Knowledge Vs Experience

Viswamitra · Sep 22, 2014

Does education gives me better experiences or my experiences in life refine my education? It is definitely not a new question that I have asked but existed for several generations. In my life, I have heard from many elders that their life experiences were invaluable and what I was learning from the school were limited by the teachers ability, my skill in digesting the teachings limited by my brain power and lack of application of such knowledge in my day to day life.

There is a proverb in Tamil “Ettu Chorakkai Karikku udavadhu” meaning the education alone will not help us develop in our life. Several years back, I had an opportunity to hear an interesting conversation between my noble-hearted wife and righteous son. My son was arguing with my wife, “Amma, why do you have to always tell me what is right and wrong even before I do anything? Why don’t I learn from doing and experiencing an action? My nature is to learn out of my experiences”. My wife took a deep breath and answered, “I am learning about your nature as much as you are. Unfortunately, you did not come with a user manual”.

My education told me to add my two cents worth to this conversation whereas my experience told me not to. Besides my judgment on situation like that would end up displeasing my kind-hearted wife or my right thinking son, I truly did not have an answer to that question which made me contemplate on this question for a prolonged period of time. Let me discuss my confusion and conclusion in the next few paragraphs.

If I am a divine being myself just experiencing human body, I am the embodiment of knowledge. If I am a human being experiencing divinity occasionally at the Will of the Universal Absolute, my experiences give me knowledge and I am the knower separating myself from what is being known. I am performing the act of knowing something that is different than me. What is the truth?

Truth is I am a divine being and the core of my being is embodiment of knowledge. But that knowledge is covered by consequences of my past actions disallowing me from accessing this knowledge. Every product in the world reaches its purest form only through refinement and the human life is no different. It is all about the journey inside of me to get to my purest form and discovering this purest form had to happen both through knowledge and experience. While knowledge helps me to experience my core and purest form, experiences help me to eliminate the impurity in me. Both are essential to achieve my goal.

Every one of our experiences is unique and different that is customized for the best user experience but our goal is one and the same. First level of knowledge makes me dedicate that I belong to You which is a stage of concentration. Second level of knowledge makes me feel that You are mine which is a stage of contemplation. The last stage of knowledge makes me realize that You and I are one which is a stage of meditation. When I realize that there is nothing for me to know, I reach the stage of samadihi or Self-realization. There is a reason for the Perfectionist to give me dualism and forgetfulness in my life so that I don’t dwell on my past actions. He gives me knowledge for me to pave the path for my future and gives me experiences for me to live in the present moment and endure the consequences of my past action.

Both knowledge and experiences are important for me to realize my Being and how can I choose between them? If I know there is nothing for me to know further and different forms are all one, my knowledge is complete. Similarly, if I have no use for experiences, it means, I have reached my goal.

GoogleGlass · Sep 22, 2014

A nice thought flow on the subject by the subject expert V'

Knowledge and experience is limited to ones' own learning capabilities and experiences undergone, with which a self defined purity form is conceived and attempted to obtain that.

Is that the best purity form ever? What is the absolute purity form? Do we need to benchmark them so that we realize where we stand? Or be happy with what we have achieved.

It would be good if we restrict ourselves to an extent, so that we can lead the family life. If delved beyond that probably have to go for a hike to the Himalayas.

Nice one V' - sorry if I have contradicted in a way, you are to be blamed, you made me read yours and compelled me to respond.

parineetha · Sep 22, 2014

what was said to be right becomes right to me, what was said to be wrong becomes wrong to me – it comes from the part of knowledge that was imparted/inculcated in me.

