Actual Freedom – Catalogue

1. Who first spoke these ancient ‘Words of Wisdom’? (...) it cannot be he who knows because he does not speak. And, as he who does not know does not know what he is talking about, then this pithy aphorism is not worth even the paltry piece of rice-paper that it was written upon all those years ago.

2. Mr. Lao Tzu certainly did disseminate his wisdom for many, many years ... and thus did not heed his own advice (‘he who knows does not speak’) like all the enlightened masters down through the ages.

3. An intelligence tethered by feelings of a nauseous sorrow is a crippled intelligence ... no wonder he penned such pithy aphorisms as ‘those who know do not speak; those who speak do not know’. He probably had nothing better to say.

4. So ... if someone is aware that they are free then that is proof that they are not free? Are you for real? This is but a variation on that pithy aphorism: ‘He who knows does not speak’. Next you will be coming out with that tired and hoary maxim about ‘he who knows nothing, really knows’.

5. So, ‘one word is too much’, eh? This sound suspiciously like a variation on that pithy aphorism: ‘He who knows does not speak’ ... and it took you five words to say it.

6. It would be more conducive to a mutual understanding – and less repetitive – if you could move past this ‘he who knows does not speak’ fixation. The man who you like to quote made no secret that he knows ... and he spoke for sixty-plus years.

7. It still remains twaddle dressed up as sagacity: then again, mostly people are so happy to buy psittacisms by the bucket-load ... it saves having to think for oneself.

8. Speaking personally, people can quote another to their heart’s content (it gives me the opportunity to question their borrowed wisdom).

9. The secret saying reads: ‘he who knows that he does not know speaks; he who does not know that he does not know does not speak’.

10. You are saying, in effect, that the truly wise person is the one who says: ‘I do not know’.

11. That gives rise to pithy aphorisms like that hoary adage about a tree in the forest only falling if someone is there to see it fall.

12. You may have heard the worldly adage ‘do as I say; not do as I do’? The spiritual equivalent is: ‘do not look at the finger; look at what the finger is pointing to’.

13. I look forward to hearing from you, and not from another long-dead author who appears to have had no actual understanding of what they were talking about.

14. For those who are ‘that’, punctuating this pithy aphorism should be a breeze. For those who are not ‘that’, punctuating the witty doggerel should be an eye opener. For those who are not interested in ‘that’ at all, clicking the delete button should bring great satisfaction. Viz.: ‘I am that that is I am that that is that that is is and is not simultaneously I am that that is and is not and that is it it is it really is it’.