The Pursuit of Knowledge through Experience
How acquiring knowledge through direct experience is the surest path toward enlightenment
I was fortunate to come of age at a time along the digital / analog divide. Like me, there’s a whole generation of people who have taken the best qualities of both. One of the most important things I’ve learned, particularly from the analog side, is to acquire knowledge through direct experience, by doing of things myself.
When I was a kid, it took me a few hours of hard work to master riding a bike. But once I did, it fundamentally changed my world.
No longer was I one of those saps who was confined to his neighborhood. Not me. I had a two-wheeled free pass to explore the world, to explore it in a thorough and intimate way.
On summer days, I’d strike out from home at the first chirp of the bird and be gone for hours. I’d ride my bike miles from my house, crossing ravines, traffic-laden streets, and going into places I had only heard tell from the other kids at school. Each day I was out on my bike, I was pushing the limits of my comfort zone.
Whatever happened out there, I had to figure it out. I didn’t always have the answers, but I had what the adults called foolish childhood faith I could figure it out. If I fell off my bike, popped a tire, or worse yet, someone tried to steal my bike from me (actually happened), I had to figure it out.
This reality forced me to be resourceful and make decisions that would lead to the best possible outcomes in any given situation. I got hurt, I fell down, I was chased out of neighborhoods by kids who didn’t want me there.
As I got a little older, my backup plan evolved. I carried a few quarters in my pocket in case I needed to call home. In the days before cell phones when we still believed we were a village, even in the worst case scenario, you could still pop into a store and ask to use a phone. As long as you weren’t calling collect, most clerks were happy to let you do it.
But even then, there was this irrevocable sense of freedom and adventure and at the same time a sense of responsibility. Every time I had a new adventure, met another stranger, or encountered another unknown situation, my knowledge of the world grew in proportion to the experience. It was precisely the willingness to learn through experience that was, perhaps, one of the most influential and important lessons about life: live and learn.
Albert Einstein reputedly said, “The only source of knowledge is experience.” A diversity of direct experiences form an invaluable education that adds depth and intrigue to our character.
There are four reasons direct experience is critical to me and is a cornerstone of knowledge acquisition in my life.
Direct experience is the fastest way to acquire first-hand knowledge.
Direct experience is the actual doing of something, whether that’s the performance of a task, the interacting within an environment or engaging with people, it’s real-world when it’s done without an intervening medium, such as your phone. It means that you’re not reading about doing something, listening to a podcast, or watching a video. You are engaged in the moment, sensually immersed and fully invested in whatever is happening around you. When all of you is present in that moment, you fully ingest what’s happening and acquire first-hand knowledge.
First-hand knowledge provides you with a broader understanding of the world and your place in it.
Our brains are constantly processing information that comes in through our senses. That information is provided a narrative frame for understanding what’s happening and why it matters to us. In short, the brain produces some sort of meaning that influences us to react to whatever is happening in our environment. Through this process of acquiring first-hand knowledge and making meaning, we can better understand our world.
Case in point, I had an image of what it meant to live in poverty and be immigrant in this country, but that changed on one winter’s eve when I found myself in the home of a student who attended my wife’s school.
The experience began just turning into the trailer park. It’s funny, but my aunt had lived in a trailer park for years, and it wasn’t a bad place at all. People took care of what they had and displayed a certain pride about what they had. But I still carried the cultural-driven narrative of what it meant to live in a trailer.
On this winter’s night, though, we were turning into one of the most notorious trailer parks in the city. It had quite the reputation for housing many of the city’s worst criminals. On this night, the streets were quiet.
We found their home and went to the door to drop off a horde of presents. The family of five answered the door together. All the children and the adults were well dressed, three generations living together under one small roof. The grandmother spoke no English, the parents broken, so their son, the reason for our visit, translated for us.
They welcomed us in to their home. It was small, but it was neat, well organized, and clean. In my head, I had expected something far worse, something like a broken down home, dirty, filled with cockroaches. What I found was a place that was tight, yes, but was bright, cheery, warm and homy.
We brought them theChristmas gifts and we sat and chatted for a while. They told us how grateful they were for what we were providing them. They told us how they work so hard for what they have, but that they’re trying to give their children a better life. They thanked my wife personally for all that she did as a teacher.
They told their story of coming to America to escape the challenges of Mexico, only to find new challenges in the States. It wasn’t all the land of plenty, but they were convinced they were far better off than they would have been had they remained in Mexico. As we chatted, I could feel the nearly imperceptible shift of something inside me, something that was only possible by immersing myself in their space and listening to their story.
First-hand knowledge is foundational for effective perspective-taking, the ability to see something from another’s point of view, which helps you see connections you previously couldn’t.
This is something that is sorely missing today. No one wants to take another’s perspective. We would rather fight to be “right” than take the time to get to know our opponent and understand their point of view. It’s okay to respectfully disagree in the end, but you should never mistreat someone just to be right.
When you can see an issue from your opponent’s point of view, you gain a deeper respect for them, because you truly understand what they’re thinking and why they’re thinking it. This is akin to walking a mile in someone else’s shoes, and results from the one fundamental truth of being human: we are all different and the same.
As human beings, we often embrace this truth only when it is convenient. Though we’re all made of the same universal stuff, the combinations of that stuff are extremely variegated, making us all the same and unique at the same time. This is a hallmark of our diversity as a species and a prerequisite for creativity and survival.
Though we don’t always agree, we should all get along with one another and respect differing opinions instead of attacking individuals for having a contradictory view. Embracing others, even if you don’t agree with them, is the way to reach a resolution to some of our deeper problems and get ourselves to an enlightened state.
Perspective-taking reshapes your worldview and moves us closer to enlightenment.
When I say enlightenment, you probably think of a Buddhist monk meditating cross-legged atop a mountain while a stream quietly babbles by. I like that image because it is representative of that state of mind which I believe we’re all trying to achieve: a sense of oneness with the universe.
When our outer actions are manifested by our inner essence, then we have achieved a state of equanimity, one in which we exist as both the world and in the world. I believe it’s possible to get there through taking action that aligns with our inner essence. Part of this requires us to be able to see the world from a diverse set of points of view. If we can accomplish that, then we can begin to be a great light in the world without substantial effort.
So, the path to enlightenment begins with direct experience of the world, getting to know as much as possible about it through actions that align with our inner essence. What makes direct experience so powerful is that, if we allow it to, it becomes the seeds of wisdom.
Wisdom is the combination of experience and knowledge colored by emotion. It’s the product of seeing the world through different perspectives and developing a better understanding of who you are and your place. It’s something we can share with others as a way to get them to think about themselves and their personal experiences.
Wisdom does not simply arrive as if dispatched from the heavens. Like most things in our lives, we have to live well (with positive intention) and reflect to acquire it. But if we’re thoughtful about the types of experiences we have, we can acquire a good bit of wisdom that we can then share with others. This great gift of knowledge is only available to us if we are willing to work for it.
