Knowledge isn't Wisdom
J KRISHNAMURTI
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Thought is the response of memory that has been stored through knowledge; knowledge is gathered through experience. That is, experience, knowledge, memory stored in the brain, then thought, then action.This is our pattern of living, and the whole process is based on this movement. Man has done this for the last million years. He has been caught in the cycle, which is the movement of thought. And within this area, he has choice.He can go from one corner to the other and say , “This is my choice, this is my movement of freedom“ -but it is always within the limited field of the known. And knowledge is always accompanied by ignorance because there is no complete knowledge about anything.
In our search for knowledge, in our acquisitive desires, we are losing love, we are blunting the feeling for beauty , the sensitivity to cruelty; we are becoming more and more specialised and less and less integrated. Wisdom cannot be replaced by knowledge. Knowledge is necessary , science has its place; but if the mind and heart are suffocated by knowledge, and if the cause of suffering is explained away , life becomes vain and meaningless.
Information, the knowledge of facts, though ever increasing, is by its very nature limited. Wisdom is infinite, it includes knowledge and the way of action; but we take hold of a branch and think it is the whole tree. Through the knowledge of the part, we can never realise the joy of the whole. Intellect can never lead to the whole, for, it is only a segment, a part.
In our search for knowledge, in our acquisitive desires, we are losing love, we are blunting the feeling for beauty , the sensitivity to cruelty; we are becoming more and more specialised and less and less integrated. Wisdom cannot be replaced by knowledge. Knowledge is necessary , science has its place; but if the mind and heart are suffocated by knowledge, and if the cause of suffering is explained away , life becomes vain and meaningless.
Information, the knowledge of facts, though ever increasing, is by its very nature limited. Wisdom is infinite, it includes knowledge and the way of action; but we take hold of a branch and think it is the whole tree. Through the knowledge of the part, we can never realise the joy of the whole. Intellect can never lead to the whole, for, it is only a segment, a part.
