-- Ramana Maharshi
Scriptures are statements of belief. Scientific theories are educated guesses. For the spiritual aspirant, the mystic-in-training, beliefs and speculations, no longer hold any appeal. Divine ignorance is seen as a a gateway to realization, as well as a state of grace.
All that we can really know in the physical world are facts and names, anyway. The exact temperature at this moment, the 33rd president of the United States, the name of the flowering bush across the street. Neither beliefs not theories are really knowledge, though many people mistake them for such.
Turning within we enter the realm of intuitive understanding. The dictionary defines intuition as "a non-cognitive way of knowing." This mean you know that you know, you just don't know how the hell you know! The intuitions granted the spiritual seeker are neither beliefs nor theories nor facts. They are, instead, deeper understandings of Reality. When you begin to be graced with those intuitions, beliefs seem like child's play and speculations adolescent infatuations.
Identifying with the "true self" rather than with the physical body, social persona, or psychological and emotional states, is what opens you to these intuitive whispers from the Divine. When you give up attachment to the egoic sense of self, all the beliefs and speculations that the ego held so tightly as truth begin to naturally unravel. You are no longer bound by them. And in that new state of freedom, Divine ignorance and intuitive knowing peacefully coexist in an emotional milieu of awe and appreciation.
It's a process described in every spiritual tradition. But descriptions are merely signposts pointing the way. They can bolster your courage and make you realize that you are really not alone, but the journey you must take is all your own. And the journey, while uniquely yours, is always in the same direction -- within.
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