From Knowledge to Wisdom

Transcript

Jim 0:01

Hello, and welcome to Decide on Joy, a podcast coming to you from Harmony Spiritual Center in Fort Worth, Texas. My name is Jim Kovalz.

Pjae 0:11

And my name is Reverend Dr. PJ Stanley. And today, we're going to be talking about going from knowledge, knowledge to wisdom. Knowing versus utilizing what you know.

Jim 0:25

So yeah, that So that's the difference between knowledge and wisdom. Yes.

Pjae 0:29

Exactly. Yeah, 'cause- A lot of people know things, but knowing doesn't mean you're utilizing what you know. And that And to me, that's where wisdom comes in. How do I, how do I actually implement what I know into my life, um, into what I'm, what I'm currently attempting to do or g- ongoing attempting to do? Um, how do I get How do I make sure that that goes into my life and I implement it? So knowing doesn't equal wisdom.

Jim 0:53

Right. But would you need to start with knowing, or can

Pjae 0:58

Yeah, let's start with it because we do I mean, I, I, I think I know that we have such a capacity for learning and for knowing things. The question becomes, what's important? 'Cause there's a lot of just things out there. There's all kinds of information coming at you all the time, and people are constantly wanting to People ask me all the time, "Did you hear about d- did you hear about... Did you..." And I don't, no, because I don't have my ears on for all the things that are going on in the world all the time. If I do, I'm inundated, and it's hard for me to discern what's, what's mine to do, and I think that's the question that I talk to, uh, myself and others about, is, you know, when you're looking at the difference between knowledge and wisdom, the wisdom comes in you being able to ask yourself and actually know, "What's this to me? What is mine to do about this?" Those are, those are two questions you can ask yourself, and helps you to just eliminate things are just about having information and doing something with it.

Jim 2:03

Right. Um, and so... But obviously, some, some knowledge is a good thing because otherwise, w- that's feeding the wisdom, right? It's not-

Pjae 2:14

It absolutely is. Yeah. And well, you know, that's why we go to school. That's why we have advanced degrees. So, so we're getting the knowledge, but I can have all kinds of knowledge from school, and I've never used it. Have, you know, don't really use it on a regular basis. Hopefully, I have taken classes and, and gotten degrees. And actually, it's not hopefully too, and I have, that I actually use in my regular ongoing life for counseling and for understanding my relationship with spirit.

Jim 2:39

Mm-hmm.

Pjae 2:40

So yeah, it's very useful. Uh, the other stuff that I learned that you had to have so you could get the degree, Lord knows, don't ask me a question about that. I don't know.

Jim 2:50

And so the, the, the- The title From Knowledge to Wisdom-

Pjae 2:57

Yes

Jim 2:57

how do you move something from the one thing to the other? Exactly. Or not necessarily move it, I guess, but- No,

Pjae 3:03

but is it-

Jim 3:04

add it on

Pjae 3:05

That, that's exactly it. That you, that you determine this is something I want to use. So that's the first part of it is you have knowledge. Some- some- something's coming at you, some information, um, some new knowledge. So the question becomes, with that knowledge, with everything that you get, what's this to me? So when I ask myself that or I hear it, and I don't actually have to even ask myself, like, really, what's this to me? It's a, it's a part of something that I normally do, that I, um How do you say? Just looking at and determining the information that comes to me. Do I need to hold it, do something with it, let it go? Those are kind of the three things that I do. Then there's, I would say, I don't wanna put a percentage on it, but a high percentage of the things that come your way are yours. It's just something you hear, and you can just let it go. So I let it slide out of my mind so that I have room for things that I do want to keep in my mind. So that's the first thing I believe is just to determine, is this something for me, or is this just another piece of information? Okay, that's okay, and let it go 'cause you're not gonna do anything with it. It doesn't affect your life really. It doesn't affect anybody that you know. There's nothing for you to do with it, so why keep it? Why clutter your mind with it? So that's one of the first things that you do is determine.

Jim 4:21

Right. It seems like there are some things, and maybe they would still fit in that category, but there are some things like I'm trying to think of a good example right now, but-

Pjae 4:30

Right. Yeah. I get you

Jim 4:30

but say you may have in school or just independently have learned another language.

