#Rhizo15 / Week 5 / "Sapere aude!"

I wrote a long post about weeds, invasive learning, and strange metaphors. I wrote about definitions and realize I just copied Autumm's post over again (damn her all encompassing views!). Then I went back and read Dave's weekly post and I came back to learning as a motivation, not a means to an end.

And I felt better.

We must wander through books, through ideas, through the world. I went into a pond yesterday to recover something for someone. I thought it would be so cold, so mucky, so dismal. And the water was warm and the water was clear. And I swam, I kicked, and plunged down and saw the fish, and a stunning world of plants, rocks, and water. I was so worried about how I might feel, I never thought about how nice it would be. And it was brilliant. I swam, dove, and frolicked for more than an hour. I was the invasive species and I still had a great time.

When I found this quote, I recall reading the book, but a new idea bubbled. Perhaps the rhizome isn't a path to interrupt education, but a freedom to give to yourself. This path is the higher degree of thought, connection, and community. That is closer to enlightenment than I have ever come! And I can't help other people find their way to it, but just remind them that it exists and they should be looking for it too. Kant's spirited shout was -- "Sapere aude!" - dare to know. And it is in those moments, floating, diving, pushing in a foreign world that it becomes so evident. "What is the depth of my knowledge?" The answer is only "sapere aude."

“I shall no longer be instructed by the Yoga Veda or the Aharva Veda, or the ascetics, or any other doctrine whatsoever. I shall learn from myself, be a pupil of myself; I shall get to know myself, the mystery of Siddhartha." He looked around as if he were seeing the world for the first time.” - Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha