Reading & Knowing

Meditation teachers generally advise folks to meditate more and read less. In fact, some suggest that a good book is one that inspires you to meditate. My wife keeps telling me not to buy any more books, at least until I've read and found a place to put the current ones.

Nevertheless, I disagree with Arthur Schopenhauer's statement:

“When we read, another person thinks for us; we merely repeat his mental process. …

[T]he person who reads a great deal … gradually loses the ability to think for himself,

just as a man who is always riding at last forgets how to walk.”

quoted by Cathal Kelly in “Star Wars and the Meaning of Life.” The Globe & Mail, December 12, 2015.

I love to read material that expands my horizons or that expresses clearly and concisely information that's just starting to congeal for me. That, if anything, accelerates my understanding. Becoming porous to ideas and connecting to other inspiring peoples' consciousness is one of the ideals of the internet. Of course one drawback of the internet, as well as books, is addiction. It's very easy to become entranced and squander one's opportunity to contribute.

However, if you haven't read broadly & deeply enough, your contributions may be half-baked versions of already well-known, much better thought-out concepts. Sadly, in today's rush to post or publish, even some respected scientific journals publish papers which "re-invent the wheel" due to inadequate literature reviews.

Sharing worthwhile ideas via quality quotes requires a lot of reading, but I enjoy the process. I hope you enjoy reading the resulting blogs.