In the old Turkish movie, the main character goes to the opportunist character who knows his business. He needs a favor. He explains the situation. The man sneers slightly under his mustache and repeats the classic line: “Hmm… And what about my wife?”
I have accumulated years of knowledge. Of course one needs knowledge. Not only the books we read, the trainings we receive, the conferences and conversations we listen to, but also the experiences we live through, the events we witness, create an accumulation of knowledge in people. So much so that if we are not selective, if we don’t put this information through the triad of scrutiny, classification and accrual, we run the risk of turning our inner world into a giant warehouse where everything is piled on top of each other. Curiosity is one of the most fundamental elements in human development. I always wondered; how does it happen, why does it happen, on what occasion? Basic science books, texts written by people who had experienced, lived and thought about certain things before us, such as mysticism, personal development, the things we listened to on these subjects, and then the subjects we started to enjoy and discover started to fuse together in a delicious way.
The symbolic teachings, the discoveries about what they mean, the understandings that make you say “of course” at once, seemed to satisfy the pleasure of solving puzzles. There is no doubt that these are very important efforts. Throughout human history, all the ancient teachings have led people trying to increase their perfection in this way.
One day when I was thinking about these things again and watching with great amazement, joy and admiration how a symbol appears in different forms in various teachings, I realized exactly this. It was very nice to understand these things. Now I admired even more the great man I had identified with this theme. He taught me so much! But what good would that do me? Was I doing things better because of that, was I living more consciously? Where did this theme touch my life? Now, if this knowledge doesn’t give me the wisdom to live my life more skillfully, with all due respect to that great man, he could have gone on his way, what did it matter to me? I felt that all of this had now forever changed the way I would react to a situation I might face right now. Anyway, it was more the feelings that let you know. The taste of being happier, more at peace with existence, more mature was in my mouth like the taste of a beautiful strawberry.
When I came across any teaching and started to work with it, that is, when I gained knowledge, that opportunistic Turkish movie character in me started to sneer; “Hmm… And what will be my profit from this?”
