“I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.” ~Socrates

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In my quest to overcome ignorance, I have found Socrates. Philosophy. I am currently reading from (more like studying) two books:  

The Socratic Method: A Practitioner’s Handbook, by Ward Farnsworth.

Philosophy 101 by Socrates: An Introduction to Philosophy via Plato’s Apology, by Peter Kreeft.

What is philosophy?

Kreeft says in his Philosophy 101 book that philosophy is “the love of wisdom.”

In Farnworth’s book, The Socratic Method, the author begins with, “The Socratic method is a style of thought. It is a help toward intelligence and an antidote to stupidity.” This definition rubbed me wrong.

For a good portion of my life, I believed that ignorance equaled stupidity. I developed a complex, a sensitivity, about how others saw me. I worried about what they thought of me because each time I exposed my ignorance, I was certain they saw me as stupid.

If “intelligence” is the opposite of stupidity, then where does ignorance fit in there?  I see intelligence as having the capacity to accept ignorance as a fundamental condition of being human. I see stupidity as denying (ignoring) that you are, or might be, ignorant. Ignorance is an innocent “not knowing” about something, whereas stupidity is a sort of unwillingness to consider yourself ignorant (like those annoying know-it-all folks).

Is Farnsworth suggesting that intelligence is the opposite of stupidity? Ignorance? Or both?

Is Stupidity the same as Ignorance?

But are the two—ignorance and stupidity—connected? If so, to what degree and how do you “heal” from one or the other? And am I just so sensitive to being ignorant that I am twisting Farnsworth’s words? What does he mean? Exactly? Does he think that because a person lacks the knowledge about something, like the difference between a salad fork and a dinner fork, that they are stupid? A whole series of thinking, pondering, ruminating exploded in my brain. What to do?!

I immediately turned straight to Chapter 11, Ignorance.

“Socratic inquiry begins with awareness of your own ignorance—that is, awareness of how far short you fall from the wisdom you would like to have, and from the conclusive answers to the most urgent questions.”

“Socratic philosophy starts with “I don’t know.” It ends with “I don’t know.” Between those two points there is a progress and improvement, but it isn’t a journey from a question to an answer; it’s a journey from one question to another.” 

Philosophy, I figure, is more like an antidote to ignorance. Besides, it is a lot easier to accept your ignorance than to see yourself as stupid.

What is Double Ignorance?

Farnsworth talks about “double ignorance”—ignorance of one’s own ignorance and that it (double ignorance) is the heart of the Socratic project. I haven’t explored this too much yet, but I suspect the Socratic project is about self-discovery, inquiry, and contemplation about one’s way of being. I was also reminded of something I wrote in my memoir, Glowing Houses:

“Opening your mind is the only way to diagnose and then cure yourself from the disease of ignorance. But overcoming the disease of ignorance is a complicated paradox: you’ve got to know you have it in order to treat it.”

Ignorance has been one of the most debilitating ailments in my life. But here in my later years, I understand that being ignorant is one of the greatest teachers one can ever know. In my memoir, I claim, “Although ignorant, I ain’t stupid.” The below excerpt from my manuscript is a bit about preparing to move to Colorado back in the early 80s.

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“Nothing shines a light on your ignorance, your stupid ways, more than how you say a word or how you use it (wrong). I figured the O part of Colorado must be said like an O but really I couldn’t be for sure because so far I’d only heard people say the last O like ah, as if it ended with an A. Shoot, take the word color, for instance; if you really look at it, it could easily be said as c-OH-l-OR so sometimes it’s just really hard to know until you hear it said out loud by people who know how it’s supposed to be said. I decided I’d wait and see how the people who lived there said Colorado and then I would say it like them. They oughta know.

Even when I thought I knew a word, I learned through the pain and shame of exposing my ignorance that certain words I didn’t have right at all. And the more I interacted with people who said words the right way, like the town kids and teachers at high school, especially my Language Arts teacher who often rolled her eyes at me, the more embarrassed I got and the less I talked and the more I tried to fade into the background like you do at a party when you feel like you don’t belong. My poor grammar shone a light on my ignorance more than anything. I’d say things like infactuate instead of infatuate, aggerfate instead of aggravate, chimley instead of chimney, or take something for granit instead of granted.

