The Gift of Knowledge -

The Gift of Knowledge

Swami Vivekananda said “The gift of knowledge is the highest gift in the world.”Knowledge has many varied facts encompassing skills from book learning to understanding how to build or create, to knowing how to manage your finances, to resonating with Nature.

Keys to gain Knowledge are:

- Keep the mind open for learning: Receive what you hear and what you see. Learning often challenges our assumptions and our pre-wired reaction is to ignore the ideas that conflict with ours. Let’s not dismiss something that does not fit into your understanding. Realize, too, that each person’s perception of reality is coloured by bias and does not actually correspond to reality. One way to mitigate the effects of bias is to consciously practice adopting different viewpoints and internalizing those alter-biases, you will have to revise your opinions and the way you do things. As you learn how to be wrong, you will encounter people and situations where you will be in the wrong. Treat these as a learning experience.
- Decide what kind of knowledge you are looking for.Are you trying to have a broad knowledge base covering abilities from home appliance repair to ancient Greek? Any and all of these are valid. Knowledge is not simply college learning.
- Get out of your own comfort zone.This will give you access to a variety of learning opportunities: dance classes, economic aid, and communitytheatre. All are good ways to start learning. Make sure to read viewpoints other than yours. This will take you outside your comfort zone, and may even challenge assumptions you have about the world, or your chosen topic.
- Don’t be afraid to fail. This is the most important advice in learning to be knowledgeable. You don’t know everything and you will get things and information wrong. Owning up to your mistakes and learning from them will help you gain knowledge and help you remember better the correct information.
- Learn to navigate and understand the internet: being able to search for relevant information, understand and write your own basic code, allows you to better utilize your own learning. Also (i) Visit the library. (ii) Memorize your new information.

Read widely.Books, newspapers, magazines, websites. You will get a variety of information and viewpoints, which can help you, broaden your mind and learn more about different topics.Reading helps your brain with memory, and with fighting dementia. Keep your brain active and reading and searching for knowledge. Even reading fiction, it turns out, is a great way of acquiring knowledge. Scientists have found that reading certain evocative passages in books, stimulates a neurological response similar to experience that passage, highlighting smells, sight, sound, etc. It is a good way to experience other forms of living. Again, be certain to read outside your comfort zone. Accessing books about lives foreigners is a good way to build your empathy and knowledge of how other people live.
Talk to experts.This step is important, because it allows you to interact with someone in your chosen field or fields. You can ask questions and get a dialogue going.
Constantly pursue knowledge.Gathering knowledge, learning, is a lifelong endeavour. Pay attention to the world around you to look for new opportunities to learn. Keep an open mind and learn from your mistakes and you will be quite knowledgeable. Information changes constantly, be it science, literature, or even wood working. Keep learning on your chosen topics.
In the 21st century, there are endless ways to access information that can help widen your knowledge and logic, and it all begins with learning. Gain knowledge through exploration,visits to different places. The more you learn, the more you understand. The more you understand, the easier it is to learn new things. Knowledge and logic is something everyone can gain overtime through continuous learning and effective practices.