Fabulous Friday: The Ladder of Knowledge

Gurarding knowldege is not a good way to understand. Understanding means to throw away your knowledge. You have to be able to transcend your knowledge the way people climb a ladder. If you areon the fifth step of a ladder and think that you are very high, there is no hope for you to climb to the sixth. The technique is to release. The Buddhist Way of understanding is always letting go of our views and knolwedge in order to transcend. This is the most important teaching. That is why Thich Nhat Hahn uses the image of water to talk about understanding.

Knowledge is Solid; it blocks the way of understanding. Water can flow. It penetrates. This is the release.