What is Knowledge?

To know with both the heart and mind is a beautiful path to be on.

I have always been curious as to what Knowledge truly is. While reading M. Scott Peck's book, "The Road Less Traveled," I came across a paragraph that, to me, perfectly expressed what Knowledge is in terms that we can perceive and understand. What I am to share is open to criticism and questions (this is encouraged of course). However, what Scott Peck has to say has been so helpful in guiding me to understand this complex phenomenon and I am so thankful for its wisdom. I am now inspired to research what Knowledge is, even further. However, I do acknowledge that the words serve merely to guide me towards the truth and only serve as small pieces of the puzzle. Here is what he has to say:

*******
Jung's theory of the "collective unconscious" states that we inherit the wisdom of the experience of our ancestors without ourselves having the personal experience. This kind of knowledge is recognized in our common everyday language. Take the word "recognize" itself. When we are reading a book and come across an idea or theory that appeals to us, that "rings a bell" with us, we "recognize" it to be true. Yet this idea or theory may be one of which we have never before consciously thoughts. The word says we "re-know" the concept, as if we knew it once upon a time, forgot it, but then recognized it as an old friend. It is as if all knowledge and all wisdom were contained in our minds, and when we learn "something new" we are actually only discovering something that existed in our self all along. This concept is similarly reflected in the word "education," which is derived from the Latin educare, literally translated as "to bring out of" or "to lead forth." Therefore when we educate people, if we use the word seriously, we do not stuff something new into their minds; rather, we lead this something out of them; we bring it forth from the unconscious into their awareness. They were the possessors of the knowledge all along. Indeed, the mind, which sometimes presumes to believe that there is no such thing as a miracle, is itself a miracle.

*******

Perhaps, in a way, Knowlege is like genuine love. They are both ever present in our beings yet both require work, or rather a determined, devoted willingness to learn and to extend oneself. Knowledge and love go hand in hand as well, for without the extension of oneself, knowledge of oneself and of the world would be limited. In extending oneself, one opens the unconsious and reconnects with all that is spiritual and indeed, with God Himself. To know is to love. To love is to know. To love and to know is to surrender the self to a letting go, to a letting of oneself be as one is. If in fact true love and knowledge is already inherent in us, what a miracle it is! :)