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The pursuit of knowledge
anataman
Who needs a title?Where am I? Veteran
I discovered this IBM advert - a diversion for the nano-physicists at IBM, whilst doing homework on atoms with my kids. It's also in the guinness book of records!
It's really amazing - at this resolution, and we are talking at a magnification where we can see atoms under a scanning tunnelling microscope, the space around them have ripples.... I don't agree with the scientists interpretation of them, but for certain the smallest things we have imagined and can now image cause ripples in space:
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Comments
I love fractals!
If you become a wavicle, you know what and where you are!
I have many topics I enjoy like anyone else (including the ones above) but as we are reminded in buddhism that eventually you have to leave the raft...at what point does our pursuit of knowledge start to hinder rather than further help us? Is our never-ending pursuit of it on a personal level really just another distraction? How many of us (myself included) spend so much time reading and studying and far, far less time practicing? My grandma used to say "what do you need all those books for anyhow? Everything you ever need to know is already inside of you."
I have to say for myself, attachment to knoweldge/information has to be my biggest attachment of all, by far. Even the thought of giving it up in any sense creates a sense of panic, of "oh god, there's so much I could give up, but without studying and learning, what on earth would I do!?" Hm.
@karasti I'm the opposite. I have meditated for years and only now have I returned to read our sanghas intro booklet. I am floored like seeing all the hints that I totally missed out on. I find it hard to read and easier to just meditate.
@jeffrey - do hope you will share any that particularly strike you!
Isn't it wonderful how different we all are:
I find both study and practice complement each other.
One gives sense to the other.
Practice is the field-work, but it gains in clarity against a theoretical background.
And the theory is easier to understand when we experience certain concepts through the practice.
When we put into practice all that we learn, we humanize and flesh out what would otherwise remain as empty words.
We'll probably know that the attachment to knowledge is taking place when instead of internalizing our study in our guts and putting it into practice, we let all that knowledge get stuck in our head and don't use it to make our lives more meaningful.
I think the pursuit of knowledge keeps people busy, and allows us all to find even more imaginative ways to threaten our own existence and keep us living in anxiety and fear - if that knowledge is put to use with that particular intention in mind. However, good use of simple knowledge like making fire, cooking foods, and good hygiene and sanitation, avoiding harmful drugs, making useful tools, etc. have contributed to the success of the human race, but we seem to have developed such a thirst for knowledge that the technology being developed is starting to drive us to work in ever more imaginative ways to develop technologyfaster and allow it to be come more intelligent.
I see Stephen Hawkings perspective, and it's time to stop enslaving ourselves...
http://www.cnet.com/uk/news/stephen-hawking-ai-could-end-humanity/