Wisdom can be considered as having two main aspects. Theoretical wisdom (sophia) is concerned with understanding the universe as it is.
The second main aspect of wisdom is practical wisdom (phronesis), concerned with optimal well-being—knowing what it is and bringing it about.
Theoretical and practical wisdom are connected, in that a person’s understanding of optimal well-being depends on the nature of hir understanding of the universe.
The attainment of theoretical wisdom has traditionally been a spiritual quest, or mystical in the sense of uniting with the divine. It requires a long process of purifying the spiritual eye, in order to perceive the reality underlying the sensory world. At times this wisdom is referred to as the perennial philosophy. By adherents, attainment of this wisdom is claimed to be the goal of human existence.
If theoretical wisdom is considered possible, practical wisdom appears as of relatively minor importance.
In order to arrive at maximal comprehension of existence, a person must rely on hir own experience, utilizing the traditional classic sources, perhaps, as the giants on whose shoulders we stand.
Let us say, until we learn better, that the highest, or most comprehensive, purpose for all things is to flourish. Whatever optimal well-being may be, that is our goal. The constituents of flourishing can only be identified through deliberating on our circumstances. They will differ according to one’s age, cultural and environmental context, and individual possibilities.
It is not possible for one to flourish at the expense of others, except in a limited sense. The organism is inextricably woven into its context: genetic, environmental, cultural and social. Our understanding and our actions are influenced by our context, and they influence the context.
The individual organism is the small self, or the personal self. The organism in its full context is the entire or whole self, or simply the Self.
To be wise, we must know our context (as much as practically possible) and take it into account in our actions. We must know our entire self.
To know our entire self is to recognize that the reason for the “golden rule”—doing unto others as we would have them do to us—is that in a literal sense, there are no “others”. The “individual” is merely a concept, an abstraction from its context. It appears separate and independent because we have been taught to see it that way. In reality, there is only the ever-changing context.
As Martin Luther King, Jr. put it in a sermon delivered four days before his death, “We are tied together in a single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, and whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.” It may be that the provenance of all things from the primal seed, sometimes called the “big bang”, is the Source of the oneness of all things.
To make optimal choices it is necessary to know the goal that is the criterion for success. Even if we accept flourishing as the goal, the constituents of, and steps to, flourishing remain problematic.
If flourishing is chosen as the most comprehensive goal, and if all of nature is in some way interwoven, and we do not know of any divinely ordained purpose of human action, then the flourishing of all beings becomes the goal of our efforts to promote flourishing.
We encounter the dilemma that life maintains itself by consuming life. The flourishing of some beings is sacrificed for the benefit of others. Thus, it is the function of wisdom to determine correctly the sacrifices that must be made, and to recognize their sacramental nature.
How much should humans intervene in the nonhuman world where it appears that survival, and not flourishing, is the goal?
So far as we know, the possibility for nonhumans to bring about their flourishing is very limited. Through the ability to choose, humans have an opportunity to promote flourishing. Through awareness that all things are interconnected and have the goal of flourishing, we have an inescapable responsibility to exercise stewardship of the world. Soon this opportunity will be gone.
The world is, in this sense, our garden. If we would have it flourish, there are many options, as there are for any work of art.
For humans, flourishing can be said to involve full physical, mental (cognitive, emotive, and conative), social, and spiritual development. Most important is the ability to choose well, to determine priorities wisely and to have the character to live by those priorities, altering them as shifting circumstances alter the nature of flourishing.
This is the end to which education and economics, should be directed, if flourishing is our priority.
As humans have the ability to choose, they should be educated to be able to make their own choices. To do this they require both an understanding of the possibilities, and the ability to deliberate well. Human flourishing does not occur through coercion, manipulation, or the imposition of mental shackles, but through persuasion and conviction.
In relation to wisdom, humans are children. Attaining wisdom means developing fully as a human being. Those who understand wisdom will learn to guide the development of others to wisdom, to flourishing, keeping in mind their own fallibility, and the history of human “certainty” that turned out to be error, and the desire to control others and believe we are right.
Homo sapiens may be no closer to wisdom than Homo erectus was close to mastering language. Consider the stunted lives, the unnecessary suffering humans cause, the poorly chosen courses of action, the poor use of materials and human energy in our world today. Humans are far from being wise. We are far from maximal comprehension of our universe, far from comprehending the world even as well as current knowledge allows. We are far from making the best possible choices. There is great confusion even in regard to the standards for such choices.
