Why only reading isn’t enough to change your life.
The first thing is observation. Just watching, observing things directly—without conclusions, preconceived notions, any perspective, lens or ideology. Your knowledge—what you think you already know— your conclusions and beliefs are impediments in your way to know “what is”.
There is no substitute for self-awareness and observation in the world. It is the quality that empowers you to examine your own conditioning, overcome it and see things as they are, see “what is”.
Yes, perspectives give exposure to your mind. If you couldn’t notice any thing yourself yet, pointers help you see that. Books or pointers also help you think about things from different dimensions. So, reading is useful and important. It propels learning and understanding.
Read extensively with an open mind. Read across all disciplines. Learn without accumulation. Do not be in a hurry to make conclusions. If you already have conclusions—often they are very subtle— you’re conforming to your biases in the name of reading and learning. You pick your reading materials according to your biases and agreements.
Start questioning and challenging your beliefs and do the same with what you’re reading. See what are the underlying assumptions and blind spots. Learn to examine both agreements and disagreements. Think deeply and disagree reasonably.
Our allegiance is to truth, not to any ideology, concept, belief system, or our own biases.
When you read with an open mind, it helps you become more aware. And awareness is what brings change. Your own realization brings change in your life. Everything else that you call knowledge is superficial or merely intellect level information—not deep understanding. Hence, that doesn’t bring change in your life.
Learn to entertain an idea (or a fact) without outrightly rejecting or accepting it. Entertain a series of hypotheses, experiment them and see what you find true and reliable. You have your life—a library and a lab—you have the ability and resources to experiment and know yourself.
Life has to be learned through trial and error.
So, keep watching, observing, learning, and experimenting. Keep taking actions accordingly. This is how we learn to live. Live well and enjoy reading.
Thank you for reading this. Feel free to share your view.
—
Sandeep
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