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Main Index
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Knowledge presupposes division -- the division between the knower and the known; knowledge presupposes distinction; knowledge is based on duality.
A really wise man has come to the point where he is no longer separate, where he is no longer an island, where he has disappeared into the whole. He pulsates with the whole, he vibrates with the whole, he is no more. Only God is. This is the meaning of the Upanishadic seer when he declares 'AHAM BRAHMASMI' -- 'I am God'. This is the meaning when Christ goes on saying 'I and my father are one.'
When you look at existence as an object you remain separate, but when you participate with existence, when you become a participant, when you look at an object and it becomes your very subjectivity -- then there is no knowledge and then there is no ignorance. When there is no knowledge, how can there be ignorance? Ignorance and knowledge are aspects of the same coin and the wise man has thrown both. So a wise man is neither and both.
THERE IS AN OLD TRADITION THAT LINKS WISDOM AND FOOLISHNESS. That is true. There is a tradition that says that Jesus was a fool -- and he was. There is a tradition that says that St. Francis was a fool -- and he was. In India the name of Buddha has taken a very strange form. It has become BUDDHU -- which means 'the fool'. The very name which means the most wise has taken another form, the polar opposite -- it has become BUDDHU. It means 'the fool, the utter fool'.
Yes, polarities meet. That's what I was talking about yesterday -- about what scientists call androgeny. Each man is both man and woman but you become identified with only one part of your being. You think you are a man but there is also a woman inside you, waiting to be recognised, received, accepted. And you go on denying it. You say, 'I am a man.' You will remain lopsided. If you are a woman there is also a man waiting within you, and you go on denying the man. Then you will never be one whole, you will always remain split.
There is a point of awareness, understanding, vision, where your man and woman inside meet and mingle and disappear into each other. That's what William Blake has called 'the inner
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