Techniques and Theory
Seventeen: Beyond the Intellect of This World
I realize that a person may be so used to overvaluing human knowledge and intellect that it will be difficult for him to understand my demand for so much simplicity and guilelessness, and he may imagine that I want him to become a fool.
But a person who raises this objection has not understood my intent. It is possible that the venom injected into mankind by the sin of Adam is causing him to consider the opinions of the world as good (in particular, its outlook on good and evil, an outlook that results from a lack of clarity and from an inability to choose between the two polarities of good and evil). He honors and worships the world=s outlook, and imagines simplicity to be boorish and foolish.
Yet Yaacov is praised as a Asimple man@ (Breishit 25:27), and we are directed to be Asimple with Hashem your God@ (Devorim 18:13)Bthat same God Who is the source of wisdom, and one of Whose titles is AWise.@ This is true wisdom, pure wisdom. A wisdom that is simple and direct possesses a certainty.
Even by simply using our human intellect, we can understand to some degree why we should not assign so much importance to and be so impressed by human intelligence and all of its new creations. At the most, we should be astonished at human ingenuity, just as we are astonished at a stage magician or an acrobat who stands on his head or walks on his hands. Although we are amazed by their abilities, we do not look up to them or value their opinions.
Imagine that someone is researching the workings of the stomach. Many theories have been proposed whose falsehood has already been demonstrated. And many theories that are considered true today will also fall by the wayside. New things will be discovered, and the so-called verities of our day will be laughed at.
Besides, does our stomach know how to work only because of our theoretical understanding? It does its work without fanfare, without all these technical discussions, with surety and knowledge, without theory, with knowledge that is preceded by no doubt about what is right or left, good or evil. This is because, containing the life-force that God placed within it, it does not need to grope and hesitantly consider, like a blind man groping in the dark. Its knowledge is without dispute. It is a perceiving, pure wisdom, a knowledge of simplicityBwithout confusion, analysis and complexity.
But since human intellectBan empty intellectBlacks this perception and knowledge, it has to create complexity, to create theories, and it grows stymied and trapped within confusion. Sometimes a person stumbles upon a fundamental truth. Other times, however, he falls like a blind person stumbling into a pit . And even when a person knows something, it is only in some partial, superficial manner, and not a true perception and knowledge.
But if all humanity were to be simple, guileless and faithfulBwhich comprises the revelation of spirit, reality and truthBthen everyone would know and see things with a complete certainty, not with this fumbling in the darkness that people call Aintellect.@
The problem is that there are people who are not actual liars (claiming that a tree is a stone), yet in whom falsehood exists in a potential state. They lack simplicity, truth, and the reality of the spirit.
And so from this moment on, member of our fellowship, make it your unwavering habit to be totally, completely simple in all that you do. When you are talking to someone or thinking about something, don=t mock, and don=t try to find something laughable in someone else. Have you ever seen a plant or a simple spirit engaged in mockery?
With the quality of thought that you have already strengthened, imagine yourself standing before God. In all that you do, at home or outside the home, your actions and thoughts are no more than the payment of the debt of your service to God. You are obligated to drive yourself hard so as to pay off that great debt, and hope that at the very least by the end of your life you will have been able to pay off half of your debt to God. With such an attitude, you will not have free time for even an unnecessary breath.
And the more that you imagine this and fix it permanently within your mind and heart, you will grow ever more simple, wise and guileless.
