Tao je Ching and knowledge

brianthebard

I've started reading this book recently and have some questions for anyone who's read it. In it the reader is told to be knowledgeless, desireless. While I understand the desireless part, I don't know why we are told to be knowledgeless. Also, surely it is hypocritical or contradictory to offer information and knowledge but to tell one to be knowledgeless? Later in the book we are told that once a Sage manages to return to the way, or find the right path, then all things flow through them, including presumably knowledge. As I said I haven't even read the whole thing so this post probably seems a bit confusing but if anyone can offer some info or their own thoughts on the Tao and knowledge that would be great. Thanks.

18AD

One way of looking at being knowledgeless is this. Remember when you learned, for instance, to ride a bike, drive, or learn to write, presumably at this stage in your life you can do these things without having to think about them. Doing them requires no thought once you know how to do it. Let everything be like this and they will flow.
One idea I had recently was that if you became like this with situations you were wholely unfamiliar with then everything would flow much more easily. So engage in things you are unfamiliar with to become familiar with the unexpected. Eventually these things should not phase you at all.

Maybe another view on this is that knowledge is usually comprised of words. Words do not mean anything if they are learnt. One should be knowledgabe through their own observation and not fit ones observation to what is currently knowledgable.
Words as knowledge are false and often empty. One should be able to argue their view of the world without having previously thought of it. This kind of relates back to my first point.

Also in saying that knowledge flows through you, that doesn't mean you latch onto it or think about it. It's just there, flowing away and back again. It'd be analagous, to use the classic taoist metaphor, of trying to catch water in a running stream. Even if you manage to catch some it is no longer a running stream.

This is an excellent book. I remember thinking about little bits of it for days at a time. I of course, never examined the whole book this thoroughly.
Good luck.
AD.

brianthebard

Thanks that has helped clear things up, especially the idea of letting knowledge flow through you, in the same way as you are supposed to let the Tao flow through you as well.