If You Think You Know, You Don’t Know

09:48

09:48

If You Think You Know, You Don’t Know

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3.3

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talks

Activity

Meditation

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Everyone

Plays

39

"If you think you know, you don't know. And if you think you don't know, you know." The quote goes something like this, and it really shows me the importance of having a beginner's mind so that you can let in new information and not become self-important and all-knowing. Photo by Denis Oliveira on Unsplash

Learning Open Mind Self Reflection Ego Zen Lifelong Learning Open Mindedness Zen Philosophy Beginner Mindset Beginner

Meet your Teacher

Toronto, ON, Canada

Meet your Teacher

Toronto, ON, Canada

Transcript

Hello everyone! I hope that you're doing amazing and that you're enjoying your day and I welcome you to another video on the soul vitamins community. In this one I want to speak to you about a quote or an adage that I recently heard or read somewhere and I thought it was really really interesting because I think that it's kind of one of the adages or one of the principles that I live my life by and a lot of times I judge people based on this particular principle and I hope I say it right. So basically the essence of it is when you think you know you don't know and when you think you don't know you know. It sounds like a zen corn right like I mean like the sun rose in the east and like oh yeah it sounds very esoteric and abstract but I think if you kind of just look at it a little bit deeper and kind of like try to extract the meaning from it it makes absolute sense especially as an INFJ I really believe that this is the way I kind of judge people because when people start kind of behaving like they're too much of an expert that they know everything then I think to myself hey first of all you're not an expert because it's impossible to be an expert in this world. Hundreds of millions of bits of information is being created every second not only by individuals but by companies and scientific research authorities and scientists I mean this is like in general hundreds of bits of information thousands of millions of bits information is created every second and in any and every industry I'm almost is just pumping out so much information every so much new information every every year every day every second that if you thought that you were becoming an expert in any shape or form then you are sorely mistaken but more than that you know I think that I really love when I can maintain this and it's very difficult you know sometimes you are like oh I know everything about the subject matter but if you can maintain that childlike sense of yours you know where you're like oh my gosh I know nothing about the subject and I'm open as open as an empty pot and I'm ready to take in information and to learn and to gather and to to you know evaluate all the information that comes at me because I'm doing it from a beginner's mindset I think that is such a beautiful way of looking at the world because you're not narrow-minded you're not stuck in a little box where you're like I know everything I don't need to know anything else no one will tell me anything new I'm not gonna listen to anyone anyone or anything new kind of thing and a lot of people spend their lives in these little miniature boxes that they created themselves you know and they sit in these boxes and they pontificate from these boxes and they pretend like they're major experts and they're not now I'm not saying that you can never pontificate I do a lot of pontificating I do a lot of this these random videos but I'm always doing it from a sense that hey I'm sharing with one little teeny aspect of this situation the subject from my perspective from my life experience and there's so much more to it and I'm sure I'm only covering a little bit of it but I'm sharing it because I want to share it because I think it's useful and hopefully it helps you but realize that this is not the ultimate truth it's not the absolute truth it's not even perhaps the truth you know because maybe in a few years something new will be discovered and I'll be sitting there thinking oh I thought this is the truth but I guess not right so from that perspective I am sharing a lot of information on all these different channels I have but from always this kind of beginners mindset where you know I'm always hopefully kind of trying to convey the idea that hey I don't I don't know that much I don't know I know very little actually and but I want to share the little that I do know right and whenever someone brings in the new perspective I hope and I want to become in that manner that person who can take that perspective in and not let myself become a scholar that believes that they know everything and that they don't need any more information anymore you know I think that's where regimes like dictatorial regimes are created or or dystopian societies are created or cults are created when people believe that they know everything that there's to know and that they don't need to learn anymore or think anymore and everything's done you know I just like I'm done I'm finished yeah I got everything now I can just sit and relax unfortunately what happens in society and you probably have noticed this as well is that a lot of people they study study for the first you know 18 years of their life or 21 24 years of their life while they're in school and then they're like done you know it's like oh yeah I know everything that I need to know I never need to study again I never need to pick up a book I never need to pick up a yo program or anything like that I never need to learn again I know everything that I need to know and I'm done you know and that again is the same kind of idea where you're like okay I know what I know and I think that's enough there's nothing else I need to know and I'm never gonna even try to know anything else and if anyone brings in new ideas into my sphere I'm going to reject them instantaneously right and so if you think you know you don't know but if you think you don't know that gives you a space you know if you are an empty pot then and and I think I've even read a Zen saying like this you know the Zen master was like you need to become like an empty pot I think that was a Zen saying but whatever that you need to become like an empty pot because otherwise how am I going to fill you with information if you're already full of information right if you're a full pot where is information gonna go it has no place to go it's just gonna overflow and disappear but if you're empty and and open and just open to new ideas open to getting all this inflow of information then you have the space to inculcate it and to think about it and say yes I like this information I'm gonna keep it or say no actually this does not feel right to me or this doesn't drive with what I have learned in the past and I'm going to just store it away in the side and see how in the future if I can bring it in or not right and so I really like this because you know always forever INFJs in general are forever learners and I real lifelong learners but sometimes I do notice that I have this kind of arrogance that creeps into me that says hey you you've learned a lot you've read so many books you're so smart just saying that loud makes me more laugh but my head it sounds great right anyway so you know I do sometimes get into this sort of arrogance about knowledge because we do I have you know gathered a lot of knowledge I've read a lot of listened to a lot of programs and so I think I know but as soon as I think I know I don't know and you know hopefully something breaks my ego and says hey you actually have no idea what you're talking about and then I feel desperately sad for a few days but then I realize actually this is a good thing because now I know I don't know so I can start learning again right and I can be open and I can be a beginner again and not pretend like an I'm an expert oh look at me so you know these moments of arrogance thankfully don't come up that often for me but they do come up and I think it's really a reminder for me every single time it does come up to say hey hey you're getting too big for your britches and you need to be careful because you're getting into a state of mind where you are becoming closed off to everything like oh no I don't need to listen to anything blah blah and that's a dangerous position to be in because that's when you even you do that that's when you can't take any new information and you pretend like everything's exactly the same and you're just stuck right I think that's when that's when all of these horrible disasters happen in the world because people get really enamored in their ideas and they're like no no I don't see anything that's happening and there might be atrocities being committed right next to them like concentration camps and things like that and they're like no no I don't see anything I'm fine I am I am not gonna be able to take any more new information because I am in my little bubble right and they pretend like everything's okay and and people who are who looked back at them you know at history are like how could they not have seen well they couldn't have seen their buckets were full their pots were full there was no possibility of new information coming into their system they were just so closed off right and I hope that none of us will ever get to that position they were so closed off that we can't take in any more new information that would be a really terrible spot to be in I think but yeah I would really love to hear your opinions or thoughts about this the saying this principle and if you have some principles that you kind of abide by in your daily life I'd love to hear those as well this is just one of my principles I'm sure I have many others some intentional some non but yeah please let me know and again thank you so much for being here and for supporting me and I shall see you the next time around bye