What are the "three kinds of knowledge?"
They are what we call "the knowledge of study,"
"the knowledge of contemplation,"
and "the knowledge of meditation."
And these three kinds of knowledge come step by step.
First, the knowledge of study.
And after that comes the knowledge of contemplation.
And the last is the knowledge of meditation.
You may wonder what is the difference between these three
and why we have to go through these three stages?
If you go through these three stages one by one,
then your knowledge becomes deeper,
clearer, and more profound.
Nowadays,
many of us have the first knowledge - the knowledge of study.
We are lacking the knowledge of contemplation and meditation.
For meditation, very few have it. Only those who know meditation.
If you don't know meditation,
then there's no knowledge of meditation.
So most people only know the first,
and sometimes they come to the second -
the knowledge of contemplation.
OK. Then…
What is the knowledge of study?
That's easy. It's study.
"Oh, yes." Reading books, you know.
Receving teachings in class.
Learning many, many, many different things.
That knowledge is based on words, images, feelings, and emotions.
And these are mixed together.
For instance, if you say…
If you want to learn… what?
If you want to learn…
If you want to learn about Tibet.
About France. About Nepal. Kathmandu.
Now I'm in Kathmandu, in Nepal.
Then, "Yeah, Kathmandu!" There's a word that comes.
"What is Kathmandu?" Then an image of Kathmandu comes.
If you've never been to Kathmandu, you have to study.
Or ask someone, and they may tell you,
"Oh, Kathmandu is like this. It's a little bit dirty,
"but it's OK," you know.
"And people are happy and friendly," you know.
Maybe I will give you a traditional example.
It's better.
There's a very good traditional example
that goes…
Say you're studying about the moon.
First, you try to learn.
Because you've never seen the moon before.
So you try to learn. You try to study about the moon.
How to do that?
You have to ask someone. And somebody tells you,
"Oh, the moon is like this: it's round, has color,
"and it's a little bit dark inside."
Sometimes we say there's a "tree and monkey"
shape in the moon. Like shadows, you know.
And then, "It's like this, and this…"
Now you know all this about it. And when you think about it,
there's some kind of image that appears in your mind.
Something like white, you know.
And it might be a little bit funny image, also.
And there's a word that says "moon."
And when you think of that, you have some feeling, also. Emotion.
So, feeling, the image of the moon, and the name — the word, "moon."
These three are mixed together.
And that's the first knowledge, the knowledge of study.
You study, but it's based on words, images, emotions,
and these three are mixed together.
And then, after that, the second is the knowledge of contemplation.
And that is based on the first knowledge,
the knowledge of study — the word, image, and feeling, together.
And you contemplate more, research more.
And this is more connected with experience.
Not just a word. Not just an image.
Maybe you try to see other people's paintings of the moon.
Or maybe you try to see a photo of the moon.
You know, there are many things.
And you can also go inside your mind to think,
and to learn, and to cultivate, contemplate, and concentrate more.
And then this knowledge of the moon becomes clearer,
more vivid, and the word itself is less dominant.
The knowledge becomes clearer, and more real, almost.
That's what we call "knowledge from contemplation."
The word aspect is very fuzzy, and sounds like,
"blah blah blah, yada yada yada," and so on.
And the image, also. It's just an unclear image.
But here, it becomes more of an experience.
It's not just a thought. It becomes an experience.
And this is what we call
"watching the reflection of the moon."
When you see the reflection of the moon,
it's better than a painting, yeah?
It has the same shape as the real moon in space.
The exact light. The exact color. Everything's very clear.
And then the image also becomes very clear.
Not just a fuzzy image. Not too many words, you know.
More like a direct experience.
Then comes the knowledge of meditation.
No words.
No image.
But if there's an image, it's like an image without concept, almost.
So maybe we should say, "no concept, no word."
It's more like you really see. Or if you do you become like that.
For example, if you learn martial arts.
First you have to think, "How to do this? Oh, yeah!"
"Maybe this is not good? Ah, yes!" Or something like that.
Image.
If you do it again and again, there are fewer words, fewer concepts.
It gets easier, and clearer, and you gain more confidence.
In the end, you don't have to think.
You almost have become like that.
You and your actions have become one.
It's very clear. Very vivid.
Direct.
With martial arts, if you really concentrate,
if you really bring body and mind together,
then it becomes like that.
The third is the knowledge of meditation.
Concentration, meditation, and awareness, you know.
And that is like you're seeing the moon in the space, directly.
This is the third.
So, there are three kinds of knowledge.
This is very important.