This is why self-knowledge – knowledge of the nature of mind itself – must be the foundation of all other knowledge. Until we understand the nature of the knower, we cannot understand the known.

Since experience is all that can ever be known, it must be the test of reality. If we do not take experience as the test of reality, belief will be the only alternative. The ancient philosopher Parmenides expressed this distinction as ‘the way of truth and the way of opinion’. We may follow the way of belief – trusting inherited ideas, second-hand... See more

In order to know what anything truly is, it is first necessary to know the nature of that which knows.

Whatever it is that knows the sound of birdsong is the same knowing that knows the sound of traffic. The two perceptions differ, and each comes and goes, but they are known alike by the same unchanging, subjective essence of all changing experience.

This recognition turns the search for truth inward. The scientist explores the cosmos through instruments of measurement, but the mind is the first and final instrument of all knowledge. If that instrument is unexamined, its findings are necessarily coloured by its own structure. Thus, the next step is not to look further into the world but deeper... See more

If everything that appears is known through mind, then to understand the nature of anything that is known or experienced, we must first understand the nature of the mind through which it is known. Unless and until the mind knows its own essential nature, it cannot be sure that anything it knows or experiences is absolutely true and not simply a... See more

This knowing element of the mind can never itself be known or experienced objectively. It can never be seen, heard, touched, tasted or smelt.

This knowing is not an experience among other experiences. It does not have a colour, a size, an age or a location. It is not joyful or sorrowful, dense or diffuse. It is like the transparent water of the ocean – taking the shape of every wave yet never becoming the wave itself.

All that is known, or could ever be known, is experience. Struggle as we may with the implications of this statement, we cannot legitimately deny it. Being all that could ever be known, experience itself must be the test of reality. If we do not take experience as the test of reality, belief will be the only alternative.