At the Dark Retreat workshop, LJ shared that the highest level of practices were open to the educated and then uneducated people of all castes. (Ofc, by people, it means men) But I digress. I will never forget that Goenka ji always says that rely on your own inner work. Knowledge goes hand in hand with inner work to take us to liberation. But only knowledge is intellectual masturbation or distraction or avoidance. Practice without knowledge of basics can be confusing, but it can be done. In my experience, the complement is better.
This begs the question: are we confusing knowledge with wisdom?
Hmmm, educated how, by whom, on what? Maybe speaks to the outdated ideas around who gets to gatekeep and access practices? Anyhoo. I remember that teaching too from Goenkaji, and how Swami Rama says something very similar - that we can read all the books we want but the most important one is the story we write (about) ourselves, as in, it's the inner work that matters most. And hahaha, intellectual masturbation, that is SUCH a good term! I think many do confuse knowledge with wisdom, and many confuse the display of such knowledge with wisdom too, which leads to a whole lot of mess when folks start looking up to people who can spout and orate seemingly well but beneath all of that, lack any real depth by way of practical understanding. Like the Buddha encouraged, "don't just do what I say, see for yourself". Thank you for your wisdom :)
At the Dark Retreat workshop, LJ shared that the highest level of practices were open to the educated and then uneducated people of all castes. (Ofc, by people, it means men) But I digress. I will never forget that Goenka ji always says that rely on your own inner work. Knowledge goes hand in hand with inner work to take us to liberation. But only knowledge is intellectual masturbation or distraction or avoidance. Practice without knowledge of basics can be confusing, but it can be done. In my experience, the complement is better.
This begs the question: are we confusing knowledge with wisdom?
Loved this post 💜
Hmmm, educated how, by whom, on what? Maybe speaks to the outdated ideas around who gets to gatekeep and access practices? Anyhoo. I remember that teaching too from Goenkaji, and how Swami Rama says something very similar - that we can read all the books we want but the most important one is the story we write (about) ourselves, as in, it's the inner work that matters most. And hahaha, intellectual masturbation, that is SUCH a good term! I think many do confuse knowledge with wisdom, and many confuse the display of such knowledge with wisdom too, which leads to a whole lot of mess when folks start looking up to people who can spout and orate seemingly well but beneath all of that, lack any real depth by way of practical understanding. Like the Buddha encouraged, "don't just do what I say, see for yourself". Thank you for your wisdom :)
Just beautiful Aliya. Thank you.
Thank you Garry, I'm glad you found it to be so 💜