Creative Guidance-IASbaba, Inspirational & Educative Articles
Information is not knowledge:
Information should be acquired and used only when a particular situation demands it. You should never get attached to the information that you have acquired. When you cling to the idea that you need to acquire more information in order to understand life better, you will always remain uncertain, and you will become more isolated from life.
You will be right if you say that your knowledge is stopping you from enjoying life, and it is blocking your pure perception of life. But, it is not your knowledge that is stopping you, it is information.
Right from your childhood, you have been gaining both knowledge and information. So, let’s try to understand the difference between these two. If I were to ask you certain details about your life – “Where were you born? Who are your parents? What are your friends’ names? What did you learn in your science class?” – You would answer with information. You would tell me names, places, dates or other details.
You have saved all this information in your memory and you simply recollect and reproduce it. This is how you typically deal with information. Knowledge however, is an altogether different matter. Knowledge is a consolidation of your entire life’s experiences. Whether you can recollect it or not is not important. Since your knowledge is a distilled wisdom of your experiences of life, and since it has become a part of you, you can respond appropriately to different situations by using this knowledge.
Notice how it is impossible for you to respond to your present day situations of life in the same way you responded to them during your childhood. Experientially, through the process of living, you have gained something much more important than information. That something more is what you are seeking when you are trying to learn more about yourself. That something more can never burden or block your perception of life. That something more is true experiential wisdom or knowledge.
“This article is a part of the creative endeavor of Nirvana Foundation and IASBABA.”
