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with what I thought I 'knew'."
"How did you then write all those famous books?" asked Gurdjieff
"They do not matter now. I was under the spell of mv so-called learning. When you spoke to me, for the first time the question stood so glaringly before me that I am overwhelmed with my ignorance! Now I feel I know nothing! I have revelled enough in words and taken them for knowledge hut as far as knowing is concerned, my attainment is zero."
"In that case," said Gurdjieff; "you are qualified to know, for you have understood the very basic fact that you know nothing."
This is the first step to knowledge: to know that you know nothing. This act of concession requires great courage. To acknowledge to oneself that "I do not know," is a great feat for at once the ego within, rebels. "Preposterous!" it exclaims. "I have the Geeta by heart, I have read the Upanishads, I go to the temple every day and take part in all religious talks -- how can I not know? Swords are unsheathed to settle questions of knowledge and custody is claimed of that which we do not know; and if words have failed to disclose Truth so far, they will always do so.
Nothing will be gained by learning words even if we try for a number of lives. Such knowledge merely creates an illusion of knowing. Then how are we to know? What is the path of knowledge? Study and contemplation were considered methods so far. We were always told that by reading books and discussing shastras and listening to the learned, knowledge was gained. Nothing could be more false than this, for nothing is gained on matter how much you read or hear.
The illusion of knowledge created by such learning has proved more dangerous than ignorance itself, for the ignorant man is at least conscious of his ignorance and may perhaps try to find out, whereas this is impossible under the illusion of knowing. I or a knowledgeable man, there is nothing for her to know.
This world suffers not so much because of ignorance as pseudo-knowledge. This is why we are so far away from Truth.
When Socrates became old, he sent word round to the whole of Athens exhorting the Athenians not to call him a wise
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