The glass ceiling on knowledge

I'll preface these contemplations by acknowledging first that knowledge is obviously enlightening & empowering. Nuanced understandings of the mechanisms that make up both the outer and inner-verses can become the foundations for a rich life.

But the mind is just one fraction of our human experience. And an excessive focus on conceptual knowledge can rob us of the vastness of our expanded human potential.

I was listening to a podcast recently. The expert was passionate and the information she shared was valuable. I was grateful she had done the work to explore the subject in depth and invest time into sharing it.

But I began contemplating the nature and the possible trap of expertise.

At some point in our lives, most of us pick a lane, an area that speaks to us most resonantly, and follow it. We collect data until we have a full head of knowledge on the subject, and a sense of accomplishment in our achievements or contributions.

Many of us dedicate our adult lives to becoming experts in our chosen fields, driven by heart, passion, force, boredom, or an egoic desire to be celebrated and remembered as an important being to have walked the earth.

Our species advance.

We pass down our discoveries and material advancements to the next generation who then build upon them, and the human world becomes a fascinating, ever-evolving project to be a part of.

But without stopping to exhale. To pause and see and feel and absorb all the beauty, the love, the magnificence, and the potential for immense joy, freedom, fun, what is the point?

It's no secret that obsessive focus on becoming someone and acquiring knowledge can breed the kind of self-seriousness that has been labelled by the wise ones as a sickness. We can become trapped in our corridor and forget the wider world that exists outside of it.

What is the point of living with a head full of knowledge if the rest of the body is numb? An over-active mind often exists at the expense of the rest of the senses. And when we do not have the tools to switch off, an addiction to mental stimulation often translates into looping thoughts of a negative or neurotic nature. Noise. Constant noise.

Why is it so easy to forget the fact of our own mortality? Here we are, all these rational, logical and sometimes simply illogical and deluded minds, rushing about to prove and discover stuff, sometimes just to prove our own worth in the world, but often not wise enough to remember that death is closer every step of the way.

Many intentionally ignore the fact of death out of fear. But it does not have to be anxiety-inducing. To me, the fact of death only invites more urgency for deep presence to the fact of life.

The awareness of our limited time here can force us to spend every moment of it living or at least striving towards a rich existence. One that can be full, and include expertise and all the things mentioned above, but with full-body presence and simple, unconditional contentment and love.

We can walk so lightly, so freely, and so buoyantly through this world, with clear, sharp minds and vibrant hearts, and a deep sense of divinity, and a nuanced, rational understanding of the mechanisms that make up our mind/ bodies/world and beyond.

Our embodiment of the human experience does not have to be so lopsided.

So extreme as to identify ourselves as either a new-age spiritualist or a purely rational scientist. We do not have to live bound to one laneway and follow that and only that all the way down into the darkness that becomes us at death.

We can live far more balanced lives, and as a result; richer.

And that is where the glass ceiling on knowledge comes in.

Too much knowledge creates the illusion that there is always an answer, and as a result, always a limit, a box that we can wrap all the fragments of the world inside, labelling each one and shelving them inside the mind in a neat, orderly manner.

It is glass, because we don't know we are trapped by it. The rational mind itself is feeding us thoughts that declare the certainty of things that are impossible, hence the ceiling.

What if there was no ceiling, glass or otherwise? What if there were elements of existence that simply had no comprehendible answer? At least one that cannot be grasped by the mind.

What if the mystery of consciousness is an infinite pool that we can swim in, dissolve in, and enjoy without the noise of the mind interrupting in its desperation to understand how and why.

There are incredibly profound states of being that have been discovered by the courageous and the curious, through integration of the known and the unknown, of knowledge and mystery. By those who continue to ask why and are not afraid to surrender the analytical mind for long enough to hear the answers that rise from the silence of consciousness itself.

If there is one thing; only one thing that I am convinced of. That in my perception and experience of the world proves undeniably true; it is that there is a fabric, an essence, an exquisite frequency of oneness that weaves everything that exists here together. It could be called consciousness. It could be called love. But there's something, vast and divine, that can be sensed in all things solid and not solid.

At some point on this journey of self-realisation, after studying the mind and the world from many different angles including the rational and scientific, we must simply let go, and surrender to what silence has to show us.

And here I am, sharing what I think I know and don't know, and tomorrow might meet someone who convincingly shows me that all of this ramble is nonsense, and I should return to my glass-ceiling box.

Maybe some great thinker one day will discover the ceiling is not glass at all but tangible and true. Maybe they will have the words and the super-intelligence to label it.

I am only a woman, just another human specimen here for a blip in time, sharing my contemplations on a subject that, of yet, has no definitive right or wrong conclusion.

Over and out.

Sita