Overnight Expert
Recognizing knowledge is earned.
I was having a quick chat with the owner of my local vape shop the other day and she asked me a question that caught me off guard. She asked if I just woke up one day with all this knowledge. I laughed and said I wish! I said, no, I spent many, many, many hours analyzing and exploring the information that I had discovered. It took actual effort to gain this knowledge. I had to gather as much information as I could, investigate this information and make some choices.
Turns out, there’s a name for the process of true learning. It’s called the Trivium Method, and it has 3 parts - grammar, logic and rhetoric.
The first part is where you gather the knowledge (grammar). The second part is where you gain full understanding of the gathered knowledge (logic), and the third part is where you put all this knowledge into action (rhetoric).
This method of learning is not taught any longer in schools. I’m not sure if it was ever taught, but apparently my Mother knew it because I do. I managed to teach it to my children, as well. Very grateful for that!
I think it’s pretty simple, really. You find a subject, “get your hands on” as much information as you can, study said info and I mean really study it, and in the process, you will be influenced in such a manner that you will be putting that knowledge into action (changed) - I promise you!
One of the more obscure, to me, learning methods I was introduced to is called Apophatic Inquiry. It is crucial, in my opinion, to understanding true morality in this realm. Hopefully, you’ve watched Mark Passio’s presentations on Natural Law and you’re aware that your actual “rights” in this realm are action based and cannot result in harm to a sentient being. By determining what is “wrong” - meaning it results in harm to a sentient being - we can determine what is “right” i.e. affirmation through negation or Apophatic Inquiry.
Honestly, that’s what did it. I was shown, via Apophatic Inquiry what actual transgressions or “sins” in this realm are. They are provable, knowable and tangible - actions, not the emotional states and vices the Catholic Church dubbed the “7 Deadly Sins”!
The actual “sins” are actions that cause harm to another sentient being. Those actions are murder, assault, rape, theft, trespass, deception, and coercion. When one of those “boundary conditions” is breached, then a transgression or “sin” has occurred. That’s it - bottom line.
Knowing that authority is a psychological operation, what true “sin” is and that any fear-based, conflict-oriented instruction, direction or information concerning who we are, where we are and how we are to function cannot be in alignment with Natural Law, I was able to put down my bible and start thinking for myself!!
Thank you for this thoughtful piece. Learning is a skill not taught so much in schools or by parents anymore. And once you discover it you feel free. Alone, but free. The trick is how to reestablish contact with humans that don't think and guide them to truth somehow.
Speaking of truths I found all of what you are describing in Passio's natural law actually contained in the Holy Bible. Catholics bastardized everything about the bible. I spent my whole life rejecting God and the bible because of the Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox and my own parents but when I read it for myself, I have never had my eyes opened like that. All the gaps filled in. Read the KJV if you do. Not pushing it on you, just saying.
Thanks for reading this. :)
I'm really enjoying these 'natural law travel-logs' (for lack of a better term) of yours. It brings a smile to my face witnessing someone truly getting it in real time.