Osho on Knowing

Dear Friends,

Do you think, there is any difference between ‘Knowledge’ & ‘Knowing’?

Just read & reflect on how beautifully this difference is explained by OSHO....

“

...Not knowing is not ignorance; not knowing is a state of innocence. There is neither knowledge nor ignorance; both have been transcended.

The ignorant person is one who goes on ignoring something essential. In that way the knowledgeable person is the most ignorant person, because he knows about all the other things but he knows nothing about himself or who he is. He is keeping himself occupied with the non-essential. He is full of knowledge, yet utterly ignorant.

Not knowing simply means a state of ‘No-mind’. Mind can be knowledgeable, mind can be ignorant. If you have less information you are thought to be ignorant; if you have more information you are thought to be knowledgeable. So, between ignorance and knowledge the difference is only that of quantity, of degrees. They are not different, their qualities are not different.

Not knowing means one is neither ignorant nor knowledgeable. One is not knowledgeable because one is not interested in mere information, and one is not ignorant because one is not ignoring the most essential quest. One is not ignoring one's own being, one's own consciousness. Not knowing has a beauty of its own, a purity. It is just like a pure mirror, a lake utterly silent, reflecting the stars and the trees on the bank. The state of not knowing is the highest point in man's evolution.

Knowledge is introduced to the mind after physical birth. Knowing is always present, like the heart knowing how to beat or a seed knowing how to sprout, or a flower knowing how to grow, or a fish knowing how to swim. It is quite different from knowing about things. So there is a distinction between knowledge and knowing.

The state of not knowing is really the state of knowing because when all knowledge and all ignorance have disappeared you can reflect existence as it is. The more knowledge you acquire, the more and more knowing starts disappearing because it becomes covered with knowledge. Knowledge is exactly like dust and knowing is like a mirror.

The heart of knowing is ‘NOW’. Knowledge is always of the ‘PAST’. Knowledge means memory, accumulation of experience. Knowing is of the present. To be in the present you will have to drop clinging to knowledge. Knowing is your nature.

The word ‘NOW’ is beautiful. The heart of ‘NOW’ is the letter "O" which is also a symbol for ‘SHOONYA’ or ‘ZERO’. So, the heart of now is zero, nothingness. When the mind is no more, when you are just a nothingness, just a zero, a SHUNYA, then everything that surrounds you, all that is within and without, is known, not as knowledge, but in a totally different way. The same way that the flower knows how to open, and the fish knows how to swim, and the child knows in the mother's womb how to grow, and you know how to breathe ....even while asleep and the heart knows how to beat. This is totally different kind of knowing, so intrinsic, so internal. It is not acquired, it is natural.

‘Knowledge’ is acquired in exchange for ‘knowing’. So, you forget knowing, and knowing is the door to the divine; knowledge is a barrier to the divine. Knowledge has utility in the world. It makes you more efficient, skillful, and you may earn more. But whenever knowledge is not needed, put it aside and drown yourself into a state of not knowing ...which is also a state of real knowing....!”

Enjoy the Day Friends !