Do You Know You Know?

Realising one’s ignorance is the first step towards learning

Our mind is really an archive of old records because it can only think about the known. From the day we are born Our experiences of different sensation, situations and environments help our brain and thinking skills to develop.

So thinking is based on the known. That’s why it is repetitive and moves in a circle. It can go on refining the known but can never come to know the unknown. It can only make a guess at it.
 
And it is only through our imagination that we can dream or think about the unknown. Science, however, lives in both the known and unknown worlds. It keeps converting the unknown into the known.

We are all familiar with this ancient proverb:

He who knows not and knows not he knows not, is a fool — shun him.
He who knows not and knows he knows not, is simple — teach him.
He who knows and knows not he knows, is asleep — wake him.
He who knows and knows he knows, is wise — follow him.

Let us examine the term ‘know’ with reference to the diagram below in which:

• Awareness of self is represented by the vertical line
• Knowledge of the world is represented by the horizontal line

There are four possible quadrants:

1. Not knowing you don’t know 
Many students start from this position — a state of being unaware that you don’t know something, a state of ‘ignorance is bliss’. So the first move is to make learners aware of their ignorance. Though it has to be said it can be tricky.

2.     Knowing you don’t know 
This state marks a progression from the earlier and is is what most learning, and hence teaching, is all about.

3. Knowing, but not knowing that you know 
This one is rather complex and falls into two basic categories. The first is the kind of thing you can ‘do without thinking’, like basic driving skills. In the second category you would find people who are skilled, wise or learned without ever having received any formal training or education. They are literally born with a talent and are often unaware of their skills.

4. Knowing that you know but not knowing how or being able to express it. 
Again, this zone has two categories. The first is one in which a person can be a good coach in say, tennis, but not be able to play the game himself.

The second is the opposite, where an individual could be a genius in math, but not be able to teach others and pass on his knowledge.

When we are fresh from our education and enter the big bad world, we often take recourse to the books and notes we collected during our education. At some stage, however, without any conscious action on our part, this knowledge gets internalised subconsciously without our realizing it.

Several years ago, during a spell of spring-cleaning, I came across a long forgotten box of stuff that had been stashed away. Among the contents were my carefully preserved notes from my two years at IIM, Ahmedabad. They had not seen the light of day in at least 20 years. The pages were faded and worn. I could see pencil notes all over the margins and inside the covers. Sentences were underlined in ink and whole paragraphs were highlighted in a now barely discernible yellow.

As I turned those crumbling pages, I was reminded of how, once upon a time, I used to carry those notes around, like a Bible. Any time anybody had a question or there was a discussion, I had my references ready.

Then, one day, many years later, something changed. I don’t know why, it just happened. And suddenly, I didn’t need my notes any more.

And as I gazed at my notes, the meaning of this profound saying dawned on me:
“Those who have not attained Awakening should penetrate into the meaning of Reality, while those who have already attained should practice giving verbal expression to that reality.”

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Thought for the Week

“To know is to know that to know is not to know
and that not to know is to know”
Ancient Zen saying
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First published in Gray Matter - The Hindustan Times