Experience is a part of “how” we are. Knowledge can be turned into experience over time. It travels from our heads into our hearts and then deeper.
Think of a child. A toddler. This toddler has never experienced heat or fire or whatever. You tell the child “Don’t touch the burner on the stove because it's hot and you could get burned.” The child is learning to talk and when you ask him to repeat what you just said he says “I shouldn’t touch the burner because it's hot and I will get burned.” or may be more simply, “The burner is hot.”
Now, what do you think will eventually happen if you go away? He will touch the burner. Or he will touch the fire or something else hot, you told him not to touch. But when he touches it once, he will never touch it again. The point is, experiencing the burning sensation is all he needs to never do something again whereas having the knowledge that something could burn him is not enough. By the way, after you told him not to touch the burner because it's hot and he could get burned, and he repeats it back, THAT IS KNOWLEDGE.
If you give him an oral or written exam (assuming he can read) he will answer the question appropriately, e.g. “Could hot things burn you?” He would say “yes.” You could word it other ways, it doesn't matter. He has the knowledge that hot things burn or at least hot burners can burn. But knowledge is not enough to alter future behaviors over time. Experience is. This is the big difference between the two. Experience changes future behaviors.
This is how we are. We pick up a self-help book and read it and get a buzz out of it. We say “oh yeah! that makes sense, I feel great about this. This is what i needed to learn.” and this buzz lasts for a while. But eventually, we are right back, where we started. Why? because knowledge is not enough. Knowing something simply does not cut it.
You think about it and keep “trying” to do stuff with it, but it's a losing battle. You must experience that which you know and then it will be a part of you and you will no longer have to think about it to make it real in your life. Experience is part knowledge (mental) and part feeling (emotional). Experience depends on perception and attitude. These are the things that guide our thoughts and thus our behavior. Knowledge is only the beginning. after you’ve first heard of some Truth, you are now ready to begin the real work of absorbing it and making it a part of you, an experience.
Author and Credits: J.A.P