Chapter 16
Finding Your Way Beyond the Pool of Finite Ideas

The Value of the Paths Less Taken

How do we come to the conclusion that we know what is right and utilize it effectively to guide our lives?  How do we know we can help ourselves or others by our words and actions and be assured that we do not contribute to the problem rather than work towards the solution?  How do we ever know that we have seen past our own problems and can now help others effectively? The short answer is we don’t. The answers lie not in “what we know” but in what we have the ability to know “we cannot know.”

In our conscious life journey we have drawn from the pool of the collective knowledge of mankind. Most people would agree that the pool is vast and holds many things for those that would search for meaning and growth. However, it is necessary to understand how incredibly limited that seemingly vast resource actually is when compared to the infinite. All measuring sticks become useless no matter how long they seem when compared to the infinite. One of the ideas that we have found can lead to a greater understanding of the substance beyond the pool can be summarized with terminology describing it as taking roads less traveled. To view the source of ideas as limitless, even before your conscious becomes aware of them, can lead to places even beyond the pool of collective ideas. Think of it as a river of ideas, rather than a pool, as this is limitless, ever-flowing and often branches off into other channels. Sometimes the smallest tributaries can take you to the purest of new ideas when the tendency of the collective group is to assume that that which flows from the largest and most defined streams must hold the answers. These roads less traveled, though found in the pool, must be taken to gain new substance beyond the pool of collective thought and ideas.

The problem with the collective knowledge of mankind is that due to the limited nature of man and his volatile state, his primary motivations lie in his ability to assimilate various assortments of understood knowledge from the pool into the most compelling and powerful make-ups of systems of thought that could be agreed to by the largest number of the common populace and acted in unison by the most powerful human groupings. The practicality of an idea or a knowledge bit lies in its ability to seem completely defined and meaningful to the largest group of people with as little discrepancy from one person’s point of view to another as possible. Herein lies the limitation of known knowledge. People who guide themselves based on the limits of what they find in the pool alone make the mistake of using the idea of “know-able” things. “Know-able” things create limited walls and bounderies not only in religion but in all things. When you create walls and bounderies even when they seem very broad and to be agreed upon by large groups of people they are still incredibly limited when compared to that of the infinite.

The less traveled road is dervived from the idea that greater knowledge comes from realization of how little is known. We should not put so much focus on the paths that lead to the knowledge of men but rather we should focus on the limitations of that knowledge; and realize that the answers lie in the perspectives necessary to not pay homage to the seemingly extreme vastness of this pool. Ironically, because of its seeming vastness, few realize the limits. To get you established at the most effective starting point, we suggest that you initiate your focus not on the size of the pool but on its finite quality. Once this is foremost in your mind, you’ll find the ability to go beyond it much easier as the intimidating size of the pool will not stand in your way any longer. We would like to empower you to take on the difficult challenge of asking and trying to answer the questions that lie beyond our current resources to answer.  

One should never think they know anything because if they arrive at that point and are wrong they can harm everything by everything they say and do.  Rather an individual should be in a constant state of reflection, analysis and growth using only the most skillful words and motivation to effect anything in their world around them and only after a lifetime of development of conscious and spirit that has taken them past the realm of the collective knowledge of mankind can they be the most effective.

We would like to suggest that rather than study all the aspects of different pools of thought that come from religion, you utilize your energies more effectively as you originate a unique culmination of descriptions derived from your sensibilities of things around you from square one first. Only after you have done this should you consider comparing your conclusions and ideas with others that have been found. The effort you undertake to go this route can reveal original insights in purer, unbiased forms than if you had taken a limited idea and tried to expound on it. The most highly regarded and powerful ideas that are attributed to one religion or another are actually likely to be basic ideas that one religion or another has simply claimed as theirs. In your individual study you may find certain ideas that come to you that mirror ideas found elswhere. By coming to similar conclusions completely on your own in an objective manner, you can be more assured that it is likely that there is some significance in ideas you find which may also be commonly held by others. This significance is then strengthened by the fact that you now know that yourself and others have arrived at similar conclusions but by unrelated means.  

It is the job of the conscious to search out and identify these similarities as possible truths warranting additional study and concentration. You will find that you will return automatically to the objective study of these areas again and again since you have built this effective foundation that contains within it its own unique breath of life that you gave it. So, in an objective but also spiritual new way, while being true to the self and the idea of the Creator, you have begun a basis beyond the normal collective basis that others stand on which was formulated entirely from the pool itself. Once this is done and only once this is done without flaw, can a person develop a truly real and richly complex vision of mankind and his place here.  Only then can one speak or act in any way that is likely to have a positive effect, and more importantly, not have a negative effect or contribute to the direction and confusion of mankind.