Approaching Ignorance with Care

In the recording below Tolle speaks to a talkshow host about the current state of our world, where leaders sometimes take insane decisions. Decisions with a very narrow focus on the most immediate benefits, without taking into account secondary or tertiary consequences.

He points out that intelligence and education are not to be equated with wisdom and that intelligence without wisdom is actually dangerous.

Tolle thinks it is important not to demonize people who create insane narratives, as it may draw you into the same circle of energies. “If you gaze into the abyss, the abyss will stare back at you.” said Friedrich Nietzsche.

In his view even people who commit harmful act or make vastly harmful decisions do not act with malevolent intentions, but they simply are deluded and do not see. So the words of Jesus Christ resonate for him with wisdom: “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”

When people commit ignorant acts, contradicting them can easily harm the quality of the connection. It is more promissing to ask questions and keep the window open for awareness to arise.

Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.