Vinyl Art: Knowledge And Remembering

Friday, December 12, 2008

Knowledge And Remembering

After writing my post earlier today, I was driving to get some lunch. My head still full of pie-in-the-sky ideas, I couldn't remember where the Del Taco was (for some screwy reason I was craving their double cheeseburger and those crinkle fries AND the one that was next to the bank up the street went out of business) so I had to guess. Fortunately, I live in the east valley of the Phoenix metro area, Gilbert specifically. Cookie-cutter city, well, county actually. I happened upon an intersection with: Burger King, Taco Bell, McDonald's, Jack-in-the-Box, Wendy's, Pizza Hut, KFC/A&W, and, of course, Starbucks. Seriously! Right? But this isn't about that end-of-the-world scenario.

This is about the distinction between knowing something and remembering before you knew it. Before! Tricky! I "know" how to solve pde's from my classes in multi-variable calculus (yes, I got my sheepskin studying Physics and Computer Science). I don't "remember" how to, but it's "in" my brain. I suppose.

I guess I don't know. Oops, wait. I don't know if I remember. No, that's not it. What was I talking about again?

Oh yeah, tools. Techniques, and other things you can memorize, fade. Good. You don't need'em. A lot of eastern philosophies/religions have as a goal the unlearning of things, Yoda too. Cool guy, I've still got my little Star Wars action figure with the felt robe. Anyway, modern takes on old thoughts rephrase the idea of stripping away, reducing, unburdening ourselves of unnecessary stuff in our heads. I particularly liked don Miguel Ruiz's "Voice of Knowledge".

I don't know where that post earlier today came from, can't know, don't really wanna. What I do know is now I'm supposed to be where I am now, thinking as I am now, finding balance and love now in Life. Something the Maharishi probably "knew", but didn't "remember" or need to.

If you enjoyed this ramble, have a go at another.

Peace.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi 12/12/08

4 comments:

Unknown said...: Hey Daniel, I understand the feeling of remembering you're speaking of. Let me try to explain. My thought is that each of us is born with a set of skills. We maybe use 1/10th of them. We all don't have the same skills, and none of us knows the extent of those skills. ["You never know how tall a man is until he rises."]

I used to be a music teacher. I could tell within
5 minutes if a kid had music in their soul. You just sense it. But here's the rub - those of us who have a particular talent - like your multi-variable calculus skills - or my ability to play any instrument skill - believe that everyone has those skills - not just us.

The pre-patterned skills comes so easily to us we can't believe they're not commonplace. So when we suddenly feel we already know how to do something before we know how to do it - it's because we do.

Does that make any sense?

bonnieL
triiibe on!; December 12, 2008 at 4:48 PM
Cyndi's Blog said...: You're doing some amazing art! I sure love my Vinyl Art. Thanks for commenting on my blog. We can keep up with each other. Tell Britt her aunt says "hi". I love you guys! I am jealous of your weather, it's supposed to snow a ton tomorrow. Tell my bro and sis-in-law "hi" from me too!; December 13, 2008 at 12:58 AM
Daniel Edlen said...: @Bonnie - You took that in a totally different direction! Cool. I've gotten into discussions about nature vs. nurture, and talent vs. learned skill. I think it all boils down to language. Humanity has such a developed ability for language of all types, visual, spoken, musical, scientific. It makes sense that early on in life as the brain develops, certain languages become more understood, so later similar languages will be easier to learn. @johntunger was just tweeting about not being able to recognize faces. I don't know about scientific explanations of brain issues, but I think it's more of early life, than inborn. I suppose like a lot of things we try and figure out, it doesn't really matter.

I happen to for whatever reason (thanks Mom!) have a well-developed ability to learn languages in depth. Of all kinds. I guess I don't think it's a matter of having "it", but maybe a kind of calling.

Things happen for a reason, we are who we are for a reason. We're not to know that reason until the experiment is over and we know the question whose answer is "42".

Thanks for the comment!

@Cyndi - Heya, thanks for the comment! The sound Brit made when she saw those new puppy pics was priceless. Stay safe and warm.; December 13, 2008 at 7:26 AM
Anonymous said...: Haa..difference between knowledge and learning. To obtain knowledge, one needs to learn. Learning by itself should be with a fresh mind without any excess baggage that may shape what we learn. Once something is learned, that becomes knowledge. Knowledge is always past because it becomes memory.

And you are right that in eastern philosophies memory is believed to interfere with learning because memory is corrupted more often than not with dogmas, beliefs, culture, ego,...

More rants I guess... :)

Good post!
-Saranyan; May 12, 2009 at 11:12 AM