Chapter 3
All about Learning
The learning is a non-stop process from cradle to grave.
Through learning one could gathers the raw material called (Information) for preparing knowledge .
Knowledge determines one’s success in life time. Also one’s social and economic status in the society. Knowledge is required to acquiring possessions and attaining positions in the society.
If one is afraid of becoming poor, then one should practice learning and acquire learning skills.
The information that is are required to build our own knowledge that is flowing all around us. The information spreads through word of mouth, print media, TV channel. There are books and scriptures written by men-of-Knowledge like sages, saints, Sufis zen masters that every one has an access to have power packed knowledge.
Linguistic skills add to the ability to learning through written spoken information sources.
Languages (Linguistic skills) are tools to learning. If someone apply their learning skills in their living places, shedding the poverty that is chasing them is easy.
Pre-processing of information.
Mind has two distinct memory spaces where our information and knowledge can be stored for future use.
Every one of us, has at birth, a small amount of memory. This is volatile too. This is also known as conscious mind/memory. This memory space can hold very limited information. So it is necessary to remove the unwanted and irrelevant information from being memorized.
Many information that we come across are repeated. Some are irrelevant to our lives. These need to be filtered out through the pre-processing.
Knowledge
Knowledge is extracted from information as honey is extracted from flowers.
Information contains knowledge.
Or we can say that information in its raw form is less useful to us. So the information needs to be converted into knowledge, that is readily deployable.
The information is refinement using various thinking processes to derive the knowledge. The processes are known as thinking.
This is treated in detail with short stories as example in the free ebook titled: Knowledge. Go, get it.
Thinking is a set of processes that converts the raw information from the learning into the final product called Knowledge. We can roughly say that we are in an environment where everyone is trying to snatch the belonging to other by all crooked ways.
Knowledge that is not sent to subconscious memory will be lost over a long period of time. Knowledge stored in subconscious memory a.k.a internalized, becomes wisdom. This is fast to retrieve and apply and hardly lost.
Need for knowledge
I wan to live a simple life, say that of a clerk. I love fun. I spend my time in entertainments.
I do not want to become a leader or a scientist. I do not want to own a car of my own, Do not aspire for a luxurious life either. Because I do not want to strain my mind.
I hate learning. Reading induces sleep. Thinking makes me tired.
Why do I need knowledge?
There are many who feel so, because learning is not natural to humans.
Every individual is gifted with a limited ability to learn and think. In a normal situation, there is no additional effort to learn, required.
But we are in an extraordinary world.
The spiritualists would tell you that we are in material world. Not many are spiritual. Spiritualists have fear of becoming poor. Where as others live under a constant fear of becoming poor. So every one is looking around for vulnerable to grab their wealth and feel safe with accumulated wealth.
We are all vulnerable to exploitation. Educated people are also equally vulnerable like uneducated. Every one of us are vulnerable in different ways. More the knowledge, we become less vulnerable. That is the necessity to acquire.
Knowledge as fast food
A large amount of knowledge is available in the literature, left behind by the men-of-knowledge who lived among our ancestors. All we need to do is to read and internalize them. This is the simplest and easiest way to knowledge.
Otherwise, we need to gather information and generate fresh knowledge to deal with changing needs of the life.
Every one of us is loosing our possessions or position to some one else, more knowledgeable than us. That leave us poorer.
We become poor in every transaction.
The knowledge and its timely deployment of knowledge can prevent disaster both material and non-material transactions.
Everyone justifies gaining unduly more from others.
In recent times, the rich-poor gap is widening fast. The numbers are given else where in this book. (some 56 citizen own the wealth that is equivalent to what is owned by 70% citizen of India). This indicates the richest gain more than their due from the poor.
Unless one would be prepared to live life of a recluse, acquiring only the knowledge, becoming poor is unavoidable.