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mewtwo the corn farmer 9mo ago

GM

A Zen monk sits quietly as a student earnestly asks about enlightenment, truth, and the nature of self. The monk simply replies, “I know not.” This phrase, stripped of pride and pretense, echoes the heart of Zen—letting go of concepts, abandoning the ego’s grasp on certainty. In those three words lies a universe of wisdom: not ignorance, but openness; not confusion, but clarity unburdened by dogma. The monk’s “I know not” isn’t an admission of defeat, but a doorway to the present moment, where knowing ceases and being begins. In unknowing, he reveals everything worth knowing.

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Neal 9mo ago

it’s odd, how even Socrates uses the same logically invalid structure: I know that i know nothing.

dialectically, the statement contradicts itself.

but rhetorically, it conveys the importance of understanding our limits.

like if you tell a human being the truth dialectically with precision ,to be right sized, humbly proud, most all can’t do it.

epistemologically, the way humans “know” is how we interface with objective reality. When we use the term “knowledge” to mean certainty of some absolute, it breaks the valid metaphysics and anthropology human knowledge rests upon.

its really highlighting the difference between gnosis, possession of knowledge itself, and philosophy, love of knowledge.

don’t be a Gnostic

we don’t posses knowledge itself

we pursue it, interact with it, with love and care

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mewtwo the corn farmer 9mo ago

The unknown grows faster than the known. It will never outpace it's shadow.

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Neal 9mo ago

yes, their relation one of coexistence.

not strictly form/matter, but hylomorphic is the sense that humans relate to knowledge mysteriously as “both” not either or