Knowledge Vs Wisdom: The Two Different Poles Of Life





Imagine the two unique people from with distinct culture, learning the same thing in their own certain ways. To this condition, we take land for our example. The first person is the university teacher, who is the land specialist, and the second person is the old farmer.





The teacher gained the world-wide knowledge, conquered all the challenges which he had faced. Gained a good reputation from the universities. On the other hand, the farmer had a basic knowledge of agriculture which is a big accomplishment in his village. Whatever the knowledge he had come from his father, just had taken over from his father before him.





Over a long period of time, these two men have studied the same topic from a different vision and slightly different purpose. The teacher knows all the conditions of the land, but he spends very less time on actually land, whereas the farmer spends most of his time on land but he knew a bit about the conditions.





As we know the abilities of these men, a thoughtful question arrives that which of these men have the in-depth knowledge of how land functions? – the teacher or the farmer?





It’s a difficult question and also a tricky one. If we initially questioned ourselves to have a clear vision of “in-depth knowledge,” well, it’s a good step. The circumstances play a major part here, and the different format of question is asked in philosophy or in psychology or in the form of logic, many of us will select for one side and have a hard decision to make about the other two conditions.





At this stage, this question is really related to knowledge: How to achieve knowledge about this universe? Philosophy says it will come from our thoughts whereas secondary experience says that it comes from the senses.





It’s better to have a different opinion. The better way to look at this condition is through knowledge and wisdom rather than arguably discuss it with philosophy and secondary experience. In many situations, thought itself is a sense, which is more powerful. The initial point of thought is consciousness and from then it is seen in the capabilities in the human body such as sound, touch, smell, sight, taste and obviously thoughts.





It is true that humans don’t expect all the consciousness has to offer. As we see in the animal kingdom, certain animals have some special abilities. Let’s take bats, for example, they can avoid collisions at night in their range of consciousness that humans can’t do. Similarly, sharks smell blood from miles in their range of consciousness that humans can’t. That doesn’t mean that human doesn’t have these abilities. It is that humans have not evolved physically that have the special sense the experience it. Theoretically, if the consciousness is a deep dark area, then every bit of sense will brighten the uncover reality.

What makes humans standing out from the animal kingdom is its unique ability of complex thinking, which he creates knowledge. So, what is knowledge? As per our condition, knowledge is the ability to stretch beyond a light beam to the vast field of consciousness. The reach of our other five senses are limited, but the ability of our sixth sense, our thoughts, have the capacity to measure language and mathematics, which will have the ability to express the future. In simple language, it allows us to creates additional senses.





As we see, thought and knowledge are two different abilities in actual life. By using the correct thought and correct knowledge, we overcome the difficulty in real life quite well. The vision and insights from the five senses allow us to experience reality.





In Buddhism, people who practice a higher level of meditation and has to refine their senses are said to achieve a higher level of wisdom because they have experience true reality. In this way, we can analyze that the senses allow us to develop knowledge.





So if we go back to our teacher and farmer, we can say that the teacher has the knowledge about the land but the farmer is wise enough to act in peace with the land. This condition is important to know that the one, who is referring to thoughts and the other one is referring to his five senses to understand the things well enough.





If the teacher suddenly went on land and started farming by using only his knowledge and with no experience, he will have a really hard time out there as he doesn’t know how the farming really works. As the farmer will know the condition of the land and knows how to cultivate the land properly but he will not able to tell us why this will make sense.





Wisdom tells you that you have the capacity to create knowledge, which is important, but that the same time, it is not that important because the reality is totally based upon practicality which is one step beyond theory. To have knowledge and then act according to create a positive result is a different game.





When the farmer is out on land, he embraces his basic skills, without any abstractions or a thought. He experiences physical vibrations on his body and then his brain reacts to those vibrations related to his experience, which he has developed through his mistakes and lessons he has learned and tell him what to do without giving a second thought. There is no chance to copy his efforts of this process without actually living the life he had lived in relation to the land. There is no way that knowledge or an IQ test will save him to walk the actual path of practicality.





The teacher may do some important work on the land. He might bring some new invention and possibilities to the field of agriculture will push it towards a bright future. But this field is very different from the field of actually lived the reality.





The idea behind wisdom and knowledge is what suits us best on the current condition. There is no way of arguing which one is better as it is based upon people. People are very complex and tangled, so like the world we live in. Many things can be right at the same time depending upon the context. The fact is never thing positive about the IQ or now IQ or rationalism or empiricism, but its an actual condition on what works the best.