Direct Knowledge

"Power rests on the kind of knowledge one holds. What is the sense of knowing things that are useless? They will not prepare us for our unavoidable encounter with the unknown."

–Carlos Castaneda

The Visionmaker makes a full-hearted commitment to surrender to the lessons of direct knowledge. Everyone is shaped by that encounter in unique and unpredictable ways. Only through experience can the seeds that Destiny planted within us, the seeds of our own journey of transformation, be awakened.

Direct knowledge is a potent, transforming force-an old way of seeing dies and new vision is born. These unavoidable encounters are singular events if we are awake. They initiate and mark us with knowledge.

The purpose of these encounters is to empower the journey of heart and meaning, preparing us to take the next step from the known world into the unknown world.

Full engagement with life is the only way we can acquire direct knowledge. Book learning, accounts from other people, and our theories are useless here. We must be prepared to get our hands dirty, and on occasion, our nose bloodied, in pursuit of knowledge and the empowerment that accrues from running it to the ground.

Ultimately, Visionmaking is empirical. Only full engagement and the application of all that we have acquired from the journey thus far is sufficient to prepare us for "the unavoidable encounter with the unknown."

© Patrick O’Neill 2010. All rights reserved