The difference between knowledge and wisdom is application.
Both knowledge and wisdom contain awareness and understanding, but wisdom is the application of understanding from acquired knowledge, where knowledge is knowing, but may not include applying what is known.
Wisdom is applied knowledge.
Almost everyone alive today is knowledgeable because of the internet.
This is the most knowledgeable time in history, while also being quite an unwise time in history. This is because the acquired knowledge is not applied, or the knowledge is not useful because it does not have any application.
For knowledge to become wisdom, it must be useful, and it must be applied.
Knowing 500 words of Spanish has application. Knowing the name of 500 Pokémon does not have very many useful applications. Both the Spanish language and the Pokémon lexicon possess words, but knowing the words in Spanish allows you to communicate with another culture, while knowing Pokémon names allows you to communicate with some children or children-in-adult-bodies if they are interested in Pokémon.
This isn’t to say enjoying and knowing Pokémon is a waste of time, but understand that entertainment knowledge does not have very many useful applications, nor can entertainment be mastered, because pleasure is not a path to fulfillment.
Pleasure must be used as a respite from the grueling nature of the pursuit of mastery, lest it become pursued and corrupt the wanderer by putting them on a path that cannot fulfill them.
It’s well known that exercise removes depression and anxiety, even better than medication. Obese people know this. They have this knowledge, but they are fools because they do not apply it. To know the health effects of being obese and to ignore them demonstrates the abundance of knowledge and the drought of wisdom.
The depressed individual lies in bed with the knowledge that exercise will cure their condition, but lacks the courage to apply their knowledge to make wise decisions.
Discipline is mastery over the self.
How Some Smart People Can Be So Dumb
Courage and discipline are prerequisites of wisdom.
All wise individuals are courageous and have been courageous in the past. There is no other way to become wise than to be courageous, disciplined, and knowledgeable.
Wisdom is a virtue of the highest order because it contains other great virtues.
The depressed individual must tap into courage or discipline to be wise enough to leave their bed to apply the cure for their depression.
For some unknown and horrible reason, some cultures see courage as taboo today.
Some cultural messaging tells the depressed, the obese, that they are fine the way they are, so they stay the way they are, living with broken spirits in pursuit of pleasures that cannot be fulfilled, whether that pleasure be the comfort of the bed, or the fork.
Even great individuals are not fine the way they are; that’s why they became great and continue to pursue fulfillment. The default state of no direction was not good enough for them, because it isn’t good enough for anyone; they were courageous or disciplined enough to break out of their default settings.
Highly intelligent people can be dominated by the domain of mind. If they do not pursue mastery in the body domain, they will not be balanced, and their spirit will suffer from it.
Virtually all paths to mastery in the body domain demand courage. Any physical competition demands courage, whether it be score-based or judged. To be voluntarily judged is to be courageous. Those who refuse to pursue mastery in the body domain will find themselves lacking in courage.
The soccer player shares in discipline with the skier; the bodybuilder shares in courage with the ice skater; the Navy SEAL shares in courage and discipline with the martial artist.
Miyamoto Musashi
The Way and the path are the same in all things.
The spirit is the wellspring of courage; to feed the well, you must pursue mastery in both body and mind. This is The Way.
Intelligent people may be “dumb” because they acquire knowledge that has no application, or they hoard knowledge with application but refuse to apply it because they lack the courage to do so.
You may pursue mastery over the body to gain courage.
You may pursue pleasure to gain anxiety and depression.
Andreia Philosophy mind domain tenet: The mind admits no negativity
