New Gaze - New World

I don't know.

Day 4
Tool 5
The caravan had landed again, the white sail was set up and the group was eager to hear Sophie's talk about the fifth tool.
Sophie had settled down in the middle of the trainees.
"You have practised the first four tools and you are now able to look at things much more holistically. You may even feel that you know much more than those around you.
So today's tool comes at the right time to bring us back down to earth
Unlike other tools where you choose to use one or the other or a combination depending on the situation. The tool we are going to look at today is to be used every time and as many times as possible.
This fifth tool is called "I DON'T KNOW".
"Do you ever admit to not knowing?
Is it a defeat?
Is it a weakness?
Do you sometimes pretend or let people think you know so that you don't admit it?
Or perhaps you are never in this situation because you are able to find an explanation for everything.
Have you observed, however, that some questions, over time, have seen your answer or your view vary, your opinion change, your certainties waver?
Sometimes I have found myself among specialists in a subject of which I myself was not a great connoisseur. So I asked questions, sometimes simplistic questions. And it often happened that questions that were too simplistic did not receive a satisfactory answer. Because the very foundations of the knowledge of these specialists were not as solid as the expertise might suggest.
On other occasions, I found myself in the opposite situation, sitting on the throne of the expert, exposing my answers to the questions of young students, and sometimes some of the questions challenged the very foundations of my certainties.
So I questioned myself, the solidity of my knowledge. If my answers change over time, perhaps there are still other answers, answers that have not yet been formulated, answers that I do not look at, answers that I refuse to hear, answers that disturb me.
In my travels, I often asked this question to the sages I met, as with any question, I received, of course, multiple answers, here is the one I have retained... For now." She made with a smile.
"...The question is like a flowing river, all along its way to the sea, along its banks, it will find many people standing still. They will all have their own answers, all will be different.
And the river, always in motion, will welcome each of them. Eventually, it will join the ocean of knowledge where questions and answers become one.
The real purpose of any question is to offer the opportunity, not to go downstream to collect one, or even a multitude of answers.
No, the true raison d'être of any question is to offer an opportunity to go back to its origin, to its source, for only there is the question a promise.
The promise of all possibilities ready to manifest in one form or another.
As soon as an answer is formulated and accepted, the question instantly loses all its creative power.
This understanding taught me how "I don't know" was a broad, wise and tolerant answer.
Firstly, because "I don't know" does not hold up the banner of expertise and knowledge and leaves room for all possibilities.
"I don't know' is a wide open door that allows the whole of knowledge to illuminate the question.
Secondly, there is no answer that is eternal, the answers to all questions change with the person to whom they are addressed, religion, time, age, gender.
It is therefore wise to admit that we do not know.
Should we therefore refrain from asking questions or stop being interested in them?
Certainly not, questions are the path to their source, they contain the essence of knowledge. On the contrary, we must multiply the questions and welcome the multitude of answers, without any filter, without discarding any.
Should we then refrain from answering questions?
Not at all, we must just humbly acknowledge that our answer is temporal and personal, it has its value at the moment it is pronounced, but it is necessarily incomplete, limited and partial.
Questions and answers are initiations, they allow us to cultivate the humility that our knowledge is partial and limited and that the answers given or received are only a pale light of a reality that humanity is incapable of perceiving in its entirety. 

Every question is a light that has the power to illuminate the whole universe, every accepted answer is a wind that has the power to extinguish that light. "I don't know" is not a weakness, it is a deep conviction that no answer can hinder the greatness of the question. So gladly accept the multitude of answers that are given to you, but do not freeze any of them.