Knowledge, Compassion and Wisdom

What a start today, suddenly few dots got connected; I start to appreciate the link between knowledge, compassion and wisdom:

Dot 1.   My friend posted a quote from Calvin Coolidge 30th president of US (1872 - 1933), in his face book status "I have never been hurt by anything I didn't say ".

Immediately I said to myself: No, to me, this is not true for all circumstances.  Silence has many meaning according to different circumstances - it may mean I concur to a situation, I subscribe, or I am coward to raise voice, or I am indifferent to the situation, or I am being helpless. Many a times when I ought to say something and have not said, I have been hurt because my silence has either been detrimental to me or to others whom I care.

Dot 2.   I was watching a review commentary by Prashanth about a debate in Neeya-Naana, a Tamil debate show in Vijay TV, about a topic of youth not having adequate knowledge. In which he was criticizing the way the show was conducted and asked one pertinent question. What is difference in outcome between a person who has NO knowledge about an issue and a person who has knowledge about the issue but DO NOTHING about it?

The outcome from both is same: former being ignorant or no wisdom so inaction and the latter being indifferent attitude or no compassion hence inaction. Unless one were to be indifferent, for which one ought to say but keeps silence, it will hurt.

Dot 3.   His Holiness the Dalai Lama said, "According to Buddhism, compassion is an aspiration, a state of mind, wanting others to be free from suffering. It's not passive -- it's not empathy alone -- but rather an empathetic altruism that actively strives to free others from suffering. Genuine compassion must have both wisdom and loving-kindness. That is to say, one must understand the nature of the suffering from which we wish to free others (this is wisdom), and one must experience deep intimacy and empathy with other sentient beings (this is loving-kindness)."

Dot 4.   Thiruvalluvar in verse 430 says “those who possess wisdom possess everything and whatever others possess, without wisdom they have nothing”; and in verse 571, he further adds that "it is compassion, the most gracious of virtues, which moves the world"; and in verse 39 he sums up that "virtue alone is happiness; all else—is else, and without praise."

Dot 5.   Jeff Weiner, CEO at LinkedIn, in one of his posts wrote that his friend / guide Fred Kofman told him that “Wisdom without compassion is ruthlessness; compassion without wisdom is folly” which made him to change the vision of his company. I commented to his post where I congratulated and thanked Jeff for his great post but I also asked a question, but did not get answer. So, I was searching on wisdom and compassion. That’s when I bumped into Dot 3 and Dot 4 but could not appreciate more by then.

However today it dawned to me that the Dot 1 and 2 coupled with Dot 3 and 4, Dot 5 makes more sense:

Being compassionate is to alleviate one from suffering.  There are two knowledge areas: Knowledge of the suffering and knowledge of ‘means’ that alleviates from suffering. But having these both the knowledge is useless unless one has the compassion which bridges these two knowledge areas. Someone who is compassion but has no knowledge can do nothing. Someone who has knowledge but no compassion can do nothing. Someone who has both compassion and knowledge can do something and such knowledge is wisdom.