The title might sound trivial to think upon, yet is very deep to understand and grasp in all its forms.
We read. But We do not write. Many of us might have read lots of books, novels, papers, magazines, been reading from childhood for sure. Once out of the ‘prime’ part of the childhood when we had to fill pages to finish an examination, we might have stopped writing substantially. The ratio looks pathetically lopsided. Let alone some own hand writing, letters etc. Thats the story pre-2000 ! Isn’t it ?
All we write now is few CDs/DVDs and some piece of software !
Out of the many interpretations, it means that we just read and don’t comprehend, we read but we don’t convert the understanding into our own words, or that we dont ‘actively’ spread what we read and whats good. At the heights, it might also mean, we know but we dont do !
More importantly, we dont add our flavor to what we read. We just passively keep on reading. Oh yeah, reading is a must, the starting point only from where the takeoff can take place. Yet, it is to be complemented.
While reading Jiddu Krisnamurthi’s book “The First and Last Freedom”, I seem to find a support for this point, that reading encourages imitation. We try to think in the patterns of the writer. We try to match our views or confirm our understanding on some of the half-understood ideas. Yet we still are imitating. We cease to be creative. We are copying. To be creative does not mean that we must paint pictures or write poems or become fictious. Creativeness is the capacity to discover the ‘new’. It is being new from moment to moment. You do not carry your knowledge to discover, it is used after, to express the new.
After all, Does knowledge help us to love , or to be compassionate ?
Did I also try to ‘match’ my ideas to that of the book I read ? I wanted to find out whether my ideas are the same as those mentioned in the book , but I made sure the thought is ‘active’.
To a certain extent, the above argument is convincing.
We read a lot, may be more than what we want or need or digest. Especially with extreme ease of access of lots and lots of information, we are already ‘over-knowledgeable’. Certainly, We do not sense a corresponding increase in the levels of Wisdom ! Does knowledge and information have direct relation to Wisdom ? It doesn’t seem so.
The fundamental understanding of oneself does not come through knowledge or through the accumulation of experience alone which is merely the cultivation of memory. The understanding of oneself is from moment to moment.
Most of us are intelligent, but in layers. You probably in one way and I in some other way. Some of you are intelligent in your business work, some others in your office work and so on. People are intelligent, but ‘we’ are not ‘integrally’ intelligent. That is what something I want call as collective wisdom.
When this collective wisdom improves, some of the societical problems might obtain a permanent solution. Any takers ?
Do no fail to write out your mind. At least to yourself. Do not cease to be Creative.
May be that is what it meant ! Read and Write. And be Re-writable. Its costly 😛
Thinking,
WorthvieW.
thank you ! Good that it helped.
Well, I can say…a really creative piece of writing.
But as you have already outlined, I just checked, whether my thoughts are matching the author or not.
And Voila !!
It matched, but bad luck , I am not good at writing though.
But I can be better, that’s what I learn today.
And that’s because I READ your article.
Cherio,
Misfit Medico