WHAT DO WE KNOW?

By Thich nu Tinh Quang

Having trained, learned, and come up with knowledge, reasoning, and understanding based on beliefs such as political and religious views, and even science, we think we know about them. But is our 'know' enough (?) and how is 'know' true to reality or truth (?)

We 'discover ' from the moment we have a toddler consciousness, which ages over time and is systematically tempered. In a 'high' or 'highest' system (with its label) we often assume that our 'knowing' is 'complete'. There is no way of knowing enough to be enough, just knowing is enough, and as such we make an illusion that we know enough within a certain extent of the system as a whole. Outside of a system, we are just toddlers; and each of us is a toddler with knowledge beyond our place or scope.

However, what we know in our place is not yet known. That is the 'unknowable' point of most religions. 'Knowing' is equipped under faith and faith is built on what we cannot know: God, the soul, salvation (Theism) or afterlife realms. A religion promises to help people live better in the present. Despite this, clinging to beliefs becomes an addiction to religion. The word 'delusion' leads to fanaticism without our awareness of it.

From the V-VI centuries BCE, the Greek Philosophers of Xenophanes' time were skeptical at all that nothing exists, that which we communicate, we discuss and we know, then also know nothing...And the tendency to skepticism has produced ancient Philosophers like Cratylus or Socrates... Doubt begins with regard to God (which arises from thought), and who is God's creator. What is the soul (?) once the brain dies (?)? Why are we incapable of saving (?)? Why do people suffer the same life as old, and sick people and facing death; skepticism of the afterlife realms (?)…Doubts about human abilities, and beliefs created by man himself, and negates all possible knowledge. The tendency to be skeptical as if we are being deceived by our senses, by beliefs based on the limitations of our senses, and systematic knowledge – Agnosticism (Epistemology Presupposition Probability)

Some people doubt the rebirth realms or sainthood attainments in Buddhism as recorded in the scriptures. As long as we place the realms and results of sainthood under the cognitive direction of the Mind in the present, we will no longer be suspicious. When 'Achieving' (knowing) or 'realizing' (receiving, realizing) the truth from the limit to the ultimate as a journey through the four stages of practice for the cessation of craving, the meditator attains the state. Mind no-self, Nirvana (peace) of the present, not after death reborn 1 time or 7 times in the sense of reincarnation in the texts. Our awareness and understanding come from the brain. After death the state of consciousness of our (brain) (or soul) is reincarnated (?); putting a skeptical attitude or a tendency towards skepticism to the matter in order to realize the 'idea' after doctrine and knowledge (this is not for atheism or enjoyment in life).

In India, the Ajñana school of philosophy takes skepticism. The Ahakavagga scriptures contain skeptical stances; later skeptics may have influenced other Indian skeptic thinkers such as Nagarjuna, Jayarāśi Bhaṭṭa and Shriharsha.

Another branch of Zen Buddhism is the Zen Koan (公案, there are 5 types), questioning as a subject of skepticism a doubt about the basic system of the teachings to continuously test thought critically enough to develop wisdom in perceiving the truth, such as the koan: “Who am I before I was born?” Ask questions of doubt in your mind while walking, standing, lying down, sitting…continue non-stop, and pass a period of time, there is the possibility of enlightenment or liberation. But liberating, liberating what? This only the meditator knows (like drinking hot or cold water, the meditator knows it himself). Liberation is the liberation of our own doubts, because when we were not born there was no 'I' like now to ask. Realizing the mind's attachment to a problem is great enlightenment that begins with a skeptical awareness of the necessary problem. Recognizing the limitations of knowledge in search of the truth of one's being is an attainment, not in a 'only to be understood' way of speaking.

There is a Zen story about the parrot's ability to speak or understand as follows:

‘…Master Ishu Sato has a parrot named Zun, which can repeat the last word in a sentence.

When Zen Master Sato said: "Namo Buddha".

The Zun said: "Buddha!"

The Master said: "Life and death".

The Zun said, “Death!”

The Master said, "Can you hear that or not?".

Zun said: “Not!”

The Zen master said a passage about Buddhist doctrine: "Emptiness, emptiness of mind, emptiness of wisdom, emptiness, purity of emptiness, emptiness of emptiness..."

The parrot repeated: "Emptiness, emptiness, emptiness…”

A few days later, the Zun lost its hearing and speaking ability. It perched on the Bodhi tree in the monastery. His eyes were half-lidded, and he seemed completely silent.

The Zen master looked at his beloved parrot, with sadness in his expression, and said: "I don't know me and him now. Who is more peaceful and closer to Buddha?"

The master's attendant clasped his hands together and said, "Sir, Zun speaks like a parrot and you speak with such wisdom. How can it be compared?"

Zen master Sato replied, “Buddhism is not about talking or thinking, but living. Living in the auspicious energy zone to absorb the essence of the arising environment. Other than that, it's all just a means. All sentient beings have a Buddha nature.

The attendant smiled: "It seems that Zun has attained enlightenment and we are practicing..." The Zen master also smiled silently (Japanese Zen Stories).

In most cases, we know few things or nothing, just being told or believing traditional knowledge, not 'realized' knowledge. Real knowledge is that which emerges from the incisive, from the touch of reality. It is not from the knowledge of the terms, from the senses of external perception. There are no illusions about an objective world where knowledge can be gained. Skeptics do not believe in their own knowledge. They question what they hear: What can Jesus with limbs do to save anyone? Yes, God's child is 'resurrected', not dead (and so it is believed). Or, the deep meaning of Zen master Dama's 'return to the West'. The subtext of 'reconstructing' the myth of 'living' in religions is to build faith in believers. It is also to become a subject of skepticism because values or truths are not the drawing cake. Today, not only Religion, the 'floating' values of individuals and society are questioned. People realize the limitations of the individual when placed in society.

