erudition is time-bound
In Eckhart Tolle’s *The Power of Now*, I discussed how all problems are time-bound. In essence, our problems require time to be assembled. We need to create a chain of faults and insults.
The same is true of worldly learning/knowledge, which I have called erudition. We need to assemble facts and bits over time to assemble models. These models give us the illusion of “I know.”
In both cases, the foundation is being built over sand (see Disappearance of the Universe - Renard).
This note is inspired by musings from 2026-08-07 > Hoffmeister Book.
Full Passage
This note is inspired by this section of David Hoffmeister’s This Moment Is Your Miracle1:
True Knowledge Is Not Knowing Anything About the World
When you live in a state of nonjudgment, you naturally live in a state of ultimate freedom and compassion because you accept everyone and everything regardless of what happens. To not know anything about the world of form and to be in a state of not knowing, opens an experience of the present moment. The I-don’t-know mind is the highest state of mind, higher than “yes” or “no.” This is essential.
This state of mind doesn’t judge. It doesn’t interpret: good, bad, right, wrong. It is close to true knowledge, the knowledge of God.
Anything that you think you already know ends up being a block to true knowing. Anything you have a preconception of would block true knowing. This is because opinions and preconceptions keep you from an experience of innocent perception. You also miss both the present moment and the guidance that’s available when you are occupied with intellectually “knowing” something or living in autopilot mode. In believing that you know best and that your knowledge is valuable, you identify as the opinions that you hold. Your identity becomes a small self.
All personal interpretations of absolutely everything in all of time and space and history are wrong minded and erroneous. To hold an opinion is the same as not knowing who you are and not knowing who God is.
Now you can relax as you are looking to unlearn the habit of personal judgment and interpretation. It’s a relief to know that you don’t have to carry any judgment or opinion about your identity as a person.. good or bad, spiritual or unspiritual, and so on. You also don’t have t interpret, judge, or even understand the world, although you can choose how you perceive it, and this we will get more into later in the book. In fact, the only way to come back to divine innocence is when you can say,
“Wow! I have been mistaken about absolutely everything. Not 99.9 percent mistaken. I have been completely hoodwinked; I have been completely deceived. I’ve been mistaken about everything!”
This is why you shouldn’t struggle with the giving up of judgment, because the only awareness that you can come to is that you never, ever have been capable of it in the first place. You’re truly not capable of any judgments. That’s the good news!