Knowledge

It can constitute a problem if the use of knowledge does not serve the building up of better systems that enable people to have a more meaningful life. Knowledge is the substantial resource humans are provided with as a species whose existence depends not merely on natural resources but on proper ways of informing our behaviour as well. The better information we obtain the more we become capable to make decisions in any sphere of our life, whether it be the choice of items we purchase from the market or the successive step towards the attainment of a trascendental goal. One thing is true, that we are what we are at the moment of that decision. We do not tend to compare the current decision we are making with any body else's decision, often not even with our own previous decisions made on similar circumstances. A prominent master once said that we cannot behave differently from the way our spiritual status allows us at that particular moment. That is a mystical claim perfectly appliable, in psychological terms, to choices, let alone to the aftermaths of those choices. Actually, a decision is a crossroad; but there is a whole spell of road to walk along then. A decision is the result of the concurrence of several factors operating deeply in our brain, soul and body. These domains are influenced by external conditions such as social and environmental interactions. Things become complicated at this point. Yet, when there is a decision to be made which is pushing you as if towards a blind alley, you are forced to act, that is to say, quite to react to the current exertion. So your availability of resources is all you have in order to face that challenge. Is it not true that, for a moment, we are aware that our situation for a good decision to be made is not the most appropriate? You perhaps wish you were living some hours before, or some days, or years, or maybe at the beginning of your entire life. Why do you have that sensation? Because, in some unconscious way, you perceive your resources are insufficient, do not go with the thing that is in front of you urgently requiring a transformation. You feel yourself responsible for it. Plainly speaking, you are responsible of it. It seems to me that we permanently need both to get informed of the things happening and existing around us and of certain general principles that are able to guide us just in time, whenever we are asked to choose make the right move.

What therefore is the consequence to the formulation of the necessity of knowledge? It is, as far as I understand it, the serious requirement of good information. Good information means two things. On the one hand, it is information, which is the available sources from our social and environmental sorrounds. On the other, information needs to be good, which happens to be a pretty subjective matter. As such, its subjectivity depends on the way we see it, judge it, and... decide. There it is. We need a proper income as well as to produce an expectedly reasonable outcome. So which, between goodness and information, is more important? As nowadays the amount of information is overwhelming, certainly discerment happens to be relevant. For when information becomes excessive, and insight is lacking, information can become useless and, occasionally, noxious. Even a healthy red apple gets rotten. Let us get informed and digest the information. We will draw some really important conclusions to be used in the ensuing events of our life. We do not need to repeat the lesson again. We need a principle to be applied, a criterion to be used, and therefore improvement will necessarily be the result. Reading great books, talking to sensible people, having careful observations of the daily events, and personal self-awareness are the main ways we may get informed properly, and grow as individuals. Last but not least: let us not stop checking any objective we fulfill. Humility is a strong denfence against future hardships.

Which way to go?