The Radical Intimacy of Conocimiento:
Illumination from the Communal Heart(h)
How do we become wise? It is not new to argue that the ways in which we “know” are at least partially dependent on what the term “to know” means in a particular language. The English language offers one infinitive verb (to know), while the Spanish language offers two: saber and conocer. To possess information (saber) is not the same thing as having a relationship with someone or something (conocer).
As we have seen, our human longing for relationship—with others, with animals, with nature, and with our inner selves—has been purposely exploited by companies such as Meta, Open AI, X, and Google, among others. Accounts of people falling in love with chatbots have now become commonplace; their oftentimes moving stories are driven by yearnings to establish relationships, but also yearnings to know more—about themselves, about the world, and about the nature of existence.
This anniversary talk for Kosmos Institute will revolve around themes of relationship and wisdom and will foreground a multifaceted theory of knowing which mestiza scholar, artist, and activist Gloria E. Anzaldúa named conocimiento; a word that can mean wisdom, deep knowing, awareness, as well as consciousness itself. Conocimiento is just as much a verb as a noun, as it unfolds in stages, much like alchemical stages or the stages of a relationship. Like both, it is a recursive process driven by longing and love—a process that flows from, and to, the heart.
Alongside conocimiento, this talk will highlight the American poet Stanley Kunitz’s description of the wise poet, artist, and creator as a “good host” to the many creatures and ideas that dwell in the world that we call reality, and to those that dwell in the equally real world of imagination. The generous heart of a good host is what drives Kosmos Institute’s passionate and communal devotion to wisdom. This generous heart was evident in the Institute’s humble beginnings in a small, dilapidated commercial building just a few years ago and is evident now through the Institute’s flourishing online community, where we gather around the virtual hearth to learn, teach, share, and, hopefully, grow in wisdom. To be wise is not to possess; it is to be in relationship.