Somewhere in the Santa Catalina Mountains, Continuing the Process of Becoming
I may not know where the trail leads,
which is what inspires me to take it.
Knowing and Not-Knowing
We are all concerned with our competence and the competence of others. Most people are interested in being more competent and surrounding themselves with competent people. The key to our level of competence is our level of knowledge.
In Zen practice, knowledge involves the interplay between knowing and not-knowing. However, it is crucial not to conclude that not-knowing means you don’t know. On the contrary, not-knowing means not being limited to what you know.
Maybe things are this way, but perhaps they are not. (Philosophically, it can be important to help people realize what they do not know is a necessary part of knowledge. But such a paradoxical thought, from a learning and teaching point of view, is confronted with the inarticulate expertise of not knowing that you know is a dead end. Thus, we are left with the only position for developing competence being that of knowing what you know.)
Accessing information can help us cultivate our interplay between knowing and not-knowing. As an information seeker and frequent Internet search person, I know we can find information on all things thinkable. Today we have access to more information than ever before, but not all information is reliable.
I shared some thoughts on “Teaching in the Age of Google in an earlier blog entry.” So, if you have a question, want to know how to do something; like to learn how something works; or research a topic, well, just “Google It!” But, how do we determine who are the reliable authorities?
— kenne
Reblogged this on Becoming is Superior to Being and commented:
ON THIS DAY, 2017 –kenne