Knowledge,Wisdom and Beyond

Preamble: I was prompted to write about it as its been bothering me for a while. How we, as parents, assume that our primary role to educate our kids to get them into the best school and/or college. And as the commercialisation of education is rampant these days, many times, parents evaluate a school by the fees, as the fees is directly related to the ‘returns’ the kid will get.

Parents are willing to spends thousands (play-schools, tuitions), lakhs (schools) and crores (college), but many times, they don’t realise the real wisdom is what the kid is going to learn at work, in his business, by interfacing and networking with seniors, doing social service, etc. And even the best institutes cannot prepare them for hardships of life.

To face those hardships, inculcating values, showing them ways to seek wisdom, etc. will come through one on one interaction with them, telling them stories, reading books, etc. In today’s world, where digital technology and screens are further making the kids go inwards, the importance of these initiatives by parents is all the more important.

Definitions:

Knowledge: What we know.

Wisdom: What we don’t know.

Donald Rumsfeld: Defined the world in terms of Known knowns, known unknowns, Unknown knowns, and Unknown unknowns.

Ignorance: Present knowledge not being enough to recognise what wisdom to seek.

Patience: Giving oneself time to decipher what wisdom is needed and from where, rather making a frantic rush for acquiring the same.

Ego: State of mind when one perceives his/her level of knowledge and gives the fake sense of belief that there is no Wisdom left to be acquired.

Friendship: One’s knowledge translates to others wisdom seamlessly, and vice versa.

Jealousy: When u perceive other’s knowledge to be lot more than yours and you do not see the bridge that can help for knowledge transfer.

Laziness: When one is under the fake belief that Wisdom has legs and will walk to you, rather than one having to make effort to get the same.

Honesty: To acknowledge what we don’t know and to demonstrate the same in our behaviour.

Intelligence: To be able to distinguish what is really ‘wisdom’ and separate that from ‘noise’

Smartness: To be able to gauge the right source, right cost, time and effort one needs to gain wisdom, so one makes optimum use of one’s time and energy.

Flexibility: Willingness to chart a different course, face hardships, exercise patience and wait for the right source of wisdom to be found and tapped into.

Love and Compassion: When your mind is beyond the conflict zone of knowledge and wisdom. For you, the only angle to see everything and everyone is with love.

Enlightenment: This is the ultimate state. Where not only are you beyond the conflict zone of knowledge and wisdom. You are able to generate wisdom on the fly. You yourself might not have thought of wisdom that you are able to share with other people. You are at peace with the world and yourself.