The Essence of Knowledge

The Essence of Knowledge

We’ll begin with a quotation from Plato:

“The true use of knowledge is to draw the soul towards being.”

Learning about how to be present, how to remember oneself begins with reading about it, for example here on social media, or in books or publications, as well as speaking about it, comparing notes with each other as it were. Schools teach practical application of the knowledge. In this way the quality of our knowledge is tested, rather like gold that is tested on a touchstone. Through the process of verification, knowledge, like base metal, is transformed into being - the ability to introduce and prolong presence.

“It is conscious life that constitutes a man’s whole being.” ~ Asclepius

Conscious life exists when we have the being to be present. When we lack the being to be present consciousness disintegrates into imagination or identification or both - the antithesis of being.

The essence of being is becoming. ~ Heraclitus

We know that self-remembering is proportional to being. We also know that being is the ability to be present. Therefore, the more we are present, the more we increase our ability to Be. One of the most profound questions penned almost five hundred years ago is ‘To be or not to be?’ Schools have refined this question: ’To be present or not to be present.

Schools have also provided the answer:

‘The essence of knowledge is self-knowledge, and the essence of self-knowledge is self-remembering.’

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Post By Charles R

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Image: Pharaoh Being Guided By His Wife, Cairo Museum