The Dark Fire of Knowledge

                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                            
                                      The Dark Fire of Knowledge

         Masasza (Masasha) gazed at the fire giving it his fixed attention. There was not much else to look at and it made Masasza sad in a strange way. The fire was his only protection from the cold of the night and the darkness of the forest. A cool midnight breeze forced the figures around the fire to shift trying to expose as little of their bodies to the wind as possible. Masasza moved closer to the fire hoping for more warmth; he received none. He was once again sitting in the circle of people all seemingly dazed by the high dancing flames.
        After a couple of minutes he had to lower his stare, he didn't feel right. He had never questioned how long he was here. There was no need to do so, as long as there was warmth and light. But now he felt that he could not let his mind rest in a pleasant state of tranquility. His long hair hanging over his shoulders suggested that it has been a long time since he first found this refuge. He looked around at the circle of light that marked the edges of his little world. There were a couple of trees, a group of people of all ages huddled around the fire and that was it. Beyond the circle there was only darkness.
        Masasza felt the strange, unpleasantly burning feeling inside his chest that he had felt twice already that day. It didn't allow him to come back to contemplating the flickering light again. His senses were reawakening as if from a long sleep and for the first time since he first came to the circle he started hearing, smelling, seeing something else. He was not sure of his senses almost as if he had forgotten how to use them. But there was definitely something calling him. Something beyond the circle illuminated by the fire. Something from the darkness, from the other side. And the longer he thought about it the clearer the presence was becoming and the stronger the longing to find out what it might be.
        Slowly he had made up his mind and with great effort he lit a candle and moved away form the fire. It was a strange sensation that engulfed his body; he could feel the forest around him with all his senses. As Masasza got further and further away from the fire he could feel warmth. He felt excited, happy… no, it was a feeling he could not describe. As he walked away from the fire he could feel it grabbing at him with the flickers of light upon the forest floor, he could feel it calling him back. But he just walked faster and faster into the veil of darkness.
        However, the first feeling wore of quickly and Masasza was once again feeling the burning lump in his chest. He had to find it, somewhere there was something that would not let him rest. He walked further still waving the candle in front of him, but there was nothing. He walked on until he got tiered and his candle burned low. He felt grief now; he could not find it, yet he felt it so close by.
        Suddenly he thought he saw something move in the shadows, but he couldn't make out what it was in the darkness and was about to dismiss the thought when one of the things moved closer. Masasza was frightened, his hart raced, the shape in the darkness was moving slowly towards him. He was not sure what it was, one moment he thought he saw a woman, the next a wolf, yet another a deer. He saw everything at once and as she stepped closer he shuddered and took yet another step back. Then Masasza's candle flickered in the breeze and suddenly he saw. He saw many shapes in the trees, he could see the vastness of the forest. When the strange woman came closer he could not move. She bent over him and with a sharp whoosh, she blew out his candle.
        Suddenly the shadows and darkness retreated from Masasza's sight and finally he felt tranquil once again. He had found what he was looking for, he gazed in amazement at the vast space of the forest around him. He could see clearly now, there was nothing obscuring his vision. Only one spot remained dark in the forest.
      Masasza looked up at the sky, the stars and the moon. It was a beautiful sight.

        In the deep forest a pool of darkness loomed between the trees. It was a fire burning still higher and higher every day. It cast a circle of shadow on a group of people enchanted by the dancing flames. Lured like flies to a light bulb human kind gravitates to the dark.
         

The dark light shining from the candle of knowledge only obscures our sight.
It enslaves us to obvious truth, so we may never experience the extraordinary mysteries.

Why do we value this black fire so.
We huddle around it, our lives only goal,
to get even closer without getting burned.

        Is it not better to throw yourself into this void of knowledge, this world full of uncertainty so you may know for sure, just for a few seconds, that you are alive? This is the only thing I need to know. For it is a different kind of knowledge I am looking for, it is wisdom I seek.

The purpose of this story is to show that through our desperate search for scientific knowledge we shut our eyes to much of the wonders of the world. That we wring it out of everything extraordinary, we make it predictable, simple and plain. A blind unquestioning belief in scientific "facts" is limiting and it is often implanted into our minds from early school days. Science is, like any other cognitive system, based upon certain basic assumptions, which are a question of belief. Because of the subjectivity of experience there is no one ultimate way to view the world. Science is only one way of seeing and will only show an incomplete picture of the world. Perspective is what allows us to see in a truer form. The best way of seeing is to be able to see in all the different ways. Experience is multidimensional. We should not dogmatically seek only the "scientific" knowledge of the world - those tenants of our modern religion: science. We should seek to experience as much of life as it is possible. This is wisdom.
                                                                                                   April 7, 07

"Knowledge does not enrich us; it removes us more and more from the mystic world in which we were once at home by right of birth." C. G. Jung ["Memories, Dreams, Reflections", p. 252]