Need calls Knowledge out.²
Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly, and
Man got to sit and wonder: “Why, Why, Why?”
Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land, and
Man got to tell himself he Understand.³
Knowing something is worthless compared to
Knowing the Difference between many things.⁴
Hold the knowing—Be the knowing.⁵
One who Understands handles the world
As if they have it in the palm of their hand.⁶
Unless it grows out of ourselves
No knowledge is really ours—
It is only a Borrowed Plumage.⁷
Embrace the quiet knowledge:
Unbound, Unbattered, Coextensive with space.⁸
Knowledge is dark, salt, clear, moving, & utterly
Free—drawn from earth’s cold hard mouth,
Flowing & drawn, flowing & flown—⁹
By knowledge we grow too Bright
To hit the nerve of feebler Sight!¹⁰
¹ Padmasambhava tr. Gyurme Dorje, The Tibetan Book of the Dead
² Ursula K. Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea
³ Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle
⁴ Carl Phillips, Ghost Choir
⁵ Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now
⁶ Confucius tr. Edward Slingerland, Analects 3.11
⁷ D.T. Suzuki, An Introduction to Zen Buddhism
⁸ Susan Griffin, Archive
⁹ Elizabeth Bishop, At the Fishhouses
¹⁰ Ralph Waldo Emerson, Uriel