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IT IS IMPORTANT TO DISTINGUISH between knowledge, needing to know, and knowing. Such distinctions could be the substance of an entire week's discussion to bring even a minute amount of clarity to such a complicated area. For our purposes, I think we can simply say knowledge is having some form, model, or image of how an over-there objective, so-called reality, is shaped. The constructions or consistencies are confirmed in tests, actions, and interactions with the world. Or, there are connections between this model and other models.
I will define knowing (as opposed to knowledge) as the action of perception. It is an inner harmony described as insight, understanding, or what Krishnamurti calls intelligence. It is a participatory process having to do with awareness of our organism as an aspect of all of nature—not as an example of nature, but a presence manifesting simultaneously with the birds, the trees, the transformations of energy.
Needing to know is an active process I hope will be clearer as I proceed. In the rest of the discussion, I want to go briefly into a model which intrigues me as a demonstration of our question. This model is long distance running, an activity which has taught me a great deal about the place of knowledge in transforming.
Why does someone run distances which are not easily accomplished? Why do I do it, for example, day after day, sometimes five to six miles a day? (Others run as much as twelve to fifteen miles a day.) For me, one part is the memory of the results of previous running: each day that memory brings me back to do it again. I feel more intact and more firm of body and mind after a run. On approaching the situation, I feel a desire to loosen my muscles, to get out the tightness, to be in the air, breathing and able to move in open space. These results of previous runs and