The Quest for Knowledge
My creating this website was started by my quest for
knowledge. I love knowing things...I have a need to know things. I
started collecting everything I could about massage and everything I learned
from being a massage therapist.
Knowledge brings security - a feeling that all is well.
When we feel secure we are then able to start looking beyond what we know and
step out of the box as they say.
While we think we may know everything we really don't until we
can admit that we know nothing - then we will know everything.
How do we really know that anything is true?
If you look at the history of massage,
you will see there have been many theories as to what is the "right"
way to work on a body. Early shamans used to pull things away from the
body which is contradictory to the push things toward the heart philosophy of
Swedish Massage. There continues to be many theories and methods of
massage that contradict each other. When I was first in massage school in
was contraindicated to work on someone with cancer - period. Today we know
differently, as we learn more.
What about the things we think are currently true? Are
they really? How can we know? Most of current massage techniques are
only theories.
Don Miguel Ruiz in his book "The
Voice of Knowledge" was told by his grandfather that "
...everything you've learned in school , everything you know about life, is only
knowledge. How can you know if what you've learned is the truth or
not? How can you know if what you believe about yourself is
true?"
We need to know so that we can have some control over our
environment. We need to know so that we can feel powerful over
others. We need to be right to make ourselves feel superior. We all
create our own perceptions of things based on our beliefs. When we try to
impose our perceptions on others who have different perceptions the result is
often a defensive battle to be right.
The internet has brought us all of the information we could
possibly ever dream of at the click of a mouse. The common expression is
"I googled it"...
As we learn more, we can then begin to find out what it is that
we don't know. Daniel Pink in his book "A
whole new Mind" looks at this phenomena and states that "We are moving from an economy and a society built on the logical, linear, computer-like capabilities of the Information Age to an economy and a society built on the inventive, empathic, big picture capabilities of what’s rising in its place, the Conceptual Age.
When we let go of all we know and admit that we know nothing we
will be able to work more from a place of empathy and compassion and lead more
meaningful lives full of play and spiritual discovery.
"The
Lost Art of Compassion" by Lorne Ladner and "The
Rhythm of Compassion" by Gail Straub teach us how to break through the
lies of the ego and reach compassion.