It is said that “If science can do something, it will.” Rather, if humans can become wise, we will and we must. This requires a transformed perspective of reality, and a transformed sense of self.
This self-transformation is the greatest adventure. As it is practiced throughout the events of the day, particularly in difficulties, it fills life with extraordinary experiences and meaning. Relationships and encounters become opportunities for endless growth and insight.
Life occurs in the present moment. Primary to all development toward wisdom is mindfulness, attentiveness to the world around and within.
To bring about the self-transformation required by wisdom, wisdom must be nurtured consciously. It requires continuous self-work. Daily, moment by moment. It requires abandoning beloved habits and fierce addictions.
For people to commit to flourishing, it must be a real possibility, and the advantages clear. The experience of oneness, love, and self-actualizing is extraordinarily rewarding, but not compelling to those struggling to fulfill basic material or psychological needs, or dazzled by different enticements.
Wisdom is appropriate for all people. Whenever choice is involved, or an insight regarding the nature of existence, wisdom is involved.
Often, a desire for wisdom begins when a person is faced with a situation that is important and that has no easy solution. Such situations are the primary field for wisdom.
Whether or not anyone can be “wise,” all people can become wiser.
What is necessary? Food and shelter, health, love, rewarding work, and esteem from those around. And then?
The continuous experience of love, serenity, joy and happiness, perceptiveness and wisdom is possible. Set the highest imaginable standard. Then you are ready to begin.
You create your life, the past as well as the present and the future. This creation takes place in everyday events and in the secret thoughts of the mind. Developing your mind and character, living with love, serenity, joy and wisdom, is up to you.
We don’t miss what we don’t know. There is a little stone in the path that may catch our attention, but is easy to pass by as we hurry off to something “important.” The stone, however, is priceless.
Maximal comprehension requires understanding the inner reality of self and others: cardiognosis, or knowing the heart. That is, motives, influences, and the possibilities for self and other. It involves knowing how all things fit together, and the end toward which they endeavor.
The body reveals the soul. Wisdom requires sensitivity to nuances and subtle messages that convey important information.
Wisdom requires the ability to reflect. The ability to control the mind and focus attention on a chosen task.
Reflection is simply “thinking something over with the desire to understand.” But there are many ways in which reflection can go wrong.
We stop reflecting too soon.
We get sidetracked by resentments, worries, fantasies.
We do not take all factors into account.
We neglect to examine our own way of thinking, and don’t learn to think well.
We are quick to feel we have found final, ultimate truth—and immediately harden into rigidity, like stubborn children.
Reflection requires time.
It is not easy, at first, to sit without filling the mind with some activity. There are two ways to focus the mind: a) by reflecting on a topic, or b) simply allowing thoughts to arise, and to observe and release them (without clinging to them). That is, noting the thought or feeling and then letting it go, as if the mind is a stream carrying all kinds of thoughts, and we are sitting and watching it. Eventually the stream brings treasure.
Reflection and observation of the mind are difficult because our knowledge of how the mind works is poor, and our ability to take control of the mind is weak. People begin life by letting the mind wander as it will, and are controlled by thoughts and feelings whose sources are usually flawed and unexamined. Then, when they begin to reflect, or observe the mind, they may be overwhelmed by unpleasant thoughts: worries, regrets, anger, resentment, sadness, important tasks that have to be done. All of these need to be dealt with, thought through. Beyond them is the treasure.
No matter how important any other activity is, we cannot attain a comprehensive understanding of existence without thinking everything through.
After learning the ability to reflect, the next step is to develop a repertoire of reflective processes, “mind tools” that will help in understanding a situation, and responding optimally. In the practice of wisdom, this means approaching a situation with the intention of understanding and, if appropriate, moving self and other toward flourishing.
In order to assess values, a person must have broad and deep experience in, and understanding of, both human affairs and the entire phenomenon of existence: life, death, goodness and evil, suffering and happiness; of transcendence and the Absolute; of the question, “What does it all mean?” and of the fact that we are here with no conclusive, final answer.
Key lessons will not appear as you had imagined they would. Ability to be open and adaptable to an unsuspected and unpreferred path is necessary.
