“To know and not to do, is not to know.”
- Wang Yangming
What does that mean?
One can have internal initial wisdom, but there is also external proper wisdom. I say initial and proper, because the proper wisdom has to do with executing right-actions (physical or verbal), while the initial wisdom is the understanding of how to act, but not acting yet.
There is a difference between having internal knowledge and understanding, and properly applying that knowledge and understand to externally act upon it. If we don't act upon our understanding of what's right to do, then we're missing out on engaging in right-action, and will likely keep engaging in either a suboptimal action, a wrong-action, or inaction that prevents change for the better.
If we want to change our behavior to engage in better actions, then we need to have the inner-vision first before executing that vision into the world. We need to think of what's right before we can be right. First comes the initial internal wisdom, then comes the proper external wisdom.
Understanding must be unified with action at some point in order for something to result from that understanding. This is the basis of the Trivium Methodology (knowledge, understanding and wisdom). Otherwise, understanding without action leads to nothing being done in the end. Nothing will end up changing or being healed in the world.
Action through conscious will-power is required for things to change around us. Having accurate understanding of what ‘is’ in reality is the first step. We need to gain knowledge first, then process it to understand it better.
Once we know, what are we going to do with what we know?
That is how you can know something but not truly know it because you're not acting on that knowledge. Knowledge provides understanding so that we can act wisely. The knowledge/understanding is what brings us the potential to act. If we don't bring that knowing into being/doing, then we don't really know the value of the knowledge or understanding that can bring us to act, and that means we don't really know.
The quote ("to know and not to do, is not to know") is one of those "cleverly" worded phrases that wants to mystify you with a paradox; that doesn't make sense unless you dig deeper into it's meaning. It's like an encoded message that needs to be deciphered. It's short and confusing, so not the best for conveying direct meaning.
Knowledge and understanding is not power in itself. Right-action developed through accurate understanding imbues knowledge with power. Knowledge alone has no power. Our will-power makes knowledge powerful because we act upon it. Knowledge and understanding have no power in the world without the wisdom to act on it rightly.
We can remake the falser conditioned versions of ourselves into truer selves. Remove the conditioning into falsity, and recondition ourselves in truth instead. Unlearn what we have learned automatically and involuntarily. And instead, voluntarily choose to learn more accurate knowledge about the world and ourselves (self-knowledge).
Right-action is knowing and understanding properly, and then acting upon it. We can act from a position of lack of knowledge and understanding and hope to get the results we want. But since we don't know enough about the situation to produce the results we want, acting from a position of ignorance is not likely to produce the results we really want. Only by understanding the core foundational root causal factors of the situation/problem we are in (why something is as it is), can we come to a position of accurate understanding in order to apply proper solutions. The knowledge and understanding is one level of empowerment, but our willpower is required to empower us to greater levels of being through the wisdom of right-action.
It's true that sometimes we can have the wisdom to act, but we are limited and unable to act in that fullest potential wisdom due to the limits of our ability to influence change upon the world (we can't control everyone else). We can know what needs to be done, but getting everyone to do it is something else entirely.
Sometimes the only action to take is to output knowledge and understanding through words to write, speak, share, and preach about it for others to learn. Then when we are on the same page, we can make things happen together. That's how we can change the human world we live in, by co-creating through common knowledge and understanding of what matters. Being on the same page is important, and requires unified knowledge as well as unified moral action.
Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.
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