Wisdom

A big a topic for a small blog. So, I’d best think narrowly.

From Wikipedia: “Wisdom is the ability to think and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight. There appears to be consensus that wisdom is associated with attributes such as compassion, experiential self-knowledge, non-attachment and virtues such as ethics and benevolence.”

The first sentence is familiar. Wisdom is understanding and acting on the world effectively, abilities usually arising over considerable time and often with considerable effort. This “aging” produces a broad and deep perspective that significantly enhances successful action. A wise person sees what is really important in a situation, sees where the leverage is. When confronted with a challenge, a wise person winnows down options quickly because of long experience in what works well and what does not. Wisdom often arises more through failure than success, lessons derided or feared by most folks.

Like Wu-wei, wisdom means accepting the world as it is and working within that, never trying to force an outcome. Not an either/or phenomenon, wisdom is a matter of degrees, and with no one being wise in all areas. Anyone can possess wisdom. In the definition’s sense, an exceptionally knowledgeable gardener, truck driver, attorney, or software programmer could be wise.

But wisdom must be about more than having knowledge and using it effectively to get what you want. The Nazis had great knowledge about how to kill millions of people in gas chambers, hardly wise actions. This reveals the importance of the definition’s second sentence, emphasizing traits very much a part of Eastern philosophical thought. Either directly or indirectly, these traits are concerned with the wellbeing of both self and others. Wisdom is about acting morally as well as practically. It is as much about managing our interactions with others in the most positive way as is it about accomplishments.

While many people might agree with this sentiment, experience tells me they are mostly unaware of its implications for acting wisely. After all, who among us does not want to be seen as both wise and compassionate! That is why, of the traits in the second sentence, I consider the most important to be self-knowledge. Without it, we act out our unconscious needs and desires, many of which are harmful to others. Since the story we tell ourselves that we are wise and compassionate is inviolate, we cannot see the harm we do. When others react badly, the false story must prevail. We defend ourselves or attack the other---hardly the stuff of wisdom. But even self-knowledge is not enough. It must be followed by changes in any behaviors that harm others.

We live within our constructed stories (nearly always laudable, and just as often false), as though asleep. Wittgenstein had a neat comment about that. “We are asleep. Our life is a dream. But we wake up sometimes, just enough to know that we are dreaming.” Sadly, few ever wake up. But for those who do, the benefits to them and others are significant and of great value to society as respect and attention to the wellbeing of others becomes the primary mode of interaction.

Finding wisdom may be impossible without recognizing that we exist within the context of something larger than ourselves. At its core, that “something” must be a set of values with the wellbeing of both self and others as its paramount element. The source of those values may be a religion or God, a clan or tribe or family, an ideology, or even an intellectual construct such as offered by Humanism. Implementing the values gives meaning and definition to our lives, and offers connections with others beyond our everyday, often self-centered existence. We transcend ourselves.

Wisdom arises with the conjunction of deep understanding of how the world really works with  application of our key moral values. The wise person lives a Wu-wei life. Her key values are implemented in all situations, including, and most rewardingly, those in which she is faced with hostile circumstances or people. She does not waver, her actions flow like water (effortless effort) no matter the obstructions, and she lives an enduringly positive life. Her commitment is to a higher purpose---to manage all interactions for the wellbeing of all.

Just Sit Still, For a Moment

You need not leave your room.

Remain seated at your table

and listen. You need not even listen;

simply wait. You need not even wait;

just be quiet, still, and solitary.

The world will freely offer

itself to you to be unmasked.

It has no choice; it will roll

in ecstasy at your feet.

(Franz Kafka, “The Great Wall of China and Other Stories”)

For now she need not think about

anybody. She could be by herself, by herself.

And that was what now she often felt

the need of---to think; well not even to

think. To be silent; to be alone. All the

being and the doing, expansive,

glittering, vocal, evaporated; and one

shrunk, with a sense of solemnity,

to being oneself; a wedge-shaped core

of darkness, something invisible to

others---Not as oneself did one find

rest ever, in her experience, but as a

wedge of darkness. Losing personality,

losing the fret, the hurry, the stir; and

there rose to her lips always some

exclamation of triumph over life when

things came together in this peace,

this rest, this eternity.

(Virginia Wolf, To The Lighthouse)

These quotes come from a lovely little book edited by Roger Housden, Risking Everything: 110 Poems of Love and Revelation.

Change and movement have always been upon us, but perhaps never more dramatically than today. Everything seems to be running at top speed. Responding, we jump from one thing to another, ceaselessly. Stressed and caught up in the whirlwind of continual movement and change, we can lose touch with ourselves. Distracted, rushed and scattered, we are not in control of our own mental and emotional processes. We suffer, and export our suffering to others.

Paradoxically, even though agitated by the movement barrage, we anxiously seek yet more action, motion, distraction. In our swirling minds, if we are not continuously stimulated or distracted by something, horrible things will happen. We might have to think about things we would rather leave buried. No wonder some of us have no idea who or what we are, living in an illusory world of constant motion. The quotes allude to stopping the merry-go-round, reconnecting with ourselves. “Just be quiet, still, and solitary,” suggests Kafka. And Wolf, “…not even to think. To be silent; to be alone.” Nothing is happening. Nothing needs to happen.

Nothing to force, nothing to expect. Yet, both authors imply that something can happen in this space of quiet and mental rest. Kafka says that “…the world will freely offer itself to you….” Wolf says: “…when things come together in this peace, this rest, this eternity.” What is this something that can happen? A realization that we must separate our wellbeing from the turmoil of life, by not doing (Wu-wei again). Sit quietly. Think nothing. One minute. Multiple times a day.

Slow down. Everything. Movements, thoughts, speaking. The Talmud says, “Life is so short we must move very slowly.” Or we never know where it went. Slowing helps us stay in the present, unlikely to be undermined by our own personal turmoil, or that around us. From cell phones and social media to meetings and exercising. Above all, teach the young, who are in the most danger from the addiction to movement and distraction.

“All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” (Blaise Pascal, Pensees)