Negative emotions are signals, key to identifying what needs to change—in yourself. Either attitude, beliefs, behavior, or the situation. Difficult situations are opportunities for growth. Don’t waste them.
Accustom yourself to being disagreed with, corrected, criticized, disrespected, told off. Be prepared, see beyond the effect on you to what the other is really saying. To take these things personally is a mistake.
Free yourself from all resentment and bitterness, all anger at frustration. You can be limitlessly magnanimous, forgiving, resilient, and flexible. Your patience can be endless. If you fail, or fall, you are learning. Rise and go on without delay. The task of creating a wise society remains.
Be loving and be here now. You need to be able at any moment to stop your thoughts and emotions and pay attention to the present situation. The game is much bigger than the organism’s small and brief life.
Unconditional love is possible. The power of love, and the power of wisdom, is greater than that of the atom bomb, greater than genetic engineering. Without love or wisdom, where will extraordinary power lead?
The most deluded are the most unable to see other points of view, and they need love the most. Where there is no love, put love, and you will draw out love. Hatred is not conquered by hatred, hatred is conquered by love.
Those who realize how short and fragile life is, and the opportunity and responsibility of being a human, know that this moment is not to be squandered in negativity, trivialities, or distractions.
Every person matters, every creature matters, everything you do matters.
Pain is now replaced with joy and peace. Like learning to walk, you can learn to maintain this peace against all urges to depart from it. Euphonous, this world is free of noise.
This peace is the center—awareness transcending the body, uncontrolled by the dream we call society. From this center, insight and love arise. Wisdom is to know this center.
The center appears in a brief peak experience, and it grows with cultivation.
Fill your mind with thoughts that connect you with the center: what you focus on expands.
Like love, wisdom is a choice. Some choices bring health and happiness, some bring disease and misery. To choose wisdom is to follow a path of profound understanding.
Pleasure, wealth, and fame, are all games. So are love and wisdom. Love and wisdom are games of the flourishing Earth.
Love, wisdom, and pleasure are all modes of being. Love and wisdom can be experienced at all times. Love and wisdom are the greatest pleasures.
Consider that you have died to ego and separateness, fear and hate: that world is gone forever. You have been born in a world of oneness, wisdom and love.
The wisdom-centered life is a common, ordinary, and unspectacular life. It may be boring. It is not easy living.
Giving adequate time and reflection to things is the key to wisdom. Subtle messages come forth, fundamental aspects that would otherwise be missed. A person in the habit of hurrying won’t realize how much she or he misses when hurrying until slowing down. You miss too much when you hurry. The ability to understand things is central to being human. You cannot understand unless you think things through. This can’t happen when you are rushing from one thing to another.
No matter how big a hurry you are in, you can stop, center, and be here now.
There is something profound in this moment. To realize it, be still, listen, and wait until it speaks.
Everything is communicating to you.
Perceiving reality—the comprehensive aspect of wisdom—can be pictured as encountering a tangled ball of string and untangling it. To untangle reality requires that the mind is not wandering, but focused. Thoughts are not arising and running their course, nor are we simply engaged in action, unattentive to what is going on in our mind. Automatic thoughts have ceased to that extent—at least they have no tail. Emotions, which very easily pull us in, do not kidnap our attention.
You were born to flourish, attaining your full physical, mental, social, and spiritual potential, to live fully. What would that be like? What would it take?
If you could gain a clear vision of the person you were born to be, and of how short is the time, you would not rest until you were living that life.
Most people are like seeds that never sprout: the seed is wisdom, the fully flourishing self. You cannot neglect wisdom without suffering for it.
Taking counsel improves counsel. Humor helps.
After many failures, a breakthrough.
There is a reality beyond surface appearances. Everything is metaphor.
What we need are not new experiences, but to gain more from present experiences.
Words are easy and of limited worth. Being and doing, in harmony with our words, is hard, but the marrow.
Everything depends on the way you look at it. This is the secret of the ages. We do not see the world as it is, but as we perceive it. It is possible to be satisfied with fantasy and error, unhappiness, destruction, and an unexamined life.
Finally, what is to be done or thought is always at hand, with no need to leave the present moment to find what is to be thought, believed, or done.
All people will be able to develop their best, fully-human self, in a flourishing natural world.
Know the time. Recognize opportunity and respond wisely.
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