Chapter 19
Converting information into knowledge.
K: You said knowledge is ex-traced from information and knowledge is the essence of information, can I compare processes in knowledge to the following processes we are aware of ?
1. Scent extraction processes from the flower.
2. Sugar extraction in a sugar from sugar cane. 3.
3. Oil extraction from seeds and coconut.
4. Honey gathered by honey bees into a honey comb,
Me: There cannot be better way to explain knowledge than you said. The Scent, Sugar, Oil and Honey are our needs. Flower will decay losing its beauty and scent after a few hours in the plant or removed from the plant. So does the information.
We Should extract and preserve them in such a way it does not evaporate into air or spoiled by preserving in the right way and right place. The honey bee loses all its labour to human being after pains taking collection efforts.
The subconscious mind is a safe place where the knowledge does not evaporate, like the information that we remember (in memory) lasts for a short time. Knowledge transferred to subconscious mind is more precise like a table look-up. If the problem is X, this is the solution is xxxxxx. .
K: A simple, real life example to understand the difference between information and knowledge will be very useful for all the future discussion..
Me: You may ask some ten people whom you know, if it is proper to tell a lie. If yes when. Nine out of ten will tell, it is impossible to live without telling lies.
They would tell you some situations when they escaped punishments. Some others would tell the monetary gains they made with lies.
The detail of the situations when one had escaped punishment is information.
The Message in mind: Situation that brings monetary gains or saves one from difficult situations such as punishment, loss of face and the like, we can lie.
The content of subconscious mind:
You need money for a movie. Earlier you never had a situation when you were in need of money. You inquire your (conscious mind if you can ask your Mom or dad. What would be their reaction.
I guess this reasonably explains.
K: I tell my understanding now. You may correct me if I go wrong or miss anything.
You read. listen or witness several situations. You pick some of them relevant to your life and ignore the remaining.
If you remember the entire situation then it is merely an information. If you takeout the essential message. Then it becomes a knowledge. These knowledge sent to subconscious mind where it is stored in way that is fastest to act. For a given situation X, the action should be Y.
Me: You got me right.
K: You say that, if the knowledge is held in memory or conscious mind, it has the risk of losing and also takes time for action.
I am able to visualize these through my mind. When we see a mosquito, we think how we hit it. When some is sleeping, he does not think. Often without becoming conscious, he just hits it and kill in one slap.
Me: In my understanding, the subconscious mind is a bottomless store house. There is no limit to storage. Wisdom unused get to the bottom and does not come to a conscious recall.
But a Hypnotist can help bringing it back through suggestions. However deep that might get in to subconscious mind, it is available for action without delay.
There appears to have no processing taking place, there. It is like a fast food center. If you understand computer terminology, the you can imagine it something like a look-up table, One column of problems and the other the actions.
When our bodily sensors receive a message the subconscious mind looks– up to the table if a match to the sensory input is found. If it was there, it would command the body for action instantly.
K: What if, there is no match available to a situation?
Me: Only when the problem - solution pair is not found in subconscious mind, the normal memory or conscous mind is searched. If sub conscious mind has no matching answer, search starts in the conscious mind. There the knowledge may or may not be available for a given problem readily.
Then a series of processing on available knowledge to cook a right solution.
If relevant knowledge does not exist there (either did not exist any time or lost over a period of time for want to storage space) the action is postponed indefinitely.
These takes a lot of time to react. Some time one does not react.
Some time people repeat a typical reaction on every such un familiar situations.
K: I got it sir. That is the advantage of Wisdom over knowledge and knowledge over information that we gather.
Me: Let us move on to Information processes, one by one.
K: Will you explain about the two more states described as Thurium and Adhi Thurium?
Me: These two are not meant for normal life. These are for those who do not find anything interesting in the perceptible world and who are called Seekers. I will be dealing them in my Book titled, of Science of Spirituality or Shake hands with your creator, Brahmmaa.
K: How reliable is the knowledge that we acquire.
Me: One can gather several information about the lies, thefts and such acts that several people profitted from them, without much physical exertion. Thus one can conclude that telling lies and thieving are justifiable acts.
K: But .....
Me: You are right. These are not the acts that bring one a peaceful living. Such a conclusion is the result of unverified knowledge.
I remember a Zen story that would clear your doubt.
Story Thief and his son
A thief had a son, who has become an adult. Father asked his son what profession would he would choose. The son took no time to respond. He said, he had decided to take-up his father’s profession.
On the following new moon day, he took his son to a locked door in the village. Asked him to pick only most valuable material in the house.
As the son went inside the house, the father locked the door from outside and shouted “Thief....thief.”...
Soon, the people around gathered, opened the door and bashed-up the boy and handed over to the police.
The story ends here.
The questions that most people would ask are:
1. Why did the father lead to boy to thieving ?
2. What prompted the father to call the public & get the boy punished.
In the answer lies the key to knowledge.
The son knew half the truth. that thieving is an easy way to live, The other half, the most important one is that, when one is caught in action, the punishment would be severe. The father wanted the boy to know the other half not known to the son, so that the boy can weigh both, the good as well as the bad side of thieving. The lesson is:
No knowledge is absolute and correct, (valid) until it is verified for its opposite..
K: What shall we conclude?
Ability to remember is very essential in the process of learning. But that is not all about education.
One needs to remember what they were taught. Then they have the identify what is required and what is not. That become a learning. What they learn should be remembered until they are processes and convered to knowledge.
Whatever one acquire knowledge, in this way, need to be remembered until it is internalized in their sub conscious minds.
At any stage if one does not remember the tire effort to learn goes waste.
K: The essence of this discussion is that at very young age the students shall be to helped to cultivate the art of remembering. Nursary Rhymes can do the magic but that is not enough.
Me: Any topic can be selected to practice remembering. They must be ideally a large amount of poems/ prayers / songs / stories
This step shall be followed from the time a student enters pre- primary till one enters middle school.
Step II : Pre-processing of the information acquired. This we discussed extensively