2008 - 2009 TSK Online Program

Although we value freedom of thought highly, we sel­dom acknowledge that this freedom can be undermined from within as well as from outside. Lack of awareness and knowledge constrain the freedom to think in truly creative ways far more effectively than any dictatorial regime. The true safeguard for freedom of thought is an active, open inquiry that stimulates the mind and encourages creative intelligence.

Following the path of open inquiry means treat­ing Love of Knowledge as a companion in investiga­tion rather than as an authority. Throughout [the book] Love of Knowledge, there is an emphasis on questioning all beliefs and doctrines, and this applies with full force to all that is said here. Even statements that seem to be presented as principles or axioms are better under­stood as suggestive ways of looking at the evidence that thoughts and experience provide.

...Replacing one set of views with another brings only limited benefit, even when the new views allow for alternatives that the old views exclude. Instead, the TSK vision is best understood as a symbol for creative freedom -- a symbol activated through an inquiry that sets no limits in advance. 

...The inquiry here investigates the fundamental process by which human beings turn perceptions into judgments, judgments into patterns, and patterns into fixed positions. It resonates with the central issues of philosophy, psychology, reli­gion, education, and every other field of knowledge that takes the human situation as central. Anyone from any background can study and benefit from the TSK vision, without undergoing special training, adopting a fixed perspective, engaging in particular practices, or making implicit commitments. There is no specific program or methodology of inquiry to follow. Even the reader who proceeds casually on the basis of simple curiosity may discover interesting insights.

To insist on defining the knowledge that inquiry discovers and placing it into categories is considered a ‘professional' approach to knowledge. ‘Professionals' trained in this approach, such as psychologists and philosophers, have been among the most enthusiastic readers of Time, Space, and Knowledge. Yet this kind of enthusiasm is often confined to the level of ideas, and ideas, no matter how ‘interesting', do not lead to change at the deepest level. If knowledge is pursued in this way -- within a conventional framework -- the point may be missed and the vision dismissed.

In investigating knowledge, it can be advantageous to proceed as an ‘amateur', not bound by ‘professional training'. It is possible to read, think, reflect, and observe without structuring these activities into an orderly progression that moves from a specified starting point to a specified goal by means of an approved meth­odology. Freed from such presuppositions, knowledge becomes available as a basic ‘knowingness', unaffected by limits and boundaries.

The full implications of the Time, Space, and Knowledge vision will reveal themselves most clearly through a focus on experience that calls the frame­work of experience into question. Time, Space, and Knowledge are active components of our own being. Space is not only the empty container for objects, or the distance that separates one thing from another -- it is the ‘background' or even the ‘substance' for everything that appears ‘within' it. Time is not only the measure for what happens, but the active intensity within expe­rience, which manifests equally in anxiety, fascina­tion, or sharp awareness. Knowledge is not simply the accumulation of facts and methodologies, but a creative engaging that offers the potential for deep appreciation and flowing enjoyment.

The style of inquiry introduced here counteracts the tendency toward ‘singling out', thus signaling a return to balance. With no positions or possessions, such inquiry is committed only to knowledge, and this com­mitment, because it remains available as a subject for inquiry, is in an important sense self-correcting.

Complete commitment to inquiry can be main­tained only through the activation of a subtle, probing intelligence. The self tends to adopt a position that it describes to itself as being free from positions. The resulting confusion and self-deception are similar to a drunkard's conviction that the most ordinary thoughts are profound and revolutionary insights.

Inquiry best suited to activating a more subtle intel­ligence is one that goes beyond words and concepts, judgments and distinctions, and the sense that the self ‘gains' knowledge...

The TSK vision offers a highly practical, ‘realis­tic' understanding of the way things are, producing a direct and immediate effect on the ways we act and the satisfaction available to us. Yet if inquiry succeeds in activating ‘knowingness', a new and complemen­tary perspective arises, in which the vision itself can be explored as a fiction to be enjoyed, a story that the reader can join in creating. 
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