DIRECT KNOWING

It has often occured to me that "God" must have a sense of humour. Obviously, as "God" is all knowing, is everything, everywhere and nowhere etc, she/he must, by definition also have a sense of humour. But the thought first entered my mind when contemplating our search for knowledge and wisdom. Man is constantly looking, searching, seeking, travelling- in an attempt to gain knowledge and wisdom. But it appears to me that all the while, we are totally self-sufficient creatures- we have everything within us and our immediate environment to meet our needs and fulfill us in every way. The idea of "God", watching us for ever looking outside of ourselves for something that resides within, I find quite amusing. 

The ultimate transference of information, knowledge and wisdom is a direct one, with no recourse to intermediaries. We experience this when we talk of intuition which represents our "tapping into" the all-enveloping ether which is truth. The process of tranference of knowledge or widom by speaking inevitably can only approximate to truth. The written word is a further approximation and of course the moving, visual medias, such as TV and digital technologies etc represent even greater approximations.  

This direct knowing was understood by Rudolf Steiner who tried to express realities such as this in a scientific manner and make bridges between science and spirituality. He was a great admirer of Goethe who, likewise stressed the importance of "seeing" nature directly, unhindered by the various instruments which were increasingly becoming available to man during his lifetime.

Rupert Sheldrake has further elaborated on this possibility of direct knowing through his concept of "morphic fields". Roughly expressed, this postulated that we are surrounded by  a field, or many fields that shape the development of plants and animals but also underlie mental activities and shape the habits of minds. By the process of "morphic resonance", these fields contain a cummulative collective memory which we can and do tap into.  Is this what we know of as "intuition"?

Krishnamurti expressed a similar understanding of the world in which we live when he said that learning can only take place when we discard all previous knowledge and experience, since this will inevitably cloud and distort truth which can only be seen directly and without prior ideas and without any mediation. Steiner shared this view that the seeking for truth had to be perpetually "in the moment" and that acquired knowedge and experience gets in the way of this direct understanding.