I could tell I’d said a word wrong by the look on the person’s face. The heat in my belly was quick to rise into my own face. In a lot of cases I wouldn’t even know what the other person was talking about because I’d never even heard a certain word before, let alone seen it written out. Once I learned how to say a word, though, I practiced using it to make it stick.

When you don’t use words correctly, it’s a dead giveaway (to those who know words) that you don’t read, that you’re stupid.”

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Even though I don’t think Farnsworth means to say that ignorance equals stupidity, exactly, there’s an element of truth in this thinking. Even a modest amount of learning about anything makes us less stupid. But the key is to know the difference between stupidity and ignorance. To overcome ignorance or stupidity, you must first consider that you might be one or the other: ignorant or stupid, and perhaps both.   

Definitions:

Intelligence: the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills.

Ignorance: lack of knowledge or information.

Stupidity: behavior that shows a lack of good sense or judgment.

No matter how hard we try, we cannot avoid stress or prevent suffering; it’s part of being human. But with a few tools and a proactive mindset, we can build resilience toward life’s setbacks—and even grow stronger from adversity.

Building resilience isn’t necessarily about “toughing it out” so much as it is about tapping into your spirit. Spiritual energy runs through our veins; it’s the life force that sustains us during hardship and lights us up on the other side of it.

There exists a powerful structure of spiritual energy centers throughout our bodies called chakras. The word chakra comes from Sanskrit, an ancient language of India, and is commonly referred to in the practices of yoga and meditation.

Paramhansa Yogananda, the great yogi who brought yoga to the west in the 1920s, teaches us that there are eight aspects of God: peace, wisdom, power, love, calmness, sound, light, and joy (or bliss).  When we marry these aspects with the seven primary chakras, we have a set of tools, a roadmap, to navigate our lives.

The primary chakras run along the spine, starting at the bottom, at the coccyx, and ending at the crown of head. The sixth chakra has two points: its negative pole is located at the lower back of the skull and its positive counterpoint resides at the point between the eyebrows.

Starting with the first chakra and going all the way up to the seventh, the aspects align like this: Chakra 1: the root chakra: peace,
Chakra 2: the sacral chakra: wisdom,
Chakra 3: the navel chakra: power,
Chakra 4: the heart chakra: love,
Chakra 5: the throat chakra: calmness,
Chakra 6: the third eye chakra: light (as in seeing the light) and sound, and,
Chakra 7: the crown chakra: bliss.

There are thousands of other chakras, but when we learn to work with the seven primary ones, the rest vibrate to the healthier frequencies of the primary seven through the act of entrainment. In my book, The Eight Aspects of God, A Pathway to Bliss, I share more about each chakra’s location in the body along with what limits its functionality and ideas on how to get the energy flowing again. When our energy is free-flowing, our whole body hums along like a well-tuned car.

Whether you know anything about the chakras or not, working to bring these eight aspects into your life, you’ll experience greater health and happiness because, like maintaining your car by adding necessary fluids to resist wear and tear, tending to your energy centers (by inviting the God aspects into your life) automatically makes you more resistant to stress. When you absorb less stress, you feel good. When you feel good, you’re not only more resilient to adversity, you’re clear-headed and better positioned to make decisions that will propel your life forward.  

Guided Visualization: Integrating the God Aspects with Your Energy Body

Proper breathing is the secret to managing stress. Before we get into a meditation practice, let’s check your breathing. Place a hand on your belly. Breathe normally. If your belly is drawing in on the inhale, you’re missing the benefits of proper breathing. To correct this, expand your belly and ribcage out (to the sides, front and back) as you inhale. On the exhale, bring your belly in.   

Got it? If so, let’s practice.

