Knowledge can be direct or indirect knowledge. All knowledge that is acquired is indirect knowledge or inferred knowledge. What exactly is indirect knowledge? It is all the knowledge that you acquired throughout what you may call "my life". Be aware of the fact that this indirect knowledge is what was either told to you, read by you, inferred by you or heard by you from various sources including books, web pages, blogs, commentaries, audio files, video files, or from personal encounters with other people. For instance, you were told by your parents that you are their child, that you are a Christian or Hindu or Muslim, that you are white or black or Asian, this is right and this is wrong, and so on and so forth. This knowledge is acquired knowledge and one goes on adding more and more knowledge to continuously create an image of oneself and the world around him or her. It creates an image of you being this body and this mind, which is separate from the world around you. This image of one's self is constantly changing at all moments depending on moods, thoughts, environments and other factors. With this creation of a false image of one's self comes the suffering and discontentment that we are all so familiar with. We then seek out an end to this suffering.
In trying to find an end to this suffering, one seeks knowledge. That may be the very reason you are reading this message. While knowledge when sought out correctly can bring about an end to suffering, very often it can lead one on a wild goose chase with no end in sight. That is why it is essential to find and follow the advice of a Guru who can point you in the right direction even in the pursuit of knowledge. In fact, a True Guru will ask you not to pursue any knowledge outside of your self. A True Guru will advise you to avoid looking outside for any knowledge and instead to LOOK INSIDE FOR the source of ALL KNOWLEDGE lies within you. All acquired knowledge is based on concepts and the very pursuit of acquired knowledge adds to your concepts. Strangely, what you are looking for, the solution or an end to your suffering, is not going to be found in conceptual understanding or knowledge. What will indeed end the search would be dropping of all concepts and conceptual understanding. Meaning thereby that one should drop all acquired knowledge and settle for the simple direct knowledge of being to lead to its source. Direct knowledge is knowledge that you did not have to acquire. The knowledge of being, the knowledge of presence, the knowledge that you are is direct knowledge. Direct knowledge does not require any other knowledge to support it. It is like the sunlight, which does not require a lamp to discover it. You don't need anyone else to tell you that you are. You know it!
As the great philosopher, Lao Tzu said "In the pursuit of knowledge, something is added every day. In the pursuit of enlightenment, something is dropped every day." Gradually, in the process of self inquiry, you drop all your false identities and concepts, one by one and in the end are left with no concepts including the concept of being this or being that. In that Stillness of just being, the Truth is revealed.
