Learned Ignorance

　　知识的盲点：

　　The transcendental mind developed by the Buddha is not limited to sense-data and goes beyond the logic trapped within the limitation of relative perception. The human intellect, on the contrary, operates on the basis of information it collects and stores, whether in the field of religion, philosophy, science or art. The information for the mind is gathered through our sense organs which are inferior in so many ways. The very limited information perceived makes our understanding of the world distorted.

　　Some people are proud of the fact that they know so much. In fact, the less we know, the more certain we are in our explanations; the more we know, the more we realize our limitations.

　　A brilliant scholar once wrote a book which he considered as the ultimate work. He felt that the book contained all literary gems and philosophies. Being proud of his achievement, he showed his masterpiece to a colleague of his who was equally brilliant with the request that the book be reviewed by him. Instead, his colleague asked the author to write down on a piece of paper all he knew and all he did not know. The author sat down deep in thought, but after a long while failed write down anything he knew. Then he turned his mind to the second question, and again he failed to write down anything he did not know. Finally, with his ego at the lowest ebb, he gave up, realizing that all that he knew was really ignorance.

　　In this regard, Socrates, the well-known Athenian philosopher of the Ancient World, had this to say when asked what he knew: ”I know only one thing--that I do not know.”

　　佛陀所觉悟的真理超越了感官的范围，也超越了科学所理解的范围。人类的知识是由宗教、哲学、科学或艺术获得的，也就是从感官获得的。这些从感官获得的有限知识，无法真正的了解这个世界。

　　有些人因为自己的学问丰富而感到骄傲。事实，当我们觉察到自己学问不足时，就是在肯定自己，认为自己的学识丰富，反而局限性更大。

　　有一位才华洋溢的作家写了一本书，他认为这是最完美的作品，书中包含了崇高的哲理，他也引以为荣。当他把他的杰作，展示给朋友看时，并要求朋友的评论，朋友给了他一张纸，要他把所知道和不知道的分别列在纸上。他答应了，可是他坐了老半天，什么也写不出来。他的自豪感消失得无影无踪了，于是，他在看清楚自己的无知后，放弃了那本书。苏格拉底是一位著名的哲学家，当他被人问及：「你通晓些什么？」时，他总是简单的回答：「我只通晓一件事，那就是：『我什么都不通晓』。」