This Just In: Knowledge ISN'T Power

Decartes may have had the best of intentions when he concluded that “knowledge is power,” but that doesn’t absolve him from the fact that he was utterly wrong. Ironically, he lacked a piece of knowledge that would have informed him, fully, that knowledge isn’t power at all.

Now THAT’S ironic, isn’t it? Much more than rain on your wedding day or some good advice that you just didn’t take.

What Decartes “missed” was that power doesn’t come from knowledge; all that comes from knowledge, really, is fear and confusion. Hence, the most knowledgeable people in the world are usually the most frightened (just walk into a hospital or university and stare into the faces of the people who work in them – if these places aren’t terror factories, I don’t know what is).

The plain – and rather ordinary – reality is that CLARITY is power. Clarity is the ability to understand a situation…well, clearly. Sometimes knowledge is helpful to achieve that clarity, but only sometimes – and then, when it is, it’s not totally helpful. Knowledge is based on memory, and memory is always based on the past. Either facts that have been stored and remembered, or “projected” into the future in terms of probabilities.

Clarity is real power, because clarity is an authentic response to reality. Clarity doesn’t bring old, dusty facts to a fresh, new situation. Yes, it may refer to facts – but it doesn’t depend on them exclusively.

For example, if you read this post ONLY through knowledge, you will constantly be assessing this with what you think you know. And that process – that constant assessment – will compel you to miss what I’m trying to say. You may catch a small piece of it, but you’ll miss the heart; the essence. You’ll be filtering this through knowledge, and knowledge is never of the present moment – never of the now. Knowledge is always of the past – always. Knowledge cannot LIVE in the present, because knowledge is absolutely derived from mind, and mind cannot live in the present. Mind lives in the past and in thee future – to “places” that don’t exist. Mind cannot live in the now; and hence, knowledge cannot live in the now.

And if knowledge can’t live in the now…how can it be power!? How can living in either the past or the future – two NON-places – be powerful? It is actually the very definition of weakness. The present contains power – and to SEE the present, you must be clear; clear of the past, clear of the future.

Lessons from Nature!

In this Information Age of ours, surrounded by some pretty cool, technically advanced “information sources” (like a blog for instance!), it’s easy to forget that, despite the amazing (and sometimes not-so-amazing) technical toys at our disposal, we’re still, well, PEOPLE. In other words: we’re organic expressions of nature; not mechanical bio-computers, however clever or intelligent we may think ourselves to be.

And because we are, thankfully, organic expressions of nature, we can – if we wish – take a step back from all of our bookmarked blogs, all of our DVDs (yes, this includes The Secret :), all of our workshops and seminars and other tools of learning in the Information Age, and simply re-connect with the source of it all: nature.

Indeed, if you can clearly and openly re-integrated with the natural world – and it could simply be a tree near your home or a lush tropical rainforest – you’ll find sources of information that will truly amaze you, and potentially transform you.

Really, it must be pretty hilarious for trees and rocks and mountains and flowers to listen to us human beings talk about “the Information Age” as if it’s something new. Do we really believe that anything in the world – that is, anything in nature – could exist, AT ALL, without being influenced by an incomprehensibly divine source of information? Information is natural; and, oddly, it seems that the only living things on the planet who don’t seem to grasp this eternal and rather ordinary fact, are human beings.

No wonder cats look at us like we’re…well, kind of stupid. We are!

Now, the point of this blog isn’t to remind us that we’re…stupid…but instead to invite you to take some time (how about today? How about right NOW?) and step back from your familiar sources of information: the Internet, your Secret DVD, your CDs, your books…whatever you learn from, and go outside and co-exist with something that has a more pure, more integrated connection with the SOURCE of information. In other words: go hang out for a while with a tree, or a rock, or a stream, or a flower.

And when you do, if you simply open yourself up – just as a flower or blade of grass is open and inviting – you’ll experience something…rather difficult to put into words. But I’ll try to put it in words, anyways (since a blank blog would be a bad idea…or maybe not?). You’ll experience insights, connections, clarity, spaciousness, and stillness that will nourish your information-starved soul. You’ll see elements in your own life, and the lives of those around you, that reveal themselves as patterns: which means that you can change them by changing something that you’re doing, or, more likely, the way that you’re doing it.

I know, I know. It sounds weird and “out there” and, really, who is out there marketing for “tree learning”? I mean, people sell all kinds of things – books, seminars, even Secret DVDs. But who is selling “hanging out with a tree”?

Just because nobody’s selling it to you, doesn’t mean that it’s worthless. In fact, it’s invaluable; and YOU have the potential to tap into that invaluable current of REAL information…not just knowledge and endless streams of thoughts and words. I’m talking clarity, insight and vision. THAT is information. THAT is what “informs” us.

So make an effort – a small effort, really, considering the other things you do in your busy life – and go hang out with something natural. A lake, a shrub, a tree…it doesn’t matter. Anything. Everything. The SKY.

Information does not belong to an “age.”

Information is your very nature…and it’s in nature still. We’ve forgotten.

The rocks, trees, flowers…and yes, the cats, still remember. So can you. So will you!