On Knowing Stuff

“I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief.” - Gerry Spence

I am a big fan of formal education. That said, I have lots of friends who don’t have degrees of one sort or another whom I consider to be brilliant and insightful, and a few friends who do have degrees (sometimes graduate ones) I consider to be dolts. Education, like money – is a commodity that can be used effectively for the benefit of both ourselves and the world at large, or as a tool to insulate ourselves from the dynamic changes of life.

Once we start to “learn” that this is this and that is that – we start to limit ourselves. We start to limit ourselves because nothing is ever that simple – and what appears as one thing on one level, may be something completely different on other levels. What education does NOT generally do is allow us to critically view anything from a variety of view points so we can see that sometimes things are both “this” and “that.”

Many of us (me at the top of the list) are uncomfortable with ambiguity. We like to be certain of things – and one of the psychological reasons for this is that our certainty allows us to move on – once we know “this” is true, we can put speculation to rest and move on to the next knowing. It’s convenient and tidy. Better yet – it’s safe. “Safe” is something many of us value over “happy.”

The world and people feel a lot safer when you think you have them pegged, but the truth is that there’s far more we don’t know than do know, and that will likely always be the case.

Werner Erhard in EST long ago taught “Belief is a non-experiential way of knowing.” In the many years since my participation in that program I have had a lot of time to meditate on this. Many of the beliefs we consider facts are really just things we wish were true–comforting ideas that we’re scared to release. We hold on to our beliefs for dear life…and there is a certain comfort about that – although it limits us from opening to new and potentially life-changing ideas.

If we can let go of our need to know and be right, we can be amazed, inspired, motivated, challenged, and filled with wonder every day.

If we can accept that more often than not, there is no definite answer, we can connect through our collective vulnerability instead of separating through our individual understandings. Can I spent a couple of minutes looking at what beliefs I am particularly attached to? Can I meditate on what my experience would be if I held a different belief from the one I have?

We are all in this together – in a world rife with unknowns. The things we know, the things we don't know, the things we don't know we don't know... Here’s to drawing one less unnecessary line in the sand today. Here’s to believing more in each other than in our interpretations of what’s true. Here’s to opening up to what’s possible instead of clinging to what seems probable.