I don't think this passage deals with factual, objective knowledge as the one needed for daily living like professional learning, professional competence, etc. There experience and thereby knowledge are fully needed. And there experience adds to knowledge and knowledge to efficiency. I think the author is speaking about quite a different type of knowledge, the kind of knowledge that says: 'I have met this person yesterday she was rude to me' or 'I took this road yesterday I know all about it'. The kind of knowledge that does not really help meeting that same person today or doesn't make that road trip across a beautiful landscape much of an exhilarating experience. The kind of knowledge that diminishes your aliveness as well as that of everybody and everything you happen to encounter in the present. etc. There is truth in this passage but I may miss its factuality if I don't take in the psychological factor. My humble point of view.
The author addresses the people who have come to attend a talk. A talk not meant to communicate information, satisfy curiosity or entertain. The talk is about the 'difficult art of communion'. The author says communion can only come about if people are capable to listen and to learn.
He says people deny themselves this capacity when their concern is to add further knowledge to what they know or when they are 'caught up' in the process of accumulating knowledge. The author equates knowledge with experience and says 'it doesn't bring perception and the beauty of understanding'.
To dissociate learning from knowledge is, at first sight, a bit of a quiz for the conceptual mind. Aren't the things happening in the present automatically registered in the brain, imprinted on the mind? It is precisely the process of knowledge and if one is not aware of it one gets 'caught up' in it. In the field of relationship can one prevent the past obscuring the present and dulling sensitivity?
Learning then is the movement by which one knowingly relinquishes knowledge so as to be able to perceive the newness, the freshness and the depth of the present. Learning itself sees that it ceases to be movement the moment it accumulates and thus it is ceaselessly on the look out, vitally alert, seeking to commune with the environment.
Knowledge evaluates, compares, criticizes. This is its normal function and it definitely has its place. But when it is brought over in the field of relationship it brings in dis-function and dulls our capacity to commune with life.
There is much more to her comment but Amy is pointing to something important which is interpretation. One teacher I used to listen to with some intensity would constantly warn the listener at the beginning of his talks against his or her tendency to interpret what he said, or compare what he said with previous knowledge. In short, the danger was of translating the new into the old. Right from start, he made it clear that interpretation stood in the way of actual understanding. With the same intention he would warn the listener against his/her tendency to be influenced by his reputation, his appearance, in brief by some image the listener might have of the speaker. All things pertaining to the realm of personality and leading to miss understanding. That which G., if I am not mistaken, would call 'consideration'.
On Apr 3, 2013 Amin wrote :
The last time I was reminded that drama is originally a sacred art is when I saw an interpretation of Shakespeare's King Lear by a troup of Kathakali actor's twenty years ago. I then realized what extraordinary demand was put on these actors and their immense capacity of impersonation. Prior to this experience I had the opportunity to see actual communion between these extraordinary actors and their Indian public. At the end of the representation there were no applause but something like great fervor emanated from the audience.
This is beautiful. But what other sort of drama am I playing on myself when I confuse accumulation of knowledge with learning. When I confuse practical knowledge with the problematic 'knowledge' I have accumulated about myself and 'others'. Does holding on to that knowledge give me the illusion of psychological security? So I am on my toes. I don't sit back and say 'Allelujha', I know all about Truth!