Knowledge is the ultimate barrier to learning.
One of the best advertisements I’ve ever seen was a billboard over a gas station. It proclaimed an eternal truth that has stayed with me since that day.
“He who knows everything eventually turns 21”.
I spent time yesterday with a very dear friend who has been placed in the difficult situation of trying to share a truth with some people who are so sure of what they know, that they are immune to wisdom.
Certain in their position, and with what I believe are truly good intentions, they are doubling down on a lifetime of mistakes as they try to deal with a situation primarily of their own making.
It’s hard watching this from afar, and seeing the damage being caused, and having very little ability to change the situation.
And it has caused me to reflect back on all the times in my life when I clung to knowledge of which I was certain, and in retrospect was completely, utterly and incontrovertibly…
Wrong.
As I have progressed in my journey, I have come to the realization that I ‘know’ very little. In the past I would observe, and very quickly move to judgment, and what I thought was knowledge.
Life has taught me some very expensive and painful lessons regarding such ‘knowledge’, and I have paid the price of my arrogance and desire for certainty.
No longer am I so dependent upon being ‘right’ that I can never be wrong. I lived like that out of fear of not being enough, and it prevented me from growing for so long.
I have also tried to refrain from sharing wisdom with people who already ‘know’ so much. It just annoys them, and I lose the chance to be of service in the future. I wait until questions are asked, and then try to help as I can.
The less I ‘know’, the more open I am to learning new knowledge. This willingness to let go of certainty has often taken me to a place of insight, where I can learn new ‘truths’ to experiment with in the world.
The more I ‘know’ the less I learn. The less I ‘know’, the more the universe opens before me.
And I learn.
More.
-- Dr. Alan Barnes
@maddrbmusings