How do I know what I know?
Easy. I don't know anything.
HOW do you know what you KNOW you know?
by Terry 31 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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gubberningbody
"I" is an illusion I'm organically incapable of escaping. I would say I'm a thinker, because I think, however if "I" is an illusion, then it can only be said that thoughts exist. It could very well be that "I" don't think them at all, but instead these thoughts conform the "I" to imagine the locus is reversed.
The tools of thought require motive. Most of us use these tools in the same way and for the same reasons a chimp uses a stick to get a banana - because we want the banana.
Spied Her
Such delicate threads we constantly weave
Like thoughtless spiders without intention
Webs within webs of words, thoughts and actions
A devilish world we wish we could leave
Creating ourselves a deadly disease
Thinking we're wise, it's all gross pretension
Hunanity's produce - quarrelsome contention
A broken patchwork, so hard to believe
Just where to begin - unravel the knot
Promethean fire, its burning undone
Like spiders that run through grasses on fire
We run all the time although we are caught
We cannot undo the things we have done
Trapped as we are by the things we desire
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Quentin
Look uder every bush and rock....question, question and question...hardest thing to overcome is being "CLOSE MINDED"...I have struggled with that for years. You have to search out everything and be willing to look at the (shudder)othersides point of view....It's done on a daily basis, it NEVER ends.
How can you understand a thing unless you know it. How can you know a thing unless you understand it.....
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poppers
All we have to do is buy their book, trust their advice and it's a bright sunny tomorrow!
Yup, that's what they're counting on - it's a very lucrative con, isn't it.
When you get right to down it life is a complete mystery, including who/what you are. People seemed frightened by mystery because it gives no assurances of anything - without certainty life seems confusing and threatening, and so people will grab onto anything to give meaning and provide some kind of comfort for their minds to wrap itself around. The nature of the mind is to seek out, to discover certainty and "find answers", and so most people will buy into some "authority" or whoever the current "expert" is so they don't have to admit to themselves that there are no answers, and who wants to hear that?.
To confront life and "self" as a mystery takes a courage that most will never muster because it's just too frightening; so many people would rather be told by someone else, by some teacher, some guru, some "expert", by some religion, by some "holy book" what is "true" than find out for themselves. In other words, instead of becoming familiar with themselves and life as a mystery they live their lives in whatever concept seems most appealing to them. Doing that is like living in a dream world, a conceptual landscape of ideas only, stitched together by the beliefs pedalled by others.
Question your answers and you might find something worthwhile for yourself, independent of what anyone else says. Drop all ideas, all concepts, all beliefs, all answers and see what's left - discover if there is something that never comes and goes. And when you find that ask yourself, "How do I know what's been found?"
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Snoozy
I wish I knew what I know now, when I was younger...
Snoozy
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garyneal
I don't know, I think some of Earl Nightengale's speeches ring of a lot of timeless wisdom.
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THE GLADIATOR
The investment world is a reflection of society in general. There are so many fund managers offering to invest YOUR money for a percentage. No guarantee of success and their predictions are often way off. I look up what the billionaires are investing in. They have a proven record and invest their own money.
This principle can be applied to life. The bible is a smudged second hand investment tip written on the back of a well worn, empty cigarette packet.
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cognizant dissident
I actually did leave due to scientific research I began while working towards a degree in nursing.
There, we were very much taught to question how we know what we know. Questioning was not only encouraged it was required. As nurses we were liable for every action we took with a patient and had to give a solid reason based on the best scientific data and empirical knowledge available at the time. Nursing also brought me face to face with the blood issue and when I applied that type of critical thinking to the blood doctrine it didn't hold up. The rest of WTBTS theology fell like a house of cards shortly after that. Belief in the Bible as God's word was only a few weeks behind.
Later, I did additional research on other topics, and I also read much of the research that was done by others on JWD. However, I did consider the blood doctrine to be the deal breaker for me as it is a life or death policy. I know family friends, young, beautiful women who have died or nearly died from lack of blood transfusion.
Now, I practice awareness meditation as do many nurses, doctors and psychologists. It is a great form of stress relief and can promote healing in patients. Some people knock it as new-agey mumbo jumbo, however, there are some sound scientific studies which have been done verifying the good health affects.
An even more important benefit of meditation though, is that it gets one very in touch with our experience in the moment. It teaches us to drop the constant story line running through our brains for 99% of the day. If you do it long enough, you soon realize that everything we truly know for sure, we only know through our own experience in the moment. The only way that humans have to "know" anything is through our 5 senses. We see, we hear, we touch, we smell, we taste.
First we experience in this way, through our senses, and then our brains draw conclusions from those experiences and tell us many stories. The big problem with this is that many of the stories it tells us are erroneous. Compounding the problem, is that our parents, our teachers, religious leaders, politicians, and other authority figures in this world also fill our heads with their stories about what we ought to think and believe. And they learned their stories in the same way. Thus erroneous teachings our passed on to generations throughout the millenia.
Whenever we accept a story from an outside authority, we do not really "know" the thing ourselves. Whenever, we read someone else's research, we do not really know the subject as we would if we had conducted it ourselves. Granted, this is not always possible to do and the shortcuts of taking other people's words for things and building upon our own prior knowledge is often helpful, otherwise we would have to relearn everything each and every day. However, it can also be a trap as we ex-JW's know only too well.
When it comes to important life decisions, the bottom line is QUESTION EVERYTHING! Do not give your power over to others. They do not and cannot ever "know" you better than you know yourself.
Cog
The most intelligent people do not have all the right answers, they ask all the right questions.
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poppers
Now, I practice awareness meditation as do many nurses, doctors and psychologists. It is a great form of stress relief and can promote healing in patients. Some people knock it as new-agey mumbo jumbo, however, there are some sound scientific studies which have been done verifying the good health affects.
Wonderful!
An even more important benefit of meditation though, is that it gets one very in touch with our experience in the moment. It teaches us to drop the constant story line running through our brains for 99% of the day. If you do it long enough, you soon realize that everything we truly know for sure, we only know through our own experience in the moment. The only way that humans have to "know" anything is through our 5 senses. We see, we hear, we touch, we smell, we taste.
Now, can you see the "story of me" that arises in the mind? Drop that, too. What's left when you do that? What can then be said when you ask yourself, "What am I?"
Whenever we accept a story from an outside authority, we do not really "know" the thing ourselves. Whenever, we read someone else's research, we do not really know the subject as we would if we had conducted it ourselves. Granted, this is not always possible to do and the shortcuts of taking other people's words for things and building upon our own prior knowledge is often helpful, otherwise we would have to relearn everything each and every day. However, it can also be a trap as we ex-JW's know only too well.
When it comes to important life decisions, the bottom line is QUESTION EVERYTHING! Do not give your power over to others. They do not and cannot ever "know" you better than you know yourself.
Well said, cog.
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awildflower
I second Poppers thoughts above and cog. It's the paradox of things isn't it Poppers.
