Four levels of wisdom

   In my view, there are four levels of wisdom - knowledge, understanding, acceptance and application/adaptation.

   The first level is of course very important, so considered the very root - knowledge or learning. One start learning right since they are born, and this continues through out life. Of course the ability and rate of learning new things may slow down as one grows old; but to say one is alive means he is learning new things every day, every moment. Knowledge is not just the complicated things that one read or listen, but also the constant chatter going on every moment in the mind allowing to learn about oneself better and learn about others and things around.

   Second level in my view is the most important, and also the most neglected. Unfortunate to say, its not just ignored by individuals, but parents, education institutions and teachers themselves sometimes discourage a child to follow through this level; so I got to say a lot about it. Understanding doesn't mean just to remember things read, heard or learned; but to truly appreciate it, by understanding its every aspect, like its nature, behavior, relations, etc. Since childhood, one is often encouraged to take the words as told, read or taught; and discouraged to think otherwise. If only they know, if Nicolaus Copernicus didn't had understanding against the knowledge been taught those days, we probably still would have considered Earth as the center of the Universe.

   To understand something, the very first step should be to leave some place for denial. Then think in every other way for its validity; think contrary, contradict, argument, experiment, test and validate; and then only one can truly understand and appreciate that knowledge. Its not to say that we have to verify every piece of knowledge, but to know how it can be verified, gives a deeper understanding of it.

   Ignoring this level of wisdom is detrimental, and often dangerous. Problem with fundamentalist and fanatics is that they jump from the first level of wisdom to further levels, skipping this very important level. Quite often they are encouraged to skip this level with arguments like, its sin to question and doubt the veracity and validity of religious symbols, traditions and stories.

   Some people who ignore this level, are the kind, who constantly seek for any knowledge irrespective of its source. And very often, they are the ones who keep changing their views and position. Whereas, those who are persistent and unwavering in their views, are the ones who experiment with this wisdom level, and so they truly appreciate and cling to their knowledge and understanding.

   Third level, that's acceptance, doesn't always means to consent, rather also to reject, if its realized in the understanding level that knowledge is not true. Whatever be the acceptance type, agreement or rejection, it should be firm. And as said before, more we spend time in the second level of wisdom, strong and firm becomes its acceptance.

   Fourth and the last level, application or adaptation, often is the hard one and requires commitment, diligence and perseverance. Quite often there are wisdom that are known, understood, accepted yet failed to be applied, e.g. ill effects of anger. Wisdom that fails at this level are often related to addiction, emotion, compulsion, obligation, etc.