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is understood by those who understand it not."
Or it reminds one of the Zen Master Yung-chia. In his SONG OF ENLIGHTENMENT he says:
"You cannot grasp it;
you cannot get rid of it.
In not being able to get it, you get it.
When you are silent, it speaks;
when you speak, it is silent."
Or it reminds one of the great Socratic statement: "I know only one thing, that I know nothing."
AGNOSIA means the state of not-knowing. That's what SAMADHI IS, that's what meditation is all about: the state of not-knowing.
Meditation creates that state, AGNOSIA. When meditation has helped you to burn all your knowledge, to unburden you of mountainous loads of conditioning when it has left you utterly silent, like a small child full of wonder and awe, that state is called in India SAMADHI. SAMADHI means all is solved: there is no longer any question and there is no longer any answer; one is utterly silent. There is no longer any belief and no longer any doubt. Dionysius calls it AGNOSIA. It is through AGNOSIA that one comes to know.
This is the ultimate paradox of mysticism: that by not-knowing one comes to know it and by knowing one misses it. Not-knowing is far higher than all knowledge. The universities give you knowledge, but when you enter into the Buddhafield of a Master you are entering into an anti-university. In the university you learn more and more knowledge, information; you accumulate. In the anti-university of a Master you unlearn more and more... a moment comes when you know nothing.
It is a very strange moment, hence it has been described by Dionysius with tremendous beauty: he calls it "translucent darkness." Many mystics have called it different names, but Dionysius seems to surpass them all. Translucent darkness... darkness which is pure light. He also calls it DOCTA IGNORANTIA, the doctrine of ignorance. He also calls it "knowing ignorance." You can compare it with the knowledge of the knowledgeable people. The knowledgeable people are called by Dionysius people who have "ignorant knowledge." So he divides people in two categories: those who belong to the world of ignorant knowledge -- they
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