Furthermore, the accumulated information underwent the de-accumulation process almost immediately, post-examination. Little of it was relevant to a career in teaching, and that irrelevance was noted both as it was being presented by professors and later as it was being discarded.
Further, no “knocking” of knowledge has been happening. What has been offered is an invitation to avoid developing false pride in knowledge because that will support ego-states and egotism and thereby only stand in the way of continuing the Self-Inquiry process to completion. Too, "spiritual knowledge" and "religious knowledge" will block advancement along the remainder of the “path” to Full Realization since those “Knowers,” thinking they now know it all, will thereby miss it all. Persons assuming those two "new" identities will fixate at the third of seven steps to Full Realization.
So try this: from the third floor master bedroom window, it is possible to look down on a terrace that slopes gently to the edge of a lake. The green lawns of the terrace are landscaped with scrubbery and trees and beds of flowers. Within the next three weeks, in a bed just below that window, some wild lilies will begin to bloom. To the eye, they can have a certain appeal. To gaze at them in the silence and to appreciate their relative “beauty” is calming. Even though the curtain over the window was closed this morning, and even though the lilies have not be seen for eleven months, and even though they are not yet in bloom this season, their presence is realized.
In a few weeks, what more would you think needs to be known about those flowers to be able to appreciate their beauty, fleeting though it shall be? Nothing. Yet there is that which can prevent the flowers from ever being seen, namely, the curtain. If the curtain is opened, then the flowers will be seen and appreciated fully, at least during the brief period when the blooms manifest. Nothing new will be known about the flowers that will enhance their appearance. (A pedant residing nearby once said I should know that they are not “lilies” at all but are actually "examples of the lilium philadelphicum classification." His sharing that piece of knowledge illustrates exactly how pride in knowledge prevents the natural enjoyment of anything natural.)
New knowledge or more knowledge about the flowers will not be sought or acquired. All that will happen when the curtain is drawn back is this: whatever was blocking the seeing of the flowers will be removed and the flowers shall be seen. Witnessing the flowers shall just happen, and later the witnessing of the flowers shall end, at least until another cycle happens spontaneously. Now, how does that relate to the discussion of excessive knowledge acquisition, seeing Reality, and that which blocks persons from seeing truth? Please enter the silence of contemplation. [To be continued]
