If knowledge comes from within, why do we seek it without?

If knowledge comes from within, why do we seek it without?

Knowledge = Information + Experience.

Access to information, which was restricted to the experts in a given domain and libraries in the not-so-distant past, is available to pretty much anyone with a smartphone and data plan nowadays. But merely googling or 'duckduckgo'ing something to access available information isn't knowledge.

Utilising accessible information to gain experience, translates mere information into valuable knowledge.

Continuously learning through the practical application of knowledge brings wisdom, over a longer period of time.

As both information and experience are external, knowledge naturally belongs to the external domain as well, i.e., 'without,' per the question. Knowledge is certainly useful in the survival plane of existence, and can be acquired by any.

What's within oneself is pure intelligence of the self. It's usually experienced through intuition, which is simply 'known' to the being (who gets the message from within), and not learned.

Since the nature of intuition is to make one aware of only 'what to do,' in a given situation (e.g: dire situations like an accident, when one's logical thinking freezes over), intellect needs to be used to figure out 'how to do.'

That's where knowledge helps, as it enables one to choose 'how' based on the given social situation, for any 'what' that's simply known intuitively.

Pretty much all beings on this tiny planet (there are millions of them), other than humans of course, operate primarily based on intuition, supplementing it with survival based knowledge (acquired through experience of surviving).

Anyone with patience and curiosity to observe 'Life, the way it is,' can experience the seamless synergy between the what and how, happening all around, all the time.

An example would be birds drinking water from bowls, typically filled by humans, that aren't natural water bodies. Their intuition would obviously warn them to stay away from humans (who don't mind eating them), but they also have gained sufficient knowledge to know that there are a few humans who care enough to quench the thirst of birds (and dogs, cows, etc.)

Only the hilarious species known as the Homo Sapiens, who never stop trumpeting the extra sense they claim to have got over the rest of the species, have let their intellect, which is limited by available & acquired knowledge, and augmented by many inherent biases + prejudices + preconceived notions + beliefs, willfully suppress their natural intelligence, using education (& training) as the methodology, creating automatons who will do exactly as everyone else, simply because that's all they know.

That doesn't appear to be an intelligent way of living, isn't it!

~Swamy | '@PrakashSwamy