Assumptions are unverified beliefs taken as true without verification through direct experience or logic. On the path of knowledge, assumptions are recognized as the primary building blocks of ignorance.

Assumptions vs Knowledge

• The only valid means of knowledge on the Path of Knowledge are direct experience and logic. Everything else produces assumptions, not knowledge.

• An assumption does not become knowledge simply because you assumed it, or because your parents or friends told it to you. They may be themselves deluded.

• Most ignorance is positive assuming things are true that are not. The path works by breaking down assumptions to reveal what is actually true.

• Negative knowledge (knowledge through absence) is especially effective against assumptions it destroys false beliefs, and what remains is truth.

Hypothesis and Theory

• A hypothesis is a set of assumptions that we knowingly test through experiments. This is different from ignorance because the person is aware that it is an assumption.

• If evidence supports the assumptions, it becomes a theory a model that seems valid but is still not absolute truth.

• A useful hypothesis or theory must be falsifiable if it cannot be proven or disproven, it is useless.

• A theory is just assumptions that seem to be valid, not actual knowledge.

Teachings

• The guru or teacher breaks down the seeker's assumptions through questions and direct demonstration, leading them to truth.

• Many of our deepest assumptions serve survival the sense of 'me' and 'mine' are programs in memory that enable the organism to survive.

• The seeker must examine their beliefs critically, be their own skeptic, and disbelieve their assumptions.

• Obstacles on the path are anything assumptions, beliefs, behavior patterns that reinforce ignorance and stop awareness from arising.

Related Concepts

Belief, blind belief, ignorance, verification, direct experience, logic, means of knowledge, hypothesis, theory