Direct Experience of Meditation

This morning I read many posts on this site. I felt like topics on Buddhist doctrine were somewhat clear to me, but those on meditation seemed complex, difficult to me. I wondered: **Does meditation *practice* increase knowledge about meditation? Is this what is meant by direct experience?** I feel this may seem as a naive question; I'm mainly wondering how something experienced (i.e. meditation) might affect cognition / knowledge about the *topic* of meditation. For example, I'm unsure whether a person hammering nails all day would necessarily *understand* their task conceptually. **Does meditation necessarily give one conceptual knowledge of meditation?**