Pjae 4:38

Right.

Jim 4:39

And you may not have an immediate use for that, but keeping up with it and practicing it i- is a- an effective thing for your brain. You know? It is. It's a good thing to be doing.

Pjae 4:51

It is.

Jim 4:52

Whether it's-

Pjae 4:52

Language learning is good for the brain

Jim 4:54

whether it's- Actually producing results in the world or not.

Pjae 5:00

Right. And so I'm, I'm glad you mentioned that because language is one of the things that I love to do. I love l- hearing people's languages, thinking about doing different languages. I've been traveling overseas, um, in Germany and, and, um, Thailand and Vietnamese. Um, so while I was there, I took classes and spoke it with other people. Ask me any of those things now, I don't, I don't hold it because that's not useful to me now, but it was useful to me then. So one of the things I think about language learning is why, for me, and it, this might not be a, a question for you that's important for you because you just might love languages. But for me, I don't have that kind of facility where I can just hold on to a language and without using it, still remember. I, I don't. So I u- I, I utilize that temporarily while I'm there, while I'm where I'm in a situation where I'm going to be able to and need to use that language. If I'm going... Right now, right, right now, I have a friend visiting me from Vietnam, and we go to Vietnamese markets. So that Vietnamese that I learned, I don't remember it all, but I remember it enough to go to a market and ask about how much something costs or, or whatever it is. So that's very useful, and it has always been useful. Um, so those are the questions you begin to ask yourself in terms of what you want your life to look like. Number one, is it something that I love to do? I love, I actually love playing games, so there's... I know how to play a lot of different games, even if I haven't played it for a while. Um, I may have to like reread it and make sure I'm doing it correctly, but, um, that stays with me because I actually love to do it. So I'm not saying just because you can't utilize it all the time doesn't mean you shouldn't be, you know, learning it- Mm-hmm or keeping it. Mm-hmm. That's up to you to decide. So again, these decision-making things from knowledge to wisdom, this is about your own personal wisdom for your own life. But why clog yourself up with things that you don't really care for? But yes, if you do care for it, it's not clogging it up. It's giving you joy- Right and so the different things that you know.

Jim 6:57

I mean, an- another category of thing that occurs to me that's not necessarily producing results- Mm in the outside world or whatever, but is exercise and, and that whole currently very popular, um, thing to be doing, and that's just for you. That's just to make your, your body and mind work better.

Pjae 7:19

Right.

Jim 7:20

Um, so- W- would that... Is that still a worthwhile thing to do? Does that still fall in the wisdom category, or is it just- I,

Pjae 7:29

I think it's... So let me just say this. Um, you know, having a- having reached a certain age, those things are more important to me now. So, yes. That's something I have brought into my life, things that help my memory. But when I was younger, I didn't have any problems with memory. Mm-hmm. I, I didn't need that, and so that's not... It, it didn't even... It wasn't even on my radar to concern myself with those kinds of things. Right now, I make my... I make sure that I'm up every single day walking because I don't wanna not be able to move. These are things that happen as you get older. So again, you know, just whatever is the, the most fundamental thing for you in whatever portion in your life that you are in. Right now, at this age, those things matter to me. And so, yes. That would be going from knowledge, knowing that, oh, you know, walking around really helps your, your leg muscles or whatever it is. Well, when I was younger, I didn't need any help with my leg muscles, but I do now. So I can use that and go, "You know, you like to walk. Go ahead and put that back in." So these are just kinda some discerning things that you get to look at and bring back in if you had it before, or bring it new if this is something that is of a concern. And doesn't have to be a concern like a diff- like a difficult concern, or it's just something that, oh, that's interesting, and that is in align with- alignment with who I am and what I wanna do and be right now. So go ahead and do that. But whatever we're doing doesn't last always, not everything. Some things are just for a reason, season, you know, lifetime, as we talk about. So what's the season that you're in? What's the reason you wanna do it? These are all the, to me, the issues or the pieces of going from knowledge to wisdom. Knowing yourself and what works for you at any given point

Jim 9:15

Right. So it might be different from one time to another.

