|
Main Index
|
| |
| |
|
| |
is such that they cannot go wrong. They have eyes so they need not think about the door, where the door is. But you are blind. If you don't think of the door, you may stumble into some furniture, into the wall; you may get hurt, wounded.
THAT WHICH THOU DOST NOT KNOW, PRETEND NOT THAT THOU DOST. INSTRUCT THYSELF: FOR TIME AND PATIENCE FAVOUR ALL.
THAT WHICH THOU DOST NOT KNOW... that which you don't know, please don't pretend that you know. That is the way of the mediocre mind; it goes on pretending. It cannot accept, "There is something I am not knowledgeable about, I don't know." He goes on pretending. He goes on behaving in a way AS IF he knows -- and that's how he becomes more and more foolish. Those pretensions are not going to help you to become wise. Those pretensions will become the barriers to wisdom.
When P. D. Ouspensky reached his Master, Gurdjieff, for the first time, Gurdjieff looked into his eyes and without saying a single word he gave him a piece of paper, empty, and told him to go in the next room and write on one side what he thought he knew and on the other side what he thought he did not know.
Ouspensky was a little puzzled: "What kind of beginning is this?" He had not even asked his name, no formal introduction. He had not even asked, "Why have you come?" Simply gave him the piece of paper and told him, "Go into the next room and write on one side what you know and on the other what you don't know."
Ouspensky went into the room. It was a cold night, a cold Russian night, but he started perspiring. He could not write a single word on the side where he was to write what he knew. For the first time he became aware that he knew nothing. He thought of many things -- God, truth, love, life, death -- and it was not that he was not knowledgeable. He was already a very famous author; he had already written his greatest book, TERTIUM ORGANUM.
Just a few days before, I told you that is the third greatest book in the world. First is Aristotle's ORGANUM, second is Bacon's NOVUM ORGANUM, third is Ouspensky's TERTIUM ORGANUM -- the third canon of thought. He had already written it! He was already world famous. Gurdjieff
|
|
|
|
| |