Get comfortable. Take a few breaths. Let the outer edges of your body release tension as you exhale. Allow any worries to float away, just for now, put them aside. Relax your face, your throat, your neck. Release the tongue from the roof of your mouth.

Next, focus on lengthening your exhale. Lengthening your exhale makes the next inhalation deeper and also automatically relaxes the nervous system and calms you down. When you think you’ve exhaled completely, push your breath out a little more by drawing your navel back toward your spine. Repeat ten times.

Now, imagine your breath is moving up your spine on the inhale, down on the exhale. Imagine your breath as energy, flowing up and down your spine. Repeat ten times.

Next, call upon one of the aspects, such as peace. On the inhale, mentally affirm, “I am.” Then, exhale with, “Peace.” Practice for as long as it feels good. Then sit in silence and contemplate the aftereffects. What thoughts or feelings surfaced?

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Life’s storms are inevitable. But having resilience allows you not only to survive the storms but to thrive in their aftermath. Being resilient, you are like the old growth tree: poised and calm, bending as the dark storms blow on through. And although a bit more weathered once the storm has passed, like the tree you are awake and ready to meet the rising sun.

*Note: this piece was originally posted as an excerpt from a column I wrote for Contemplative Journal, November 2016.

“The true Christ-method of living can banish human conflicts and the horror of war and bring about peace and understanding on earth; all prejudices and enmities must fall away. That is the challenge placed before those who would be the peacemakers of God.”

~Paramahansa Yogananda

Today, on this National Day of Prayer, I prayed for Peace. My prayer for peace stems from a book I am reading by Paramahansa Yogananda titled, The Yoga of Jesus.  In this short but powerful book, Yogananda—a legendary spiritual teacher who brought yoga to the west in the 1920s—shares various teachings of Jesus and includes scripture from the Bible. The bit of scripture as quoted in the book, and what inspired this post, is Mathew 5:9.

“Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.”

Yogananda talks about how peace is a manifestation of God’s presence during meditation and how one’s inner silence is a pathway to Divine relationship with God. He continues with, “Anyone who brings peace to an inharmonious family has established God there.”

Yogananda explains that “family” doesn’t just mean one’s immediate or biological unit, but family as a human race. He says we are all one, stating, “Those who are God’s children cannot feel any difference between an Indian, American, or any other nationality or race.”

I find the following words especially relevant because of our current state of divisiveness, driven by the color of one’s body, or lack thereof, their place of origin, political leanings, individual belief system and a wild number of other things.

“For a little while immortal souls are garbed in white, black, brown, red or olive-colored bodies. Are people looked upon as variously foreign when they wear different colored clothes? No matter what one’s nationality or the color of his body, all of God’s children are souls. When a man confines his identity to his clannish human nature, it gives rise to unending evils and the specter of war.”

May we know each other as one “race” by drawing on our courage to celebrate our (human) differences while, simultaneously, seeing our sameness (as immortal souls).

Peace to you.

Amen.

While attending a writing conference recently, something stood out to me: regardless of genre — mystery, romance, prescriptive/nonfiction, sci-fi or thriller — there’s an aspect of the writer’s personal story in every tale. Even more notable, is how all tales stem from opposition.

For instance, one woman I met was writing a prescriptive book on “healing versus being healed” based on her belief that you can still experience deep healing even if you aren’t cured of a disease. She was writing about a friend who was battling breast cancer, but who, she said, was so fixated on being cured (healed) that her health was actually declining. When I asked about her friend and what inspired the book idea, she leaned in and with a whisper, said, “Well, it’s really my story. But I don’t want to write about me.” Then, under her breath, added, “Although, I did beat stage four breast cancer.” I gasped. Then smiled. We talked more about what memoir is and what it isn’t.

While memoir is about you, it isn’t about you. That is to say, while memoir is about a major event, like surviving breast cancer, it isn’t necessarily about the disease; instead, it’s about how the experience of living with the cancer (and surviving it transforms you).

To read the rest of the article, pop on over to New Spirit Journal.