On Received, Intellectual and Experiential Wisdom

Interwoven with an exploration of denial, ignorance and naïveté — a cross-examination of Buddhist teachings and psychodynamic theory

Opening Thoughts

I’ve been pondering a lot about the differences between denial, ignorance and naiveté, and how media popularization of the term “woke” in the last couple of years has, at least for me, undermined and downplayed my understanding and desire to understand some very complex, urgent and critical issues.

Looking back to just a few months ago, before I started the Integral Counseling Program at California Institute of Integral Studies, it’s hard to distinguish whether my lack of awareness in issues surrounding social justice, inequality, oppression, and the general “impact of the concept of culture on the concept of man [1],” was a result of denial, ignorance or naïveté. It is most certainly, partially, a result of privilege.

Ignorance and naïveté — are somewhat easy to resolve. They imply a lack of knowledge, information or experience, whereas denial is an active refusal to acknowledge some truth or emotion, a powerful defense mechanism that’s much harder to break down and break through.

As in most things, my lack of “woke-ness” was most probably a combination of all three — denial, ignorance and naiveté, each perpetuating the other in an endless cycle of not having to acknowledge my own…