When I was 16, I was ignorant, like most at that age (nothing new to see here, move on, go to work). Almost 40 years later, I am still ignorant, that amount of accumulated knowledge and experience not making a visible drop in the ocean of what might be knowable. Here is one drop that stood out for me.
Now I imagine I may be less ignorant, know more about important things, having tuned my perception filters to
focus on how to reach dreams and business goals, and how to help
customers reach theirs and gain true value from what I and we in good company have to offer.
So in a way today the remaining holes of knowledge are deeper, and some are plugged and labeled
with "can only define by what it is not". My first sucess with this approach was at age 16 when I tried to understand what
people meant when they used the word "god" or "creator" or "supreme beingness". I resolved that one afternoon
walking home alone from school, after about 3 years of
occasional inquiry and patient conversation with my mother. I am not
sure what she taught me in this regard, she mostly listened, shared her belief, and invited examination. Anyway being a teen I was ready to only examine
tentatively and question anything from an elder.
I do remember the walking, the insight, and the satisfaction of finding on my own a solution that worked for me. "I cannot define what is god. All I try to define ends up saying what it is not. So let that be good enough and I end my research here. I can live with that."
Nice touch over the years whenever I re-examined this part of my belief system, this definition has kept working for me. And I did make some radical belief system shifts, some on my own, some prompted by teachers I had sought out.
If this gave you an insight, feel free to share.
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