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THE NOTION OF GROWTH
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This means that knowledge is a process, and not the mass of information collected in books and other storage media we usually regard as knowledge. This mass of data is at best raw material that only becomes knowledge when we actively integrate it into our consciousness.
Knowledge is an individual experience we define for ourselves through the degree we open our own consciousness.36
We obtain knowledge by expanding our ability to understand, not by accumulating formal data37. We expand our ability to understand by removing the obstacles that limit our consciousness.
It shows that whatever we want to learn we need to integrate into our consciousness by really comprehending it. It means that we first need to establish an overall framework of understanding so that all the single pieces of data we learn at a later time will be linked into one meaningful concept. Only by focussing on understanding and not on learning alone can we make sure that a par
ticular knowledge will be available at all times. 36 Knowledge does not only consist of all the details that a particular
situation moves into the center of our awareness. It also encompasses the vast sum of insights and experiences we previously integrated into our consciousness that supports this situation invisibly from the background.
When we steer our life, we constantly access this 'invisible' (previously integrated) knowledge. And even if we are not aware of many of the details, this does not diminish our skill to use them.
Riding a bicycle is one example for this process. This state of unstable balance becomes only possible because we constantly refer to all the bodily experiences of previous rides. This permanent visualization of prior training subconsciously runs always in the background without taking energy from our foreground activities. It does not e.g. prevent us from steering the bike through unknown areas where we need to put considerable attention on our orienta
tion. 37 The learning of formal knowledge may certainly have its purposes.
But for the experience of higher states of consciousness (the theme of this book) it is of hardly any value.
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