Knowledge Vs Experience

This sample essay on Knowledge Vs Experience provides important aspects of the issue and arguments for and against as well as the needed facts. Read on this essay’s introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion.

The celebrated Indian philosopher J. Krishnamurti one time said. “There is no terminal to instruction. It is non that you read a book. base on balls an scrutiny. and finish with instruction. The whole of life. from the minute you are born to the minute you die.

is a procedure of larning. ” ( whale. to/a/krishnamurti ) Krishnamurti is turn toing larning as a procedure in which an person attempts to derive certain cognition for foreordained intents. He clearly believes that rote memorisation is inferior to larning from experiences. Academic cognition through text editions can learn persons theories about life. Life. nevertheless. perverts from theory often. The lone manner persons are traveling to cognize about these divergences is when they experience the battles and fruits of life on their ain.

[ Similarly. in this compelling novel by Herman Hesse. Siddhartha learns that enlightenment can non be reached through his 7 instructors because it can non be instilled in an individual’s head -enlightenment comes from the inner ego and through the experiences in which 1 must obtain wisdom from. ] he said it can be a small better In the gap of the novel. Siddhartha is influenced by outside instructions in his hunt for enlightment.

His male parent and his associated community ideally want him to go a successful Brahmin. alternatively of fall ining the Samanas.

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Everyone else around him still has non reached enlightenment. and Siddhartha feels that shacking with them will increase his wonder sing his presence in life. ( Siddhartha to himself ) [ “He had begun to surmise that his worthy male parent and his other instructors. the wise Brahmins. had already passed on to him the majority of their wisdom… his psyche was non at peace. ” ( 3 ) ] Siddhartha craves to better admit the innermost kernel of ego and its connexion to the universe in a society. The cognition passed on to him nevertheless does non explicate this. which is why Siddhartha speculates the beginnings of the universe and his topographic point in it. When Siddhartha departs on his journey to accomplish enlightenment. he joins the Samanas and accustoms rapidly to their lifestyle because of the endurance and subject he learned in the Brahmin rites. He learns how to liberate himself from the mercenary universe he was populating in. losing his desire for ownership and dress. However Siddhartha is still unsated.

Knowledge Vs Experience

The way of self-denial does non supply an constituted solution for Siddhartha. He comes to the realisation which is this: the Samanas have been merely every bit unsuccessful as the old counsel he has encountered. Siddhartha’s thirst for cognition has merely increased. as he tells his good friend. “I suffer thirst. Govinda. and on this long Samana way my thirst has non grown less…I have ever thirsted for cognition. ” ( 15 ) Buddha is still funny. therefore Govinda convinces him that they both should go forth the Samanas and seek out the Buddha. During Siddhartha’s quest for enlightment. he and Govinda are looking for Gotama’s whereabouts. As they are taken in. Siddhartha is informed about a instruction called the Eightfold Path and the four chief points in order to accomplish the lasting solution of abstaining from the pleasances of the universe. However. while Govinda is wholly influenced by these instructions. Siddhartha is still non satisfied. ( Gotama to Siddhartha ) [ “The learning which you have heard…is non to explicate the universe to those who are thirsty for knowledge…its end is redemption from the agony. ” ( 27 ) ] Siddhartha is still unsated. and desires to grok the significance of life’s intent in the universe in an complete manner.

Like the Samanas. Buddha’s followings escape from world without linking to it. Most significantly. Siddhartha feels that he can non accomplish enlightment from an external beginning such as a instructor. He grounds that in order to make enlightenment. one must larn merely through experience and instructions by other wise mans. Wisdom is gained through experience. while cognition is taught. This is the ground he can non accept Buddha’s instructions. At this point of the novel. Siddhartha knows he will hold to go his good friend behind to get down a hunt for the significance of life which will be based on experience. instead than spiritual instructions. Siddhartha determines to put out on a life abstaining from speculation and to alternatively come in the stuff universe to research the physical pleasances of his organic structure. In this new universe of his. Siddhartha encounters a friendly ferryman. populating his free life to its fullest. After traversing the ferryman’s river. he arrives to a metropolis where a beautiful kept woman named Kamala mesmerizes him. He believes she would be the most worthy one to learn him about the physical facets of love. but Kamala will merely teach him until he proves he can suit into the mercenary universe. With her counsel. Siddhartha takes up the way of the merchandiser and engages in concern with a adult male named Kamaswami who taught him how to merchandise.

