KNOWLEDGE VS KNOWING

If you think that knowledge and knowing are the same then you are wrong. you don’t know the difference between knowledge and knowing.

Knowledge and knowing are two different things.

Knowledge is that which we gather from outside.

Knowing arises from within.

Knowledge is a memory that is of the mind but knowing is existential, which is of the ‘being’.

Knowing is the very nature of this existence; it is the core of human existence. It arises when you are in touch with your ‘being’.

“Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life.” ~ Sandra Carey

First, we understand what knowledge represents.

KNOWLEDGE

Knowledge is finite. It is the facts of life: a butterfly has two wings; Earth is round; the sky is blue. Knowledge has defined edges, beginnings, and endings, a specific this is it; it is information the mind grasps in completeness… until it doesn’t; for our understanding of things evolves. One day we live in a geocentric solar system, and then the next day it is the sun, not the Earth, the planets revolve around. One day our knowledge informs us that we must spank children. The next day this is considered cruel. Like a monkey, we swing from one narrow vine of knowledge to the next, holding on until we have the desire or courage to release our familiar grip and reach a new understanding.

knowledge is thought up from the external world. A fluffy flying creature is what we collectively call a “bird”; a thin green substance of water and lignin rising from the ground we arbitrarily label “grass”; 2 + 2 = 4 because “4” is what we are told; it’s what we read in books and see on the TV.

Knowledge is accumulated from the outside in, and we can control how much and what kind enters our mind. Over time the database that is our mind is increasingly filled with information, the arbitrary “facts of life”.

“Knowledge by itself is dry. But knowledge is watered by contemplation, even by simple reflection, and becomes a living seed that eventually flowers and bears surprisingly rich fruit.” ~ Wald Amberstone

Knowledge is only useful to the degree that knowing guides it. Disconnected from the human heart and inner wisdom, knowledge is simply dry head-based myopic information that further separates humans from their hearts, and from the hearts of others. Knowledge, while useful, alone cannot properly serve. Without knowing captaining the ship of humanity, we will run into fiercer and fiercer storms of industrial waste, corporate greed, stress, and illness, and perhaps even be forced to the bottom of the sea. We will continue letting fear and hatred manage our growing database of knowledge.

Now, we see what knowing means,

KNOWING

While knowledge is definite, knowing is fluid, an ing. It is here and there and everywhere all at once, rather than in the confines of our limited personal mind. Like the wind, it blows through us unexpectedly and without us having any clear sense of its source, its cause. A sudden gale of insight, gust of creativity, blast of concern that in no way can be made sense of by the facts of life. Mysteriously, this inexhaustible universal knowing mind exhales itself through us and is then gone, leaving perhaps only a chill, a resonance, a trace, a reminder of its presence.

Knowing, is like wind, cannot in any way be gathered, controlled, or held. It cannot be targeted or gotten, for, unlike knowledge, it is not quantitative; it does not derive from finite objectivity, numbers, and details. Rather, like the fluid and subjective experiences of imagination, dreaming, and wonder, knowing has its roots in the immeasurable, qualitative, and mysterious realms within. Spontaneously, it finds us from the depths of uncertainty, often when we are relaxed and open when we make room for it with our breath, and often without forewarning. Sometimes to our delight, and often to our dismay.

“Listen to your heart. Even though it’s on the left side, it’s always right.”

In our heart quietly burns courage and trust. A faint knowing knows what knowledge has no way of knowing. Beyond our thinking mind and in our cells and bones we feel our inner mandate to dream and live boldly, a mandate our knowing tends to that cares less about the details of the temporal world and more about adventuring into the mystery of our soul and soul’s path. Intuitively we sense that our knowledge-driven family and friends cannot, for now, resonate; they can’t feel that while knowledge may help us build our wings, only knowing tells us where and how to fly, and it is flying that we most long for, not building.

And so we continue onwards trusting this knowing, moving forward with irrational optimism that dumfounds our seasoned knowledge and those well-intentioned family and friends who witness our incomprehensible journey. And with each step we take our knowing only grows stronger, leading us further into our heart, into the mystery.

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature.” ~ Helen Keller

KNOWLEDGE AND KNOWING

That’s why knowing is subjective and arises in rare ones; it is opposed to knowledge, which is objective and can easily be acquired by one and all, like any other object, using education, reading, and listening. Therefore, a Buddha and Swami Vivekananda are far more valuable to humanity than billions of others with acquired knowledge. The mere presence of a Buddha and Swami Vivekananda is enough to dispel ignorance, which a person with knowledge from all the books on the planet, cannot.

Knowing, being the emissary of the heart, is meant to put knowledge to good use, sprinkling it with wisdom and loving nudges, ensuring that mathematics, biology, physics, engineering, government, technology, and all other fields of human information carry the fragrance of the unseen. Only then, when the head serves the heart, and knowledge puts its faith in the unquantifiable, mercurial nature of the soul, does our planet have a chance.

TEACH EVERYONE KNOWLEDGE AND KNOWING

In particular, this interplay between knowledge and knowing must now be considered within our education systems. How much do we teach knowledge versus draw out knowing? Prioritizing the former entrenches children into identification with their thinking mind and migrates them away from the feeling body. Yet, by being genuinely curious about their inner knowing, children are encouraged to stay connected to and express the heart/body wisdom they are so naturally settled into when born.

We need children growing up trusting their inner authority rather than blindly granting power to external authorities of information. We need empowered teens and adults with a strong internal locus of control willing to imagine and create new life-giving products and systems, rather than having a habitual external locus of control that weakens them and their creativity over time, and causes anxiety and depression.

“Are we forming children who are only capable of learning what is known, or should we try to develop creative and innovative minds?” ~ Jean Piaget

The creativity and innovation the world needs comes from the dynamic sparks of inner knowing first and foremost, not knowledge; from the mysterious and infinitely imaginative spaces that underlie and give rise to all the wildly beautiful natural forms of the cosmos. We must therefore do everything in our power to draw out the rich resources native to each child that wish to fly free from their bursting heart.

The etymology of education comes from the Latin “educere”, meaning to “draw out”.

Teaching knowledge is not the problem. Not drawing out the inherent wisdom, imagination, purpose, and gifts that arise naturally from the heart is. As we learn to draw out knowing from children we will naturally refine what is necessary knowledge to learn and how to teach it. The wisdom of our knowing will guide us. Until then, knowledge will be made master and children will be expected to master knowledge, the quantifiable, at the cost of their immeasurable spirit.

“It’s better to know how to learn than to know.” ~ Dr. Seuss

We can only encourage children to trust and express their knowing to the degree that we trust and express our own. The unconscious limits we have placed on ourselves will undoubtedly leak out onto our children at school and home. Our limits become theirs; our fears define the edges of what is possible for them.

KNOWLEDGE AND KNOWING ACCORDING TO THE BHAGAVAD GITA

Knowledge is external, something to be acquired.

Knowing is internal, something to be experienced.

Knowledge may be transformed into knowing.

Knowing can be used to create knowledge.

Knowledge may educate.

Knowing can inspire.

Knowledge is finite.

Knowing is infinite.

Prof Krishna

CONCLUSION

Knowledge binds you whereas knowing liberates you. Knowledge is of no value when it comes to seeking. Rather, it’s a hindrance because knowledge gives you a false sense of knowing. For example, the knowledge that ‘I’m a soul’ is binding, because it’s just a belief, but the realization that ‘I’m as oul(all)’ is liberating. Knowledge is bondage and knowing is freedom.

Spirituality is a journey from knowledge to knowing.