The Telling...

[charley]

Originally Posted by Greco

Charley, your points in response to Chris Hedges's speech in Canada are well taken this morning.
And I appreciate your considered and insightful response. I would invite you to research his life
and experiences -as with anyone - to understand what may lie underneath what we see and hear
externally, if you care to go deeper in understanding this person.

All the Best, Greco

Thanks for your response, but no. He does not interest me. If it would be an interest, it would only add to my knowledge about x or y and constitute the pleasure of entertainment. - Not that I deny pleasure or entertainment, but such things have their place. - I do not in any way, shape or form accept that knowledge is the way to truth or wisdom. Knowledge only begets further knowledge, not understanding, nor wisdom. It is only useful in certain fields, such as medicine and other technological fields, and the incredible advances and cures therein. In the field of not knowing, there is only understanding. Knowledge is based on the past (all scientific knowledge builds on past discovery), while understanding is in the moment.
I think that it is impossible to get to the bottom of another person, but it is only possible to look at oneself and get to the bottom of oneself. In other words, I think it is impossible to "know" another completely. One can only "know" oneself. If it were impossible to get to the bottom of oneself, then meditation would in itself be a meaningless activity, and devolve into meaningless entertainment and navel-gazing - which for me is just not true. What meditation has made me understand is that all the answers to who were are, to what we are, can only be found within.
[As an aside, I have interacted with quite a few in real time who have believed that they were actually doing meditation - according to this or that technique - and then they come to the inevitable conclusion that life is meaningless and then they began to laugh, to which I could only frown, since I understood that what they thought was meditation was not meditation at all. All of which had made me understand that it is all too easy to get lost in illusions, and the mind can and does play tricks with itself.]
What I am saying is that all answers to human questions, to the history of humanity, are readily available within. I agree with Socrates who said that the unexplored life is not worth living. "The claim is that only in striving to come to know ourselves and to understand ourselves do our lives have any meaning or value." as per:

https://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/apology/section7/

Hence, the phrase "Know Thyself".