Cleverness Can Obscure Wisdom

I came across this poignant three minute video yesterday evening: it exemplifies perfectly the danger of a lack of humanity in academic learning. Talk about synchronicity!

There is a great difference between how we should feel, and how we actually feel. Scholastic learning is not the same as actual experience. We all know this, but still fall into the same old trap. We are so keen to learn, to acquire and ‘have the answer’, that we miss the actual experience.

This acquiring of answers only make us kings and queens of samsara (conventional reality). This feels empty precisely because it lacks the genuine experience of emptiness…and genuine compassion.

Personal experience has shown me that when I have had a problem in the Dharma, people (Buddhists) trot out jargon, mainly to show off and feel good about themselves. It seems to be the only way they know how to respond. As Frasier says at the end of the clip, “It’s all I have.” There is never the question, “How do you feel?” and then we could start from there, because that would initiate a reply and they would have to listen.

Although this is a sitcom, the script is accurate. Frazier’s experience of feeling empty is because he thinks he is the master of book learning, and realises that is all he knows.

Can you recognise this?

Here is a previous article relating to this, dealing with the fact that you don’t have to be clever.

Recognising the dark is ‘being’ in the light

The light is our natural clarity recognising temporary dark confusion.

In the relative world, others may seem more knowledgable than us,
about this and that. We merely have to recognise our own confusion,
and we are home, in the light. It really doesn’t matter how clever others
are in the relative world, as they are merely stuck in their cleverness.

When we truly recognise our own confusion – this is wisdom.
When we truly recognise the confusion in others – this is compassion.

We don’t have to feel inferior because we are confused.
It is the recognition that is important: that which recognises.
The moment of recognising the dark is ‘being’ in the light.

The first noble truth is recognising suffering: suffering is merely our confusion
about our own specific, individual reality that we have created. Without that
recognition, there can be no liberation from suffering.

Having recognised the confusion – the light in the dark – continuity is sustained through
mindful detachment. We can then interact with the dark, because nothing sticks.

If we become involved in the dark while still confused,
we remain stuck in the dark.

The dark is a very sticky place!
The light has no place for anything to stick!