~Are You Knowledgeable Or Are You Wise? ~

Are You Knowledgeable Or Are You Wise? ........


A knowledgeable man and a Wise man, what is the difference between the both? There is many variations to how it could be answered; some can answer it with just one simple sentence while some could actually go on with paragraphs and paragraphs for it.

What would be the correct answer to this question then? That depends on what kind of a person you are, whether you are the knowledgeable or the wise type.

I am definitely not here to argue about the meaning of the two words. Rather, the purpose is to allow you a moment to ponder and think, to bring to your senses the mistakes that you might have unknowingly made and for you to next correct them.

Since young, we have been repeatedly taught to be honest and that it is wrong of us to lie. But now, if you were given a choice between telling a white lie to save someone's life and telling the truth to end his life, which will you choose? And let just take it that he made a mistake but then he has done no harm to in anyway hurt anyone physically. Given such a scenario, I am sure you would't be so cruel to actually indirect murder him? We were taught to be also kind and forgiving, aren't we?

So here, what would be the rationale behind this decision of yours? Why would you actually want to give him this chance? The reason? Well, that is because there is kindness in you; you understand the essence of what true kindness is. You see, what that was taught to you is what we would call knowledge, theories that made beautiful sense; theories that should work in the ideal case. But in actual life, are things going to be that ideal all the times? Definitely not always possible! And here is where you need to be wise, to have the wisdom to be able to judge properly what is true or right. And yes! You did very well. In the given example, you are able to judge wisely for yourself between honesty and kindness.

Another example, let us take for instance medication and herbalism. Now, if we were to simply base our approach on pure knowledge, there are several long past records from the ancient times that document the use of healing agents for the recovery of various illnesses. Yes, these records would provide us with good references but then, are we going to just simply base on them and apply the immediate and complete use of them? No! Rather, we have to still study them carefully and understand their true effect and influence before actually applying them. And even when using them, we have to keep monitoring their progressive effect and influence on the individuals; the effect may not be the same for every one and sometimes instead of curing, an over dosage can inversely cause harm. So here, we have to be wise to remain rational in our actions. Yes, it may hurt us a lot to see our loved ones in pain but still, we can't get emotional and react impulsively and feed them with extra dosage or worse, unclear medicine that might threaten their life.


In short, we can put it this way, knowledge is knowing the steps and processes but wisdom is understanding them to correctly apply them in accordance to the situations that arise. But to be saying, many have been too blinded by knowledge to respond wisely especially with the younger generations of Today where most are of at least a university graduate. You see, knowledge can give you a very misleading idea that you are the expert who knows everything but in reality, do you really understand? Just picture a psychologist who has never been in love advising you on how to handle your marriage, do you think he could totally understand the very problem? Your mum though not as highly educated but who has the experience may provide you with just better advice.

So back to our life, don't look down on yourself just because you possess poor paper qualification. Real wisdom is what that cannot be taught to you from school. Rather, it can only be manifested through your own understanding and realization of life. So similarly, don't be too prideful of yourself if you were to possess excellent paper qualification. You have to understand that what you have is only the knowledge; beautiful theories of others pass on to you. But how to be applying them into your own life, that is for you to comprehend and figure out still. At the end of the day, it is whether are you willing to explore and seek the further understanding of life.

Now, you don't need others to plan for you what you want in life. What is it that you want for yourself, that is for you to decide yourself. Well, if you can't even decide this for yourself, what is the point even if you were to be the most knowledgeable man on earth? Let knowledge be a tool to help you but not an obstacle to bring you down.


(Jon Sim - http://www.articlealley.com)