Knowledge

*KNOW/*KNOWLEDGE - also see UNDERSTAND, LEARN, TRUTH, EXPERIENCE, REALITY, AWARENESS, AWAKE, REALIZE, SELF, PRESENCE, CONSCIOUSNESS, WISDOM, GNOSTIC,

Antonmyms: MYSTERY, SECRET, HIDDEN, ESOTERIC, LIFE, FALL,

Definition: rational reasoning, discursive, experience

Higher knowledge is via faith and love

Knowledge is power. Sir Francis Bacon

The 5 stages of mystic conscioussness are: 1. awakening or conversion, 2. self-knowledge or purgation, 3. illumination (or enlightenment, presence, transcendence, reality) 4. surrender (or dark night), 5. union (Mysticism by Underhill, p203)

It isn’t your knowledge that transforms your character. You’re quickened and renewed by the Spirit embodied in knowledge. Knowledge as such polishes your intellect. The Spirit quickens your soul. When the soul is quickened first, correct knowledge must follow. (http://www.hermes-press.com/higher_consciousness.htm)

They enter into blind darkness who worship Avidya (ignorance and delusion). They fall, as it were, into greater darkness who worship Vidya (knowledge). The Self is free from both ignorance and knowledge. - Isa Upanisad

In India seeking is not for bare knowledge, but for its actual attainment in one's own life. Spiritual practice purges knowledge of its sheer intellectuality and connects it with life, therby infusing life into knowledge. This knowledge or attainment is the experiential awareness of the inner dynamism of reality. (Stillness, page xiv)

In the world you can see the sun without being the sun, however, thou didst see the Spirit and thou didst become spirit. By inducing an experiential knowledge of things the knower becomes increasingly affinitized to transcendence and comes to realize the hitherto hidden

divinity within himself. (Jung, p213)

When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you dwell in poverty, and you are poverty. (Gospel of Thomas, Wisdom, p264)

Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave. (Islam, Wisdom, p321)

Learn to know thyself, who knows himself, knows his Lord. (Islam, Wisdom, p321)

He who knows others is wise; He who knows himself is enlightened. (Tao Te Ching 33)

Knowledge is experience. Everything else is just information. (Albert Einstein, Why Nobody Learns Much of Anything at Church, p147)

Pure faith consents and surrenders to the Ultimate Mystery just as He is; not as you think He is. WE CANNOT KNOW HIM WITH OUR MIND, WE CAN ONLY KNOW HIM WITH OUR LOVE. The closest way to know Him in this life is by pure faith, which is beyond thinking, feeling, and self-reflection. The state of pure faith is beyond anything we can imagine. We simply look around and realize that the divine Presence is everywhere. [With prayer] we have opened ourselves wide enough to be aware of what is without being able to say what it is. (Open Mind, p83,86)

St. Augustine said: "knowing myself, I know you." The experience of quiet, peace, and freedom, the experience of one's own being is known to be a religious experience. (Contemplation, p24)

You will be like gods who know what is good [positive] and what is evil [negative]. (Gen 3:5)

Be still and know that I am God. (Ps 46:10?)

Is not this why you are wrong, that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God? (John 12:24)

To know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge. (Eph 3:19)

At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. (1 Cor 13:12)

Faith is a foretaste of the knowledge that will make us blessed in the life to come. (St. Thomas Aquinas, Comp theol 1,2)

To know Him is to love Him, to love Him is to obey Him, to obey Him is to be a servant to others - just as He is a servant creating and sustaining us and the whole universe. (Randy)

Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, is the beginning point of knowledge. (Augustine)

Knowledge comes naturally and is enhanced by schooling and enlarged by travel, but with it there often comes carnal pride, a sense of self‑sufficiency, and tough independence that causes us to become less interested in the spiritual dimension of life. (Flying, p229)

An example of our knowledge of God (Truth / Reality) is like looking at the stars in the sky. We can't see anything when cloudy (ie. in much sin) and as the clouds clear, then each point of light is like a truth. The clearer the sky the more stars (point of truth) we can see. And with the aid of a telescope (ie. Bible and Jesus) can can see more points of light (truth) and see the previous ones much more visibly and brighter (fully). (Randy)