While Siddhartha achieves the wisdom of the concern universe and experiences how to make concern in the material universe. Kamala becomes his lover and teaches him about every physical facet of love. [ “She taught him that lovers should non divide from each other after doing love…so that no feeling of devastation arise nor the horrid feeling of misusing” ( 54 ) ] Siddhartha renounces the religious way and exchanges the hunt for Atman to see physical pleasances. However. Siddhartha and Kamala are both incapable to give and have existent love at this phase in the novel. Siddhartha has eliminated himself from the universe wholly and is non influenced by what the universe has to offer him. Since both these external ushers are unable to learn him wisdom. he knows he must now accomplish wisdom on his ain. This consciousness itself comes from his inner ego. Siddhartha starts his way to seek enlightenment go forthing the Brahmins. the Samanas. Gotama. and the stuff universe because he feels unhappy with himself. As Siddhartha leaves the corrupted stuff universe. he approaches a river and considers what way his life has taken him.

Ironically. the same ferryman whom he met old ages before introduces himself with the individuality as Vasudeva. Siddhartha senses interior peace and wisdom within this adult male. and motivates him to obtain it every bit good. Finally Siddhartha resides and works with Vasudeva until he comes to cognize his boy was born. With his boy. Siddhartha eventually experiences love. but since love is a connexion to the universe. it threatens to deflect Siddhartha from his hunt for enlightenment. It’s non until now when Siddhartha has gained wisdom on his ain without any mercenary influences. therefore the love he expresses for his boy becomes a trial of this wisdom. ( Siddhartha to himself ) [ “It is a good thing to see everything oneself…as a kid I learned that pleasances of the universe and wealths were non good… but I have merely merely experienced it now…” ( 80 ) ] Siddhartha implies that the Buddha’s instructions or any beginning of external counsel do non do one enlightened ; they merely transfer cognition to the society around them. Siddhartha is cognizant enlightenment can merely be reached if he will be able to accept love. and every bit hard as it might be. to even accomplish Nirvana.

Successfully. Kamala and his boy influenced him to a great extent and because of them. Siddhartha learned and experienced how to love the universe and accept it as a whole. Siddhartha encounters many instructors of wisdom during his journey. but each fails to take him to his end: to seek enlightenment. The ferryman nevertheless. is successful and shows Siddhartha how to happen enlightenment within him by barricading out all exterior counsel. [ Vasudeva will non merely state Siddhartha what he should cognize like the others. but a usher who will take him where he wishes to go. ] After go forthing the material universe. Siddhartha seeks for cognition from the river he crossed and Vasudeva ushers Siddhartha to listen to it for a better apprehension of what the river communicates. Vasudeva does non state Siddhartha what the river will state. but when Siddhartha discloses what the river has expressed to him. Vasudeva clearly admits that he excessively has received the same wisdom on his ain.

Now. Siddhartha realizes that he himself becomes the ferryman after making enlightenment. ( Siddhartha talking to himself ) [ “The river is everyplace at the same time… Siddhartha the male child. Siddhartha the mature adult male. and Siddhartha the old adult male [ are ] merely separated by shadows. non through world. ” ( 87 ) ] The river is compared to Siddhartha as it is considered uninterrupted but yet ever changing within. deeper below the organic structure of H2O. Siddhartha now belongs to everything environing him alternatively of being classified to a peculiar group. At the terminal of the novel. Govinda returns to the river. still seeking enlightenment. and asks Siddhartha to learn him what he has learned.

Siddhartha explains that neither he nor any other single can learn the wisdom to Govinda. because spoken accounts are definite and can ne’er pass on enlightenment as a whole. ( Siddhartha to Govinda ) [ “When person is seeking …he is unable to happen anything…because he is obsessed with his end. ” ( 113 ) ] Govinda is confused merely like he was when they met near the river after Siddhartha had considered suicide. This means he still does non understand the significance of life because he hasn’t experienced the universe. staying a follower to Buddha. Therefore. Siddhartha’s ultimate attainment of Nirvana does non come from external counsel pass oning the wisdom to him. but alternatively by sing an internal connexion with the river. which encompasses the whole existence.