Egoistic Worldly knowledge and True knowledge

[Guest guest]

A Zen master (cannot remember his name) was once asked.

Disciple: what is correct knowledge?

Master: Rid yourself of wrong knowledge.

 

" Regarding worldly knowledge, it is well known that it is an

additive process, in the sense that you accumulate more knowledge,

usually with the result that one becomes more knowledgeable and more

intellectual -simple ego aggrandizement- and will finally need, as

the Americans would say, a head shrinker.

As for Self-knowledge, every bit of information is at the expense of

the worldly corresponding bit, in other words, an example will

illustrate the issue better. Just suppose, one thought of himself

that he is honest, all his life he was honest, one day, the

surrounding circumstances were very pressing, that he had to be

dishonest and he saw himself very clearly -as being dishonest- and

it dawned on him that being honest or dishonest depends on

circumstances and originally he cannot maintain a fixed, everlasting

continuous idea about himself, in other words he saw that he is

colorless, and can be colored according to circumstances, and

unless " Something " out side of these circumstances helped him to

cover himself from being exposed, he will be surely exposed. From

this moment on -in the heart of this man- he new that he is

colorless and there is " Something " that covered and saved him from

being exposed, so he came out of this experience with less qualities

than he first entered this experience. This man will never consider

himself honest or dishonest, even the concept of honesty will drop

and leave his heart permanently. When this process continues till

its very end, this man will see himself naked from all qualities -

in the sense that he will never cherish any idea about himself or

others or he will never consider himself as anything or consider

others as anything-, and all these qualities will leave his heart

permanently, and his heart will start to

experience life anew unqualified -in the sense of experience life as

a virgin child free of the notions of himself or others. This is

True Knowledge " .

 

hsin