"He who increases knowledge, increases sorrow."
Ecclesiastes 1:18
How does one balance the thirst for knowledge, knowing ignorance is bliss?
Discussion
By realizing ignorance is not bliss. It’s simply ignorance.
Ignorance is simply the lack of knowledge.
We all are more ignorant than we are knowledgeable.
Does certain knowledge not bring you pain?
Certain knowledge will bring pain but that doesn’t mean, to me, that to remain ignorant is better. And it certainly doesn’t mean it is blissful. The world is the same whether I am aware or not. What I do with that knowledge matters much more to me than simply being aware of it.
Maybe ignorance just seems like bliss. I choose my battles over any others even if they feel intense at times.
I found that the best way for me to tip the scales was to reframe the task of searching for knowledge. I developed my own approach called “Epithinking.” Epi, meaning from above, has become a great way for me to be able to seperate the emotion from the event by stepping easily into an observational frame of mind. This has allowed me to examine information without reflexively attaching an emotion, which in turn protects me from taking a side too quickly. It is an intellectual posture as well as a process.
I’m sure that type on-demand detachment took a considerable amount of practice.
Yes with a lot of on going practice. I rely mostly on imagery. A common one I use is to represent my mind as the centre of my intellectual solar system. Ideas revolve around my “centre” like planets revolve around the sun. The closer the planets are to the sun the more examination has been or is being done. I have the power to change the orbits of the ideas/information. Because I have limited knowledge, nothing is settled ie. not a hill I would die on, so nothing gets absorbed into my “centre.” From the centre I am able to observe without taking sides. It is uncomfortable. From time to time new objects enter my solar system. This imagery allows me to acknowledge their presence as independent from me but perfectly fine to examine. This is where the Greek word Epi meaning “from above” comes in handy, I am able to reach out and handle ideas and information as things that are seperate from me. For me, bringing an image like this to mind when presented with something challenging or new works extremely well.
