Thomas Hornbill was a very rich man. An introvert and a very private man.
He loved to reading and learning about new things.
One day, in the middle of the night, he called his lawyer.
"Come here immediately. It’s an emergency."
The lawyer reached his home in utter surprise.
"What happened? Is everything alright?" asked the lawyer.
"I want a divorce from my wife."
"A what? Divorce? Why? What happened?" asked the lawyer.
"My wife has disgraced me all my life. She has no table manners. She eats like a savage. The whole village has seen it. They must be laughing at me."
"How long have you been married?" asked the shocked lawyer.
"37 years," said Thomas.
"And when did you find this out?" asked the lawyer.
"Just now. I read it in a book about table manners."
What would you call that?
Insanity? Delusion? Absurdity?
But, aren’t we all like that?
Knowledge is like a bridge that takes you to new places. Gives you access to experiencing new things, new emotions, new feelings, and new perspectives.
It changes how you see the world.
But a deeper truth we all miss is that:
It’s impossible to experience anything without knowledge.
Read that again.
Do you think in the above story Thomas would ever question his wife's table manners if he had not read that book?
The book gave him a new perspective on her wife.
Would you ever worry about your health and taking all those vitamins and pills if you never learned about them? Tribes living in the Amazon jungles—do you think they care about these things?
No. Because they have no knowledge about it.
Now, you may argue that it's good that we know about it. When we know something, and are aware of it, it helps us deal with things better.
If you’re aware that you have a disease, you can use that knowledge to ask for help from a doctor.
Absolutely. I’d agree.
But, what if I told you that your knowledge of the disease is the reason you have it.
Sounds crazy? Completely irrational? Completely unscientific?
But, stay with me here. This concept is very radical and takes an open mind to understand. And trust me, I have done multiple experiments with it for years. And if you pay attention, you’ll gain insight that can change your life.
The Nature of Reality
In 1801, Thomas Young performed the double-slit experiment.
He passed a beam of light between two vertical slits. And the results were completely mind-boggling.
When he placed a detector, or when he was looking, like you see on the right, he saw a pattern of particles. Like a bunch of dots.
But when he did not place a detector, or when he wasn’t looking, like you see on the left, he saw a pattern of waves. Like a bunch of lines.
And this experiment has been performed under thousands of different conditions, but whenever someone was observing, whether a person or a camera, the patterns were different from when there was no one observing it.
This proved that the act of observation alters the behavior of the particles being observed.
Or, in other words:
Knowledge about something changes how we perceive it.
If you think about this in terms of life, when you are aware of something, your experience is way different than when you are not aware of it.
The Ultimate Self-knowledge
Knowledge shapes your perception of the world.
What you know and believe is what you will experience.
Here are a few personal experiments I did:
- When I learned about how moon cycles affect your mind and body, I started experiencing the effects.
- When I learned that planetary motions affect our moods, I started experiencing the effects. Like Mercury retrograde right now.
- When I learned onions and garlic can make you overstimulated, I started experiencing the effects.
- When I learned sitting for long periods of time can give you back pain, I started experiencing the pain.
- When I learned meditation makes you calm, I started experiencing the calm.
- When I learned coffee helps you focus better, I started experiencing the effects.
- When I learned that long walks clear your head, I started experiencing the effects.
The funny thing is that when I had no knowledge about these things, my life was way, way better. It may seem odd to you, but that’s how I felt.
Knowledge became a burden for me. I knew too much. More than necessary. And when you know too much, you develop the tendency to overthink everything.
And because you know so many things about so many things, you may even get anxiety just at the thought of making a decision. Because of the conflict among the things you know.
I am not saying all knowledge is bad. Like walking, it keeps your head clear and your body healthy. But all I’m saying is to live a normal, peaceful life, you don’t need 99% of what you know.
After doing hundreds of experiments with my own life, here’s what I concluded:
A person who knows a lot of things about ‘one thing’ lives a more wise, wealthy, healthy, and peaceful life than a person who knows a lot of things about a lot of things.
And my ‘one thing’ was just knowing my own SELF. Unlearn everything. And just be satisfied with the self.
And I’ll leave you with this quote from the greatest master who ever lived on earth:
"If you want to become FULL, let yourself be EMPTY."
- Lao Tzu
PS: If you want to learn the methods I’ve developed over the years to empty yourself, break out of this delusion of false knowledge, and reach your highest potential, you can join the "Mastery Mentorship Program" for the second quarter starting May 21.
Limited slots are available. You can reply to this email or DM me on Twitter for more information.
Stay blessed,
- Master
It’s like I wrote this myself. Great read
Interesting, thank you. .
Now I am aware and have this knowledge..now what to do with it🤔
I am intrigued by the fact to have to learn something, to unlearn and being able to empty myself. I am not trying to be a smartass here, as I totally understand and get the drift of this post and also like it. I do however wonder about getting the knowledge of getting empty as it seems contradictory to this post🤔. But then maybe it's not for me, maybe I like my knowledge? 🙏🏽