Knowledge Strata

"Where is the knowledge that is lost in information? Where is the wisdom that is lost in knowledge?"

-T.S. Eliot-

I found this quote when I was reading The World's Religions (by Huston Smith) just now. Which sets my mental gears spinning: hey yeah... that makes sense! We are at every moment bombarded with bucketfuls of information; stimuli that our senses pick up constantly and our brain sorts out for those useful ones. Those handpicked candidates are Knowledge. Knowhows of practical stuff. How to do this, how that works, when will that happen, etc. Their applications is however limited to their field of relevance. Your knowledge on how cars works can't help you much with your sex life and vice versa.

That's where wisdom come in.

Wisdom is something of more grandeur. It is what you can read between the lines of knowledge. Something we can't get just by watching individual events, but by relating our observations as a coherent wholeness. It's the insights, the philosophical meaning, the spiritual implications. Wisdom transcends knowledge's compartmentalized boundaries, for with wisdom you can derive analogies and lessons from one knowledge field into a wholly separate one.

Wisdom is the holy grail of truth seekers.