The wise person knows there is much they still don’t yet know, but they want to learn. If you are a young person, you can be forgiven for thinking you know all you need to know, but life will soon show you your ignorance on that, as long as you have a mind still open to seeing and learning.
If your mind is kept closed though, and you go on thinking you know all you need to know, you will suffer in many ways because of your attitude. And it is likely many others may also suffer from your wilful ignorance.
Are you one of those people, high in self admiration, and low in actual self realisation? Being ignorant of the level of your ignorance may feel blissful to you, because realising the depth of your stupidity and ignorance would be embarrassing to say the least. Acknowledging your ignorance, though humbling, is a necessary step toward opening your mind up, and letting new knowledge in.
*The salt bush plant doesn’t aspire to travel far itself, but it produces seeds which may travel an unknowable way …*
When you begin learning, you realise so much more about your life, and you may finally see the errors you have made in the past. This is an important time, because it will encourage further and further learning. With more learning leading to evermore learning, you are on your way to reaching wisdom, when before, you had no wisdom at all, only opinions.
And, as American writer Harlan Ellison said “You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.”
If the role of each person is, or in the opinion of the Stoics, should be, to become the best possible person you can, then you will go on learning, doing the best things you can do. Teaching others, helping them to realise the importance of going on learning, this is a fine role in life, if that is of interest to you.
And those who think they’ve already learnt all there is to know, well they can never achieve their highest possible heights, can they? To go on learning is an admirable thing for sure. Whether the learning is in a formal way, or informally, is not important, the learning is the important part.
Learning and then going good with all you learn. For of course, doing good for self, for community, and for the world, this is the Stoic way. I welcome other thoughts on what is written here, please leave comments here.
My Stoic Life 