The Pursuit of Knowledge
You never know where you’ll find new knowledge. It can come at unexpected times, in unexpected places and in unexpected ways. It could come through a book, a movie, a trip, even a casual conversation. You never know when, where, or how you might find a useful nugget of information that sticks with you or leads you down a new rabbit hole of discovery.
The best is when it causes you to connect new dots. Connecting the dots between old knowledge and new knowledge simplifies our understanding of things we used to find confusing.
But knowledge-seeking can also be a slave master, constantly pushing us to acquire more. Much of our suffering comes from our desire for and struggle with trying to have everything figured out. It’s not that we shouldn’t desire answers or seek them, but that we need to find a place within where we can search for answers and yet be comfortable not finding them.
When we give knowledge-seeking a higher status in our life than it deserves we often end up attaching our identity to the things we think we know. We do it in such a way that if anyone, even a loved one, disagrees with us it’s as though they have attacked us personally and we feel compelled to defend our position as though we are defending our own honor and self-worth.
And if the other person presumably doesn’t have the same knowledge we have we…
