The beginning of enlightenment is to understand that you know nothing, has this statement has any truth in it?

Question

The beginning of enlightenment is to understand that you know nothing, has this statement has any truth in it?

Answer

There is truth in this statement but not by within the definitions of common intellectual knowledge. Ordinarily, when we say that, I know noting about this person, or about that matter, we speak entirely relatively and referentially, meaning that I do not know about this particular person or matter, however, I know others things of similar type, and that my ignorance here is in fact based upon my sound knowledge of the similar or contrastingly similar instances. Within the domains of rational intellectual inquiries or thoughts we can never say that, I do not know anything, or that I know nothing, for we always know one thing or the other and if we really had known absolutely nothing then we would not have known our own ignorance either.brbrWhen one claims that one knows nothing, one in fact transcends the bounds of normal intellectual inquiries that are rational but completely referential as we would not have noticed any colour at all if there were only one colour in existence. When we mentally transcend comparative means of acquisition of knowledge, we enter into a world of previously unknown realities, world of unrealistic or super realistic possibilities. A tree, for example, can be envisaged in countless different metaphysical shapes and forms through contemplation into its abstract reality. And just like a tree, all the things in this world find their peculiar identifiable through other things that are not like them and yet are there.brbrIf I for example see an apple my previous experience tells me what it is, but if I try to know all about an apple than I would soon realise that it is impossible, for it would require the entire universe as reference if I try to completely explain away what an apple is if so then I can say that I know as about the universe as I know about an ordinary apple, or on the other hand I know as much about an apple as I know about the entire universe.