I don’t know what I don’t know; but I do know nothing.

Posted on January 13, 2008 
Filed Under Effective Thinking

I can tell you exactly what I know; but I cannot tell you what I do not know. I know what I was told, what I have seen and experienced, and a few other things that somehow have found their way into my head during “inspired” moments. Of course, I don’t know the true value of my knowledge; because my knowledge does not include what I do not know yet — or how much there is yet to know.

None of us knows how much we don’t know; we simply cannot know how much we don’t even know we don’t know. But people have, throughout the ages, learned how to explore that realm and bring back what was unbelievable to most — and make it a reality. While practically everyone “knew” humans could not fly; the Wright brothers searched into the unknown and found an airplane.

Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For while knowledge defines all we currently know and understand, imagination points to all we might yet discover and create.” If you have problems without solutions, the answer you seek is in that part of your mind where everything else you don’t know yet exists — waiting for you to discover it and bring it to life.

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When people say, “In God, ALL things are possible,” most of them have no idea of how true that is. If you can imagine it, it can be done; but who uses their imagination these days? We have become a world in which a little box tells us what to do, what to eat, where to go, and how to feel; it even tells us what to do about our health. The health and dietary advice, of course, is rarely good advice.

But it’s there; and we watch and listen to it — and do what the box tells us. Imagine, since we are so effectively hypnotized by a little electronic box, how powerful your own mind is — and what you could do if YOU spent time talking to yourself about what YOU wanted. I’ve seen people laugh while watching television; but I’ve never seen a completely happy person sitting “glued” to their television.

Happy, healthy, successful people spend time thinking about happiness, health, and whatever their definition of success might be; just as inventors and innovators spend their time in prayerful states asking questions they don’t know the answers to, and being led to a place in their own mind where that information is already available to them. “Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find.”

Ah! You don’t look for that which you already possess, or for that which you have already found. You look for that which you do not know or possess. For this, you must look in unfamiliar places. No matter what question you ask of the mind, it will answer. Your ability to hear, discern, and use the answer is another matter entirely; the best hammer in the world cannot build a house if left in the tool box.

All of the answers to all of your questions, and all of the solutions to all of your problems, are in the “tool box” of treasures that remain unknown, or invisible, to you. One such treasure might remind you that you have no problems because of something you do not possess yet; your problems all come from holding on to something — attachment. The cure is to simply let go and grace will restore itself.

The realm of the unknown reduces what we do know to pieces of information in which we can choose whether to believe, or not. Even science is based on a foundation of sand; and, as a result, assumptions continue to change from time-to-time. If we don’t know what we don’t know, we simply must believe what we DO know — our knowledge is simply a collection of beliefs.

Malcolm Forbes said, “The dumbest people I know are those who know it all.” Knowing too much, or placing too much importance on the things you know to be true, tends to make people rigid, inflexible, and uncreative. Learn to be curious and flexible rather than close-minded and judgmental; you’ll be happier and healthier as a result — and you’ll learn more, too. Socrates said, “All I know is that I know nothing.” Of course, knowing this one thing makes a person wise beyond measure.

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