True Knowledge and Learned Knowledge

This text explores the fundamental distinction between intellectual data (learned knowledge) and spiritual knowledge. The author highlights a major paradox: how to reconcile learned knowledge with the knowledge of the soul and spiritual reality.

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Summary: This text explores the fundamental distinction between intellectual data (learned knowledge) and spiritual knowledge (gnosis or Veda). Through an analysis of Buddhism, the author highlights a major paradox: how can the denial of the soul (the five aggregates) be reconciled with the reality of enlightenment and reincarnation?

The central argument is that truth is not found in books, but through practice and direct experience. Drawing on the Tao-Te-King, the Bhaktimarga, and the words of Jesus, the author reminds us that true knowledge is a seed that can only grow through Observance and deep meditation. Ultimately, while reading may inspire, only Realization can dispel the darkness of ignorance.

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A Matter of Words

What is knowledge, spiritually speaking? Is it the sum of things learned? Is it instruction, intellectual data? Obviously not. True knowledge is not what is found in books, however sacred they may be, nor is it found in temples.

"The incomplete finds the Tao. What is flexible stands straight. The hollow is filled. The ancient soul returns to its source. By mastering desire, one knows the harmony of the Tao; by yielding to it, one is lost. The sage, by following these principles, remains in Unity and becomes a model for the world. He does not put himself in the light, which is why he shines. Because he remains humble, he is recognized for his merits. The sage is above others and does not know it. Since he forgets himself, no one can fight against him. Everything returns to the Tao, like waters to the ocean." (Tao-Te-King, 22. Adapted free version)

"Learned knowledge is but scentless flowers, sources of error. That is why the sage trusts the Tao and not appearances. He considers the fruit rather than the flower; ignoring one, he plucks the other." (Tao-Te-King, adapted Chapter 38)

Take, for example, a very honorable spiritual path like Buddhism. There is not one Buddhism, but a multitude of Buddhisms, depending on whether they are Indian, Tibetan, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Western, etc.

Classical Buddhism denies the existence of an eternal soul transcending the body. Instead, it describes the human being as a collection of five aggregates (skandhas) that are impermanent and interdependent: Form, sensations, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness.

Certain schools of Mahayana, such as Yogacara, add layers to consciousness: they move from six consciousnesses (the five senses + the mental) to eight consciousnesses, including the manas (the self-conscious mind) and the alaya-vijnana (storehouse-consciousness).

An Apparent Paradox

This paradox is explained by vocabulary. The word "soul" is replaced by the word "mind." Buddhists believe the mind is a sixth sense (Manas) independent of the brain, such that if one were to transplant two brains from one person to another, each would remain himself. "The highest level of consciousness escapes the material support. Consciousness is independent of physical particles." (Dalai Lama)

Reading Does Not Replace Practice

One can spend a whole life reading Buddhist texts without progressing toward enlightenment, provided that is the primary goal. Theoretical knowledge circles back on itself, and one gets lost in discussions comparable to the debates of the Torah or the Kabbalah.

The Buddha Siddhartha Gautama did not reach enlightenment by reading books. He sat under his fig tree and entered into deep meditation (Dhyana) until reaching nirvana (samadhi), motivated by a profound need to merge into Unity. Practice, discipline, and direct experience are the true keys.

"Meditation is contemplation." (Bhaktimarga, 320)

Several hundred years later, descendants of disciples who had known the living Buddha and had listened to his sermons (satsang) put the distant memories of the departed master's teaching into writing. Over time, this teaching was transformed into concepts and the Buddha into a god.

What would the Buddha think, in your opinion, if he returned today and followed the teachings delivered in a Tibetan lamasery? Would he recognize what he experienced? Could he, by following this teaching, go sit under a tree and know enlightenment by practicing the meditation taught?

Truth is in Everything

If you seek a path where you love to clash cymbals, turn prayer wheels, or burn incense, then Buddhism will give you what you seek. It is a noble and beautiful path, but truth is only encountered there because it is already present in every man, and when studies cease, when consciousness deepens. Truth is within oneself, and he who finds it in a religion does not find it because of the religion, but despite it; because he already had it within him.

The Answers and The Answer

If you thirst for truth, do not place your hope in studies. You may read books on spirituality as a hobby, a source of inspiration, but no writing has ever replaced practice. There is a unique answer to all questions. It is found in no book. Even the Bhaktimarga, which is the book of The Path, gives no answer: it simply says what The Path is and what its mysticism is.

The only answer of value is the one that allows a person to place their consciousness in the right spot, within themselves, and to keep it there as long as they wish. To dispel the darkness of ignorance, the light of knowledge is required.

The word "knowledge" initially meant "to know" and implied the gnosis of Shiva (or Shiva-jnana), that is, to live what Shiva revealed. This knowledge has nothing to do with theoretical information or with intellect. This knowledge is the act of seeing and understanding, of realizing. The spiritual path requires realization, the act of "doing."

Knowledge is not learned; it is received. The Revelation, the agya, and its four pillars carry this knowledge in seed form. Practice, Observance, makes this seed grow. This is the same seed that must be sown while watching out for birds and thorns; the one Christ spoke of in the New Testament, the seed that gives a tree whose fruits are recognizable.

"Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit." (Matthew 7: 15-17)

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