Pjae 9:18

Absolutely correct. I think one of the things that happens is that we, um, tend to, and maybe that's not everyone, but I think a number of people do, um, if we decide on something, well, decide on, Joy. If we decide on something, and we do it for a while, and then we, and then it, it no longer interests us, we tend to, to make ourselves feel bad because, oh, you're, you're kind of flaky. You said you wanted to do that, and now you're not doing that. Well, there's a couple of things that go on. Number one, something seems interesting, but until you dig into it, you don't know if it's actually going to be interesting enough for you to keep onto it. So you can give yourself that grace and say, "Yeah, it was interesting. It sounded good, but as I dug into it, not so much for me." Or, "It was good here at this given place that I was in my time in my life," whether it's, uh, your age or whether it's where, where you actually are physically in the world. Those things worked really well. But why continue to do something that is no longer working for you? And you can give yourself some grace and say, "That, yeah, that was good then, not good now," or, "I never picked it up before, but I think that might be something that would work for me now." So we continue to look at our lives and say that this is part of the wisdom o-o-of, of age, I guess, or just knowing yourself, that we can look at what we're doing and say and give an honest opinion and not feel guilty about something that was really great for us, and we, it's no, of no longer of interest. We can let it go and bring something else on. I used to sing a lot. I love singing, but I don't really wanna go out and sing all the time anymore. Mm-hmm. It's just, it's gone. It's okay. It is what it is.

Jim 10:58

Right. I mean, there's, there's also an example I think of, I don't necessarily want to get into details about it 'cause I haven't asked him if it's okay to talk about it. But, um, w- we know someone who learned, um, a language, um, for the military. I mean, he was... They sent him to, to spend a year learning that language, and he used it when he was there.

Pjae 11:26

Right.

Jim 11:27

But hadn't since. And when during the pandemic we had a thing where we were calling people and just to maintain contact with them, and he was on my list. And when I discovered that, I said, "What?" You know, and he... I said, "You should, you should look up some poetry in that language." And, you know, that's- Yes and so you can go back and-

Pjae 11:49

You can. You can absolutely- Yeah because something else has triggered it back into your, a usefulness for you. Right. Yes. Correct. Correct. So a- again, I think, I think the main, the major point here in just terms of going from knowledge to wisdom is your wisdom, like, your personal wisdom for yourself and, and giving yourself some grace to say you don't have to keep beating ourselves up because we're human beings, and because our situation changes, our minds change, and that's okay. We're not flaky because our minds have changed. Some people are, but I mean, think about who you are. And, and even if it- Oh, no. I know. But it, it's not flaky because you decided that, "Hey, that's no longer working for me." And if it's no longer working for you at this period of time, but then further down the road it picks back up, it's not flaky because you've picked it back up.

Jim 12:38

Yeah.

Pjae 12:38

Okay?

Jim 12:38

Yeah.

Pjae 12:39

So just give yourself some grace. But you're constantly just looking at your life and saying, "What is working and what is not? How much time do we have in a day to spend on things? And I simply wanna spend that on things that I love to do that is useful for me." So that means I get to re- keep reviewing my life and saying... Because we do get into things automatically and rote. And so I just review it, say, "Well, are you still doing that? Do you still like that? Yeah, I do. Actually, do like that. No, I don't like that anymore. I'm letting that go. I don't like that at this time. Not anymore, just not at this time." So I'm gonna let it go, see what happens.

Jim 13:12

Yeah. It's good to have the time and the mental space for that review. I think a lot of people who, who work steady jobs and things tend to feel they don't have time for that.

Pjae 13:22

Yeah. Exactly.

Jim 13:23

You know? Exactly. I'm, I'm just... I, I work, I come home, I eat, I fall asleep, you know? That... And so it's good if you can make space in your life for that.

Pjae 13:33

Exactly. So just review. Just, I mean, it's not like you don't have to make it a big, a big deal. It's just something in the back of your head, mind that you know you can do. So it's just living the best life you can at any given time. Best life according to you, not anyone else. According to you. That's all it is.

Jim 13:49

Well, okay. Go and do that, and we'll we will end this episode there for today. And thanks for being with us.

Pjae 13:56

Thank you so much