Monday, January 19, 2015

A Wise Mind

Wisdom is wider and intelligence is narrow. Knowledge can be out-of-date; wisdom is timeless.

There is known known, known unknown and unknown unknown. To know what we don’t know is knowledge. We become intelligent / informative by knowing what we don’t know, and then we capture insight from the static knowledge and apply it to varying disciplines; ultimately the knowledge and insight can be abstracted into human wisdom which can be shared broadly and timelessly, also makes one humble enough to admit known unknown and unknown unknown. So a wise mind is not full, but free; not about cleverness, but about humbleness; not about system or boxes, but about out-of-box; not about informativeness, but about openness…..


Wisdom is the full learning cycle: learning, unlearning and relearning. If knowledge is gained from learning, insight is captured from re-learning, then wisdom is a full set of learning, unlearning and relearning. Wisdom mainly consists of having experience and yet knowing when to discard that experience, when you come across new knowledge - new frontiers to existing knowledge. Plus an open mind -wisdom is a function of knowing what you don't know and keeps curiosity to know more.


Wisdom is about independent thinking and creativity; putting aside all the trained thoughts, systems, and boxes --- let the open possibility come connect, naturally. Mastering what instincts are, how they function and how they interact with human intellect and jointly command everything we do would enable one to consciously manage this subconscious mental trend, defuse this constant and subtle inner conflict to free their intelligence from the tight grip of their instincts and allow their intelligence to become fully functional and fruitful, and transcendent into wisdom.


Wisdom and humility go hand in hand. The more you know, the more you know you don’t know and admit unknown unknown. You become wise when you are humble enough to be aware of and admit what you don't know and share what you know. Wisdom= f(Applying what we think we know, Experience, Learning and unlearning, Sharing Knowledge and Experience). Wisdom is learning what you don't know and then sharing what you have learned. This is acquired over a period of time as you gain experience. Know what you must know, know it well and share your experience with your associates, and always learn from others with an open mind and humble attitude.


Wisdom is about what or how to say, and when not to say. Wisdom would necessarily be concerned with knowing what to say, when to say, how to say, whom to say, where to say..as well as knowing what not to say, when not to say, how not to say, whom not to say, where not to say... any lapse in any of these would show lack of wisdom.... knowing what you do not know is a large part of wisdom, and far too often lacking in people. One is always considered wiser in knowing what not to say even when you know it depending on when, where, whom, why etc…


Wisdom is wider and intelligence is narrow. Knowledge tends to be linear, but wisdom in multidimensional. There is a hidden and growing imbalance in the human mind that results from the contrasting natures of the progressing intellect and stagnant instincts. More often, learning knowledge is focused on one track, knowing more and more about less and less; but wisdom is multidimensional, open and circular. Wisdom is a full awareness of the situation and applying it right. Wisdom is something gained through experience, people around, self-seeking, environment etc. Intelligence has to do with the ability to learn and retain knowledge, wisdom has to do with the ability to apply what has been learned. Wisdom overtakes intelligence.


Knowledge pertains to knowing and to intelligence while wisdom has to do with the soundness of judgment. Many people do wrong things, not because of ignorance, but because of poor judgment. It is imperative to identify what causes manifestly intelligent people so frequently make such poor decisions. Wisdom is to be understood within this context, wisdom is the ability to learn from every experience, to be able to gather small bits of information from all sources, and apply that to current or future challenges.


The ultimate aim of learning knowledge is to gain wisdom. Every bit of knowledge we acquire shall either increase our confidence or better our judgment or then do both. We have a limited bandwidth and hence choose to pursue knowledge that will benefit us in some way - an eminently logical choice. However, being knowledgeable shouldn’t become an obstacle to stop you from continuous learning, unlearning and relearning; or make your brain too saturated to be free or flexible; or only boost your ego, not grow your character. A wise mind is like a fountain of spring, flows up to the mountain and merge into to sea.





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