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"[The Eternal] is not a knowledge to be acquired, so that acquiring it one may obtain happiness. It is one's ignorant outlook that one should give up. The Self you seek to know is truly yourself. Your supposed ignorance causes you needless grief like that of the ten foolish men who grieved at the loss of the tenth man who was never lost..."
Poetry Chaikhana | Sacred Poetry from Around the World

Ten men after fording a river feared that one of their number had drowned.  Each man  counted the other nine while forgetting to count himself.  Therefore they all agreed that there were only nine of them and so they grieved for their "lost" friend.  Maharshi Ramana's point was slightly different from my own.

We can never know enough to say we know something.  Because we can never know enough to know how vital that missing informations might have been had we known it, we can really never make an accurate affirmative statement about anything.  Socrates was thought wise because he said that he knew only that he knew nothing.

I almost got into a pointless, and perhaps bitter, argument on line the other day because i and another person "knew" different things about something important to each of us.  I knew from sad experience that it was unlikely that we would "complete" each other by sharing knowledge, but would almost certainly "compete with" each other in asserting the "truthiness" of  our own point of view.

American Indians say that people have animal spirits that  guide us through life.  The different animals give us  different perspectives.  The "eagle" soaring aloft has a "bird' eye" view of everything, a panoramic view that that takes in much.  The "mouse", close to the ground, percieves what is immediate in great detail.  They could learn from each other; but will they share  their  different knowledges before the eagle kills the mouse or the mouse hides in fear of the eagle?

The mystical truth, that we can never know what we really  want to know, so we must learn faith or the acceptance of grace, corresponds to the scientific truth that we can only prove the null hypothesis.  So the scientist can only recognize truth as tentative and the mystic can recognize it only as love.

Some of my friends who are social scientists with a "knowledge" of biology are willing to make gross assertions about the importance of biological and evolutionary factors in human social behavior,  Biologists that i know who have "knowledge" of the social sciences, do not, to my "knowledge" make such assertions.  From this i conclude that biology brings with it a better sense of the possibilities and limitations of science than the social sciences do.  And physics may once again reign as "queen" of the sciences.

Unintended consequesnces, hidden costs, side effects. limited and poor samples, and the inherent complexity of damnned near everything, should give anyone pause before he or she can claim to "know" anything.

So, if ignorance is unacceptable and knowledge is unattainable, what should i do?  Find an alternative to knowledge?  Don't be Ignorant, be ______.  loving? humble? quiet? uncertain? merciful.  Treat knowledge respectfully, but no so seriously.  If we disagree, we could both be right, or wrong. or partly right, or wrong about right and wrong.


Oct. 24th, 2015 11:19 pm (UTC)
And again, it makes no sense to complicate everything so ... When I had studied at my institute and had a problems, my father had paid to the professor to teach me. The difference of his behave was impressive! His first words to me were - "Not Gods are making potteries." Or in other words - "Step by step" It is a loser's way to think every now and then that we don't know a thing about. The winner way to think that I can do everything just give me more time. Our civilization had got so much to be wondering and proud but if we will throw away our good will we will turn all these achievements to ruins and will get to a real hell without no evil but people's evil like it is in Iraq territory now...
Oct. 25th, 2015 12:10 am (UTC)
Well yes. We must act and take chances. That is life. And, in the West we think it better to be courageous than timid. But we too often mistake hubris for courage and caution for timidity. "Successful" people often reach the point where they are out of control. You have perhaps heard of our Mister Donald Trump. And i also really fear Mr. Putin.
Oct. 25th, 2015 12:54 am (UTC)
"You have perhaps heard of our Mister Donald Trump. And i also really fear Mr. Putin."
I haven't heard much about Donald Trump instead that he is a rich guy who did and will do everything to get more money and power. I had read the biography of Putin and know a lot about him but still can't say that I know the guy. Anyway he had got the power at nineties when our country was old ship going to bits and our country came a long way up during his authority . He had stoped some wars and strengthen our army when all our West post Soviet neighbours were licking USA's ass and were destroying their economy. So, I have not many reasons to be afraid about Putin more than about my cat...



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