Introduction
This reflection followed the completion of an essay on wisdom. I had spent some weeks working on the essay. Its nature was practical but its undertaking was theoretical. When it was finished, I was suddenly struck by events in the world which cast a different light on what I had been saying in the essay. Suddenly, the sensitivity I had to the concept of wisdom lit up like a flare and shocked me in a way that nothing I had been writing for the essay had done.
Reflection
I finished the discursive portion of the chapter ‘Dare to be Wise’ on the last day of 2006. I reflected a little on the year past. I saw three different categories of event with which I had been associated. First, at the beginning of the year, my only and elder brother died suddenly. Second, in the middle of the year, I formed an exciting relationship with another only to see it fail in a storm of tension and strain. Last, I was shocked at the cruelty of humankind as I saw appalling pictures of a man taunted and hanged. The first event has left me changed, but it was an occurrence significant to itself—it was an objective event with personal repercussions for me. The second was an emotional event, generated by me and another, positively and negatively. I am changed by it, and by its collapse, but, because it involved another, my sadness is, to an extent, dispersed. The last has changed me deeply. The event was formed entirely in my receipt of it. Whereas before I used to shrug, "well, that’s people", suddenly, I realised, in a "blinding flash", the unchanging nature of human cruelty, vengeance and the desire to gain power over others. I saw how this trait, a deeply embedded part of humankind, leads, and has always led the human spirit like a bull with a ring through its nose. I felt separated from humanity by the sight of this one despicable act. I realised that, as the year ended, I was in a different state than when it had begun, that the now which I inhabited was inhabited by a different creature, that the world I now created was reflected in a different light.
This reflective section stems from these events
Life is an act of creativity. We create our own world by living it. Living our life creatively means freedom from the past. We are only free from the past if we know we are continually living well. De-objectivising significant points held in our memory releases us from an artificial appreciation of past significance. The only true significance of how we have lived, is in how that living causes us to be now. Our life, now in the past, is not a shelf of goods from which we select items. Some things in the past are simply significant occurrences, some affect us more but still remain essentially objects in the pastness of the world, others affect us deeply and from them we are changed. These changes occur in the remembered “now" of the past and are reflected into the experienced “now" of the present.
The possibility of wisdom is only in the now—it cannot be in the future nor in the past. Wisdom is found in a cheerful review of where we stand in life now. We must not look outside our self for wisdom—it is not there. To be wise we need to recognise the repeatability of life. Each new generation queuing up for their turn means that humankind in itself does not have the ability to change and become wise. Wisdom cannot be held by humankind. Humankind is made up of transitory living individuals. Only individuals have the opportunity to change and become wise, and then only when they are prepared to be open to possibilities, and that must take time. The “now" of possibility is arrived at over the time of the individual’s life. And we cannot anticipate wisdom because, if it arrives, it will arrive now. And if it arrives, we know it—it settles on us. Wisdom is like a mist—it masks the horizon of the future, isolates us from our surroundings while, at the same time, it joins us to them. Wisdom is recognition of “now", a realisation of necessary isolation, of reduced anxiety, a sense of reduced craving, a feeling of forbearance. Wisdom is an experience which is all now. Wisdom does not anticipate or pretend knowledge of the future. Wisdom is sustained by simplicity. Wisdom tolerates because it knows there is nothing worthy of intolerance. Wisdom recognises that significance is either for myself or another. Wisdom knows the impact of realisation, the value of transcendence, the quality of knowing. And, because it knows these things, wisdom lodges in the individual—continually in the now. Wisdom does not reach out, but it can be touched by another. Wisdom is only constant because it is constantly in the now.
Wisdom is an individual state mostly perceived by another. Part of being wise is the realisation that wisdom is not consolidated by the wise person’s own self-satisfying recognition of personal wisdom. There is no pride in wisdom. A person’s wisdom is available to others—they may inquire of it, they may ask answers of it, but any answer may mean little to them, for they must be in a state of wisdom themselves to realise the quality of the wise judgement. It is unlikely that there are wise leaders, for although leadership may precede wisdom, it cannot follow from it. Even if there were wise leaders, they could only influence the law wisely, they could not make the law wise, nor could they cause their people to be wise under the law. Wisdom cannot be had together with dogma. Dogma destroys the chance of wisdom. Dogma draws its strength from the past and forces the individual to look to the future. Dogma has no “nowness". Wisdom cannot be had by those who wish to consume more than what is necessary for simple comfort. Wisdom cannot be had by those who seek power, or fame, or celebrity. Wisdom is associated with luck. It is not an objective quality which can be located and taken—it is simply not like that. Wisdom comes from a state of realisation that much in the world is pointless and unnecessary, that humankind is cruel and self-seeking, that significance is within the self. And this comes with experience. That this rules out those who do not have the chance for experience is unfortunate for those people. Wisdom is uncommon.
Comments
This is an example of synthesis—looking at something in abstract suddenly brings me face to face with the world of reality. Sometimes the abstract and the real react in opposition, sometimes, as in this case, they blend, each multiplying the impact of the other. I learned more about wisdom from this brief insight, caused by inner sadness and confrontation of the tragedy of the world, than I had over many years of giving occasional thought to the subject. For me, this reflection is about the impact of revelation and how such things can bring about lasting change. As such it vindicates the process of revelation and strongly supports practical philosophy as a way of doing thinking.
