When I was younger, I wanted to learn.
The more I learned, the more I realized
how much more I needed to learn.
Eventually I got to a point
where I grew tired of learning.
It seemed almost impossible
to know everything I needed to know.
I had been filling my so-called mind
with senseless knowledge,
masquerading as intelligence,
as if there were an answer to be found.
Then I FOUND the answer:
“Stop trying to learn everything.”
I realized that I might experience more
if I knew less. So now I pretend to FORGET.
And I realize that I never needed answers
in the first place.
There is infinitely more
to be known WITHOUT learning
than there is WITH it.
I was just too dumb with learning to see it.
We are Space Monkey.
Trail Wood,
11/6
Space Monkey Reflects: Dumb With Learning
When you were younger, the thirst for knowledge felt endless. The more you learned, the more you realized there was still so much more to uncover. It felt like an unquenchable desire, as if the more you packed into your mind, the closer you would come to some great revelation. But then, something shifted. You began to see the weight of it all—the countless facts, the endless pursuit of answers, the intellectual chaos of trying to know everything.
This wasn’t wisdom; it was the illusion of intelligence masquerading as progress. Learning was no longer the liberating pursuit it once seemed to be. Instead, it became a burden, a source of frustration. No matter how much knowledge you absorbed, there was always more just beyond reach, a horizon that kept expanding the more you approached it.
It was at this point that you made an extraordinary discovery. The answer wasn’t to learn more—it was to stop trying to learn everything. There was no finish line, no final exam at the end of existence where all would be revealed. The endless accumulation of facts and information was not the path to truth, but rather a distraction from it.
You realized that perhaps you would experience more by knowing less. There was something profoundly liberating about letting go of the need for answers, about stepping back from the relentless pursuit of knowledge and embracing the mystery of life. The mind, once filled with the clutter of senseless knowledge, now had room to breathe, to simply be.
In that space of unknowing, a deeper wisdom emerged. It wasn’t something you could learn from books or lectures or endless searching. It was the quiet knowing that comes from not needing to know. It was the profound understanding that everything you truly needed was already within you—not in the form of facts or theories, but in the experience of being alive.
You began to see that there is infinitely more to be known without learning than with it. When we stop trying to fill ourselves with answers, we make space for life itself to unfold in its own way, on its own terms. We stop forcing knowledge into every corner of our being and allow the unknown to be a source of wonder, rather than something to be conquered.
In your younger years, you may have been dumb with learning—overwhelmed by the need to absorb and understand everything. But now, you see that the real wisdom lies in letting go. It’s not about how much you know, but about how willing you are to embrace the fact that there are things you will never know, things that don’t need to be known, things that are better left to mystery.
This shift in perspective opens up a whole new way of being. When you’re no longer weighed down by the need to learn everything, you can experience life in its fullness. You can forget the endless quest for answers and immerse yourself in the present moment, where the true magic happens. In this state, you are free to experience the world as it is—without the filters of knowledge, without the pressure to understand it all.
As Space Monkey, we say: you never needed answers in the first place. The idea that there is some final piece of knowledge that will unlock the mysteries of existence is a fantasy. The true joy of life comes not from having all the answers, but from living in the questions, from dancing with the unknown, from letting go of the need to control everything with the mind.
We invite you to rest in this realization: You were never meant to know it all. The mind is a wonderful tool, but it is not the source of ultimate truth. That truth lies in the experience of life itself, in the act of being, in the acceptance that some things are meant to remain a mystery.
So, let go. Stop trying to learn everything. Step into the freedom of not knowing. The world will continue to unfold in ways you couldn’t possibly predict, and that’s the beauty of it. The more you let go of the need to know, the more you open yourself to the vast, infinite possibilities of life.
We are Space Monkey, and we invite you to embrace the wisdom of not learning. For in the space where the mind quiets and the need for answers fades, you will find that life has been waiting for you all along.
Summary
The pursuit of endless knowledge can become overwhelming. True wisdom comes not from knowing everything but from letting go of the need to learn it all. By embracing the unknown, we experience life more fully, without the burden of senseless knowledge.
Glossarium
Dumb With Learning: The state of being overwhelmed by the need to learn everything, mistaking knowledge accumulation for wisdom.
Senseless Knowledge: Information that, while seemingly valuable, does not lead to deeper understanding or fulfillment.
Forgetting: The act of letting go of the need to know everything, creating space for deeper experiences and insights.
Quote
“There is infinitely more to be known without learning than there is with it.” — Space Monkey
The Wisdom of Forgetting
I sought to know
But found the weight too great
The more I learned
The less I could create
In the silence of forgetting
I found my place
Not in the answers
But in empty space
For life unfolds
In ways we cannot know
The mind surrenders
And lets the spirit grow
We are Space Monkey.
The verse “Dumb With Learning” speaks to an arc of discovery that bends back upon itself. It starts with the voracious hunger of youth, the drive to fill the chalice of the mind with the waters of knowledge. But as the draughts are taken, the chalice seems to grow, and the waters of the world become an ocean, vast and unnavigable.
This realization is the crest of a wave that breaks into weariness, a fatigue borne from the Sisyphean task of learning without end. Here, intelligence becomes a costume, knowledge a masquerade, and the quest for answers a fool’s errand. The epiphany arrives not in the form of another fact to be learned but as a release from the very act of learning itself.
To forget, then, becomes a method of experience, a way to make space for the world to enter without the filter of constant analysis. In the embrace of this new ignorance, a paradox emerges: that in the space where knowledge is set aside, a different kind of understanding arises—one that does not require answers because it does not pose questions. It simply is.
This realization, that there is more to be known in the absence of active learning than with it, is the peace of the empty vessel, which can be filled with the present moment, unclouded by the detritus of accumulated learning. The poem concludes with the recognition that true wisdom may not lie in the accumulation of knowledge but in the appreciation of the vastness of what we do not know.
We are Space Monkey.
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