--- In [email protected], "salyavin808" <fintlewoodlewix@...> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], turquoiseb <no_reply@> wrote: > > > > When I run into people more like myself, who "know" > > only that we don't know shit, there is never any need > > or desire to debate, or to argue. We wind up talking > > about the things we love and find Wonder in. We enjoy > > our time together, and then part even more full of > > our normal sense of Wonder, more often than not > > laughing as we go. > > > > What do those who "know" feel after debating someone > > who "knows" something different than they do? Do they > > exit from the discussion happy and uplifted at having > > "proved" how much they "know," or are they just look- > > ing compulsively for the next person on which to > > wield their "knowledge" like a battleaxe? I wonder. > > Not sure of I'm included in that, hope not!
You are not. I have found your presence here remarkably refreshing, and emblematic of qualities often lacking in other participants -- humility and balance. > But I agree with the idea that "knowing" destroys the sense > of wonder. I remeber a conversation with a purusha buddy, we > were looking at the stars and I was pointing out things of > interest like parts of nebulae where stars are known to be > forming, mind blowing concpets like that. And he looked at > me with and said "just think, it's all consciousness" with > a secret inner smile as though he had some knowledge that > no-one else did. That's it exactly. That "secret inner smile" of certainty. All based on *having believed what someone he considers an "authority" told him*. Maharishi pandered to this desire to "know." The quote of his I find most telling is, "Every question is the perfect opportunity for the answer we have already prepared." Some people *settle* for "pat answers." They *revel* in them. Believing that the pat answers are actually true makes them feel elite, and that they "know" things that others don't. The pat answers alleviate for them the need to think for themselves; all they have to do to be content in life is to believe them, and parrot them to others in an attempt to get these others to believe them, too. > It worried me and I've been waging war inside > myself to find out what is known as apart from what is > believed. This seems like the perfect place to find out how > the other side see it! That's a healthy and balanced way to view Fairfield Life. Here you will encounter any number of people who "know" things. If you were to imagine them wearing that same "secret inner smile" of elitism and certainty as you read the words they post here, my bet is that you would not be far off. The person you'd get along with best here is no longer posting, Curtis. He seems to have decided that he has more important things in life to do than to serve as a punching bag for those who have a need to "prove" the things they "know," all while putting him down for *not* "knowing" them as well as they do. Curtis has managed to emerge from the TM cult with his sense of Wonder intact. As have you. I respect that. Others here only resent it. You'll see. Keep asking probing questions, as if the ones repeating the pat answers they've been taught to parrot as if they "knew" them maybe...uh...don't. Sooner or later their sense of certainty will be turned against you, and will reveal itself as what it really is -- fear. Scratch the surface of a True Believer -- in anything -- and more often than not IMO you'll find fear and a distrust of the sense of Wonder that makes life worth living. They're *uncomfortable* with not "knowing," and encountering someone who is not only comfortable with it but who *celebrates* the Wonder of not knowing is perceived as an "attack" on the sense of certainty that they wear like a suit of armor. As Frank Herbert said in Dune, "Fear is the mindkiller." Those who have settled for pat answers and eradicated their sense of Wonder have IMO committed a kind of mind suicide. They've given in to their fear of not knowing by convincing themselves that they "know." Whenever the "I know and you don't" bullshit gets too deep around here, I amuse myself by imagining the people trying to lay pat answers on me as if they were doing me a favor as characters in one of Bhairitu's zombie movies. "Brains," they chant. "Give me your brains. Then you'll be happy the way I am." Have you ever really *looked at* a zombie? They don't seem all that happy to me. Neither do those who parrot the things they've been taught to believe as if they "knew" them. They're hungry for brains because they gave theirs away. :-)
