The cultivation of insight into self and world—whether through philosophy, science, or meditation—tends to make obsolete certain interpretations of reality we have so far taken as self-evident, as common sense. But these interpretations we later condemn as “ignorant” (even “wrong”) are what has allowed and compelled us to seek and cultivate insight in the first place.
The womb nourishes and protects the fetus, providing it with comfort and predictability, only to then expel it into a strange, terrifying, and miraculous world that is yet needed for the further development of life. In this same way, our ignorance, immaturity, and errors seem to be no random “mistakes”, but the very soil in which the seed of insight can grow.
Ignorance is not the enemy of insight, but its womb. Ignorance is the past tense of insight, and we are ignorant indeed when we take our current understanding to be final and complete. Nature is continually expelling us into the strange, terrifying, and miraculous as we stumble towards understanding, climbing a ladder of errors towards… Truth? Could positing truth be the final womb keeping us from birth beyond ignorance and insight?
May we never cease being born,
Simeon
“If I had a theory, then that error would apply to me; but as I have no theory, I am free from error.”
—Nāgārjuna, Vigrahavyāvartanī
Suggested Reading
Nicholas of Cusa: Selected Spiritual Writings translated by H. Lawrence Bond
Nicholas of Cusa proposes a paradox: the highest wisdom is “learned ignorance.” Before the infinite, the intellect must relinquish its claim to completion. Knowledge grows not by conquering mystery but by deepening reverence for it. A luminous Christian counterpart to the insight that every birth of understanding reveals a wider horizon of unknowing.
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In Buddhism, ignorance (avidyā or avijjā) is the fundamental misunderstanding of reality—not just a lack of information, but a deep-seated misapprehension of the nature of existence. It is the root cause of suffering (dukkha) and the cycle of rebirth (samsara), prompting attachment and aversion.