Knowledge and Wisdom- NOT the same thing
There was a time in my life where I believed that knowledge was power. But what did I really do with that knowledge?
Eh. Not much.
I acquired loads of it, spewed it out when I wanted to sound ‘smart’ and collected a library in my mind of facts I’d read proudly in books; a veritable buffet of philosophies explaining things I never really experienced before on my own.
Hence, a bunch of facts I never FULLY understood.
Oh sure, I shared loads of knowledge with people over time but, did that really do anything for me or them? Hmm, maybe. If anything, it helped me to make sense of the trauma and suffering my brain went through for many years. I was able to logically explain just about anything and make it sound really good. Though, I never really acted on that logic because I was too busy explaining it and attaching to the story I was telling. To make matters worse, a logical use of the acquired knowleged anchored me into a belief that as long as I was ‘educated’ I would be successful in life.
I’d convinced myself that if I had a good enough reason for my pain that it would eventually go away. I believed that knowledge WAS my power.
There I go again, hiding.
Yep, my face behind a book and ‘learning more’ felt much safer than applying the knowledge I was sharing with others…aka taking my own advice.
After 20+ years of battling with chronic illness, obesity, depression, and the like, it became clear to me that it wasn’t really working out the way I thought it would…here’s why:
When I began studying Kabbalah, I remember hearing an instructor refer to the Adam and Eve characters in the bible as symbols- Adam in the mystical tradition translated to knowledge, Eve translating to wisdom. (I have yet to find this same explanation in another teaching so I found it quite intriguing) Regardless of whether or not it’s true, the concept had me looking at EVERYTHING differently.
Think about it just for mental expansion’s sake…
If Adam is knowledge, it’s raw, the first bit of ‘understanding’ and the root of our perceived knowing.
If Eve is wisdom, it comes only from a small fraction of knowledge, has been refined, and sees the world through more complex perspectives.
I decided to go on a hunt in the bible to see where this would change my interpretations of the teachings. I found a story that expressed how only men were allowed to speak in church while women were not to ask questions. For means of reference, if knowledge is constantly asking questions because it has yet to fully learn, wisdom is an inner knowing that observes and understands by experience.
Seriously, regardless of your “perceived” knowing of the bible, or what you have been taught about the literal translations, just think about how this different perspective can alter your perceptions of the variations between knowledge vs wisdom.
It was during that time that I realized, I was so stuck in storing facts that I was afraid of dissecting them, digesting them, and applying them to life. I built a life around hiding behind them, my false security blanket- hey, knowledge is power, right?
Actually, I was stuck in a lower level of limited consciousness, feeling validated by by regurgitation of stuff rather than living by example in knowingness, at a fundamental level, of HOW it all comes together.
I use to have long drawn out conversations with people…
contemplating life’s wonders and all the new things I had ‘learned’ while reading this week’s book only to find out that neither I, nor the person I’d spent hours conversing with, were actually USING any of these tools. Rather, we spouted them off to sound smart, and behind the scenes life for us both were sadly in peril.
The best description I have heard to describe wisdom is this:
The learning, unlearning, and relearning of information.
Powerful, right?
See, wisdom doesn’t come by reading, it comes by LIVING. We never fully learn something until we have BEEN through it. We have to grab a concept, run it through our current frame of reference, let it simmer and permeate in our consciousness, apply it, test it, and come out with our own conclusion in order to call it wisdom. Yet, even then we realize that we have SO much more to learn. The distillation of the facts reveals to us that we’d better hurry up and humble ourselves to the lessons or we’ll soon get wrapped back up in the identity of fact-validation once again.
With the mere accumulation of facts comes great rigidity, a sense of self that lacks true strength, character, and deep knowingness of one’s unique gifts. Knowledge, without application, provokes a search for facts that only validate a current system beliefs, attempting to prove a safe and comfortable conclusion. Knowledge must be used properly, as a tool, in order to reach wisdom but not to define oneself.
You are not the spoon, you use the spoon. Through trial and error you learn how the spoon really works. The spoon may have facets and designs and you may come to know how the spoon cam to be but in the end it is just a spoon. What you do with it and how you use it is up to you as is your relation to the usage of said spoon. THAT is wisdom.
The process of acquiring wisdom gives birth to free will…
allowing one to think for themself by BE-coming THROUGH the use of knowledge. With wisdom comes great power, a sense of self that is ever changing and ever expanding. It’s the end result of practice, discipline, and consistent shedding of old beliefs.
With wisdom, many great gurus come to know that they truly don’t ‘know’ anything. This humility creates a sense of grace, a deeper sense of curiosity, a willingness to never be attached to who one ‘thinks’ they are in this moment because wisdom need not prove its worth or value to anyone. No need to defend one’s point of view as wisdom is open to them all as the learning is a better lesson than stagnation of identity association.
Character speaks for itself, not the verbal dictation of factual knowledge.
I have dedicated my life to this journey. Am I wise? My clients may think so. As for me, I have SO much yet to learn, so many ‘facts’ to test and theories to experiment with. I strive for greatness but have yet to call myself wise. At the time in my life when I took pride in spouting off facts, I called myself wise.
Boy, was I stuck in ego!
With over 15 years now studying comparative religions, quantum theories, and the holistic correlations between eating, optimal health and spirituality, I realize that when I THINK I’ve learned it all, there is so much more to understand. It makes me a perpetual student, not of reading but of life itself.
When my physical body perishes, I hope to have lived a life that exemplifies my teachings and the lessons I have rightfully earned, and to know that everything I ‘learned’ was duly considered, dissected, and applied. I wish for nothing to go without application as I find the best life experiences are those that have been LIVED not just dreamt.
How do you define wisdom? Have you attached to and hidden behind knowledge before? Share with me in the comments below how you will apply something you ‘learned’ in a book that you have yet to apply in life.