Usually, our knowing is based on the sense organs and sense objects, grasping them as our own reality. We 'know' by our own illusions and accept others' perception as our 'knowledge': Illusion of our greatness, illusion of praise and criticism (praise is not real praise, contemptuousness is not really is contempt), illusion of success, illusion of 'me' illusion of success, illusion of 'me' that others 'give' to us. The reality of life and other people's perceptions for us that we 'know' are inherently unreal. We take the external world as the concrete object of ' knowledge' and are deceived by the illusion of internal perception. We cannot separate the world of senses. Each sense has its own scope to operate, but should not be attached to an object's general features or its own characteristics. This easily leads to delusion from 'being dependent on something else that arises' and clings to what is seen and known as real.

Knowing what is really knowing? The Buddha said: "You come to me to observe (to understand), not to believe..." How to observe? 'Seeing suffering (Dukkha), the cause of suffering (Samudāya), and the way to the end of suffering (Nirodha)', recognizing craving and the way to its cessation and Nirvana is peaceful in the present moment. The seeing and knowing from the primordial Buddha-nature, also seeing from the Six-Dharma (or the Six-Enter) without being disturbed by the six physical objects (form, sound, scent, taste, touch, and dharma), the seeing is also from the eyes without being disturbed by form perversion, until non-self but not self-separation ("大般涅槃經" 卷30，世尊云：「說佛性者亦如復是，非即六法，不離六法。善男子！是故我說眾生佛性非色不離色，乃至非我不離我) of the dialogue between King Militanta and Bhikkhu Na Tien about knowledge and wisdom is as follows:

“- Knowledge (nana) belongs to perception, understanding; and wisdom (panna) is to clearly see impermanence, suffering, and not-self. Knowledge is intelligence and wisdom is insight, so it's different, great king!

- What's the difference between intelligence and insight?

- Intelligence is learning quickly, understanding quickly, learning one thing but knowing two, you can have extensive knowledge, but if you don't understand how to practice, you can get to wrong knowledge. Those who have insight know their own minds, practice, and recognize the Dharma clearly; this is also known as right view or right wisdom, great king!

- Can a wise person know everything, Venerable Sir?

- Some know, some don't know.

- Why?

What you learn, you know, and what you don't learn, you don't understand. That's simple. Knowledge belongs to the category of understanding and knowing, Wisdom belongs to the view that no longer confuses: impermanence and permanence, not-self and self, suffering and happiness!

- So people with knowledge are still ignorant and confused; people with wisdom are no longer ignorant and confused?

- That's right!

- When wisdom arises, where does delusion and confusion leave?

- It disappears.

- Sir, please give an example.

When the light shines, the darkness will disappear, as if holding a lamp in a dark corner.

- As for wisdom, is it lost?

- It also disappears, but the work wisdom has done, such as showing us the truth of life, and showing us the truth of impermanence, suffering and not-self of dharma is still there, my honorable king!

- How so? That I doubted. Let me hear an example.

- Yes, for example a person lights a lamp to write a book, finishes writing, and turns off the light. The light is off, but the words are still on the paper, my honorable king.

- Give me an more example.

- A person specializing in fire prevention has five buckets full of water ready. When there was a fire, he took water from five buckets and used it to put out the fire. Once the accident is over, he doesn't need those five buckets of water anymore, right? In the same way, the five buckets of water are compared to the five faculties: faith, effort, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom; when sprinkled to extinguish the fire of greed, hatred, and delusion, the affliction is over, then it will self-destruct after its duty; however, emptiness, formlessness and liberation remain, my great king!

- I want more examples.

- For example, a physician uses five herbs to cure a patient's illness. Will the physician still use the five other herbs after drinking, healing, my great king?

- No longer needed.

"That's right, just like when an illness is healed without needing medicine, and the attachments of afflictions have been eliminated, then the five roots of faith, effort, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom will no longer be used in the same way." Only true happiness remains, great king!

- It's very clear, but can you give more examples?

- Is it possible? For example, the king once led an army to battle. Each time the king fired a flaming arrow, it was a sign of attack. Fired five flaming arrows for five waves of attack, and the enemy was defeated. After the victory, does the king need to shoot five more arrows?

- Shoot for what else?

-Right! In this sense, the five arrows represent the five armies of good dharma, while the defeated enemy represents evil dharma, ignorance, and craving. Enlightened people will no longer use weapons, but enjoy supramundane peace, honorable king!

- Very good! I have no doubts anymore." Milinda Panha (Milinda Panha)

- So when our knowing is no longer manipulated by the attraction to craving and evil dharma, what we comprehend is true knowledge, the unhindered knowledge of the karmic roots, the external world, and analysis of separate. When people are affected by the deceitful worldly world, they don't 'understand' anything. As for the past or future world, we don't know, the present "knows" in the way of running after illusions, knowing according to the belief of "drawing cake"; and it is only in the present moment that we realize the infinity of the world and our presence in the whole, without attachment, without craving, in the six senses without generating the sense of attachment, thought. Think of it as a breeze blowing through space, flying without attachment, so that our 'knowing' is truly free and peaceful.

From ENTERING THE GATES OF MEDITATION