Meaning of "Those who know do not speak." And "Know thyself."

“Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know.” - Lao Tzu

I think I have figured out the context of this quote and can share it. It is not literal or meant to mean those that know, don't tell others and those that don't know, do. It doesn't mean this.

It is a very powerful statement about meditation. There is a difference between knowing and thinking in life and in meditation. It is not difficult to test the two. Knowing is without verbalization hence "those that know, don't speak" and thinking is with verbalization. An example. A very powerful thing to "know" in meditation is that "everything is changing, or inpermanance, or this to shall pass."

If this is known rather than thought it can take you far down "the path." A lot of people however, including me off and on, gets trapped in the thought of these things and it doesn't do what it is meant to do. Knowing seems to be able to convince the mind of the truth of impermance and thought cannot do this perhaps because thought is a part of the mind itself.

Hope this makes sense.

Now moving onto the deeper meaning of "know thyself." The first question must be what is the "Self" and where do I find it? After lots of searching I believe the Buddha was correct in saying there is "no self." What we believe to be the self is not actually the self. I think the self is just our thought of what the self is. I think of my "self" differently than other people. It is not a set entity which can be defined.

In essence, when you can effectively know, as in non-verbalization know the self, which I believe is actually thought, it will just pass away like everything else in existence.

I have actually reached this level before but accidentally. If you can practice knowing rather than thinking, know thyself by knowing the thought of just the continuous "I" which can be verbalized. This "I" slowly becomes less and less "loud" mentally and when it finally goes it is a huge change within. This eventually leads to massive waves and pure knowing or cognition without "thought". This is as far as I have been before but I am confident that even this "cognition" period passes away. And this is the path to "nirvana." If one can be aware of pure cognition than that must mean there is something beyond "us".

Anyways I hope this message reaches the person or people it is meant for. One day soon I will be able to talk with more certainty and less experiential wisdom of just what has happened to me.

Good luck and God speed to you all.