What was said to be right, may not be so-right or may not be so-wrong to me
And what was told to be wrong, may not be so-wrong or may not be so-right to me – It comes only through tests, trials and tribulations.
Life’s experiences gives the so-called profound wisdom which in-turn gives the wings to knowledge to liberate oneself. There comes the Virtue of prudence to see what is right and wrong, to hear the conscious say what is right and wrong. And it’s all a part of long learning curve.
This is just my :my2cents from what I assimilate and understand from the experiences that I've seen so far...a very little though.
As usual a very thought provoking post Viswa Sir.

kishoreg · Sep 22, 2014

Knowledge and experience both are two important aspects choosing one among such is a difficult project, knowledge enlightens us with wisdom to implement tasks in material life which adds valuable experience, but there are a few people who only possess experience through which, they acquire knowledge and became successful.Overall it all depends on the individual, a good post :thumbsup Viswa sir..

Balajee · Sep 22, 2014

This reminds me of a story about Socretes. Someeone went to Oracle at Delphi to find out who was the wisest man in Athens. The oracle replied "Socretes". Puzzled why a semi-skilled labourer .like Socretes (He was a stone cutter) had been declared the wisest man in their city the Athenians asked Socretes himslef. "I am the wisest man in Athens because I know that I know nothing" replied the sage.Knowing the limits of knowledge is the height of wisdom. That can be acquired only when your knowledge is tested in the school of life, through experience. As usual a thinking man's blog.

hrastro · Sep 22, 2014

Dear Viswa, I enjoyed your post !! Your son is very wise

When our PM modiji was put this very question by one of the students, he replied
"We learn from experience, but what we learn depends on the knowledge we have gained through education.
If your pocket is picked, by the experience you may learn that you have to be more careful. You may also learn that there is new way of earning money in an easy and dishonest way and go ahead and become a thief yourself. "

So - what I think is - the learning you take from a particular experience - depends on your education, culture, the collective knowledge, the wisdom that you already have and your sanskaaras (karmas) as well as your good company or a good guru and your general attitude to life..

So, it is neither "education gives me better experiences" nor "my experiences in life refine my education" but "education+experience work together to = wisdom + knowledge + next actions"

Viswamitra · Sep 22, 2014

Dear GG,

Thank you for your first response. Far from it, I mean, me being the subject expert. The responses I get for my posts educates me more than what I already know.

You have every right to contradict me. I am glad that my post made you read and respond. I am ready to take any blame even if one more IL is going to read my post.

Absolute purity comes when we learn that we are all one and the same. The contentment helps us only to bring our desires on a downward spiral and once we reach a stage of no desire, the contentment is no longer needed. We will understand that there is nothing for us to seek and we become ever happy. Until then, we need to practice to be happy with what we have.

There is nothing wrong in leading a family life. In fact, most seers have taught their disciples to go and live a family life and learn out of that experience. That is a test for them to see whether they are able to have hands in the society and head in the forest. We don't have to go to Himalayas to lead a spiritual life. In fact, it is better to be in the family life and lead an ideal and meaningful life than sit in a forest and think about the family life.

Viswa

Viswamitra · Sep 22, 2014

Dear Neetu,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and for visiting this post.

The scriptures told us the art of right living in subtle form. The experiences are stacked up for us to remove the huddles in our ability to live, trials, and tribulations included. We need some basic knowledge to learn out of our experience and we need experiences to further our knowledge. They are closely connected with each other.

One need not know from experience steeling would put him/her in jail and the knowledge is good enough. However, no matter how much a person learns about swimming through books, he or she needs to get on a swimming pool to experience and learn.

Viswa

Viswamitra · Sep 22, 2014

Dear Kishore,

You are absolutely right. Both knowledge and experience are important for shaping our life. While knowledge provides the ability to assimilate the lessons from experiences, the experiences in life helps us furthering our knowledge. We can't totally disregard experiences nor the knowledge. We come into existence to seek knowledge for salvation and the experiences are in my opinion, customized to learn from them.

Viswa

Viswamitra · Sep 22, 2014

Dear Balajee,

What a remarkable response from you making me feel that this one response has achieved the purpose of this post. Knowing what we know is nothing is profound wisdom and one can achieve that from what life teaches us. I feel our experiences not only help us further our knowledge but also makes us become humble.

Viswa