Why Wisdom, a Provisional Foreword
12 May 2011
The Thinker of Hamangia
He putteth forth his hand upon the rock;
he overturneth the mountains by the roots.
He cutteth out rivers among the rocks;
and his eye seeth every precious thing.
He bindeth the floods from overflowing;
and the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light.
But where shall wisdom be found?
and where is the place of understanding?
(KJV Bible Book of Job 28 1-12)
It is not necessary to hope in order to undertake,
nor to succeed in order to persevere.
(Charles the Bold) [1]
"The world was so recent that many things lacked
names, and in order to indicate them it was necessary to point."
(Gabriel Garcia Marques) [2]
*
Some time ago, I retold in writing a few Eastern stories for the benefit of my still imaginary grand-children. The usefulness of such stories used to be obvious in my teaching work. I decided that I would do the same with some fables. Incorrigible fool as I am, I still long to leave behind me, as if I counted, some compelling counsels of worldly wisdom. As George Orwell said [2a] each generation believes to be more intelligent than their parents and wiser than their children.
To write fables that carry wisdom, I thought, I need to recollect what I found to be wisdom in my own time, in my experiences and readings. Then, I would seek some vivid examples that illustrate those wise thoughts or actions, to cast the wisdom into convincing form, easy to understand. This is what fables are – wisdom made simple.
Of course, at this point, Socrates would have defied me with a sarcastic smile: “So, now you want to impart wisdom, Sir ? You are a teacher of wisdom? Then, you must certainly know what wisdom is. Would you mind explaining me - since I, Socrates, am totally ignorant - what it is?”
In fact, do I know what it is? Do I know at least by what criteria to recognise it when I meet it? Do I know the signs useful to discern true wisdom from befooling pretence? Do you? This is how I came to write the following and never ending study representing my own much-needed investigation of what wisdom is.
With an initial choice, however; I don't mind believing that real wisdom is reserved to divinity, but I mind wisdom to be accessible to the human being, that is I care for human wisdom, whatever its source. Waiting to be illuminated is not what I wait for. I am seeking after wisdom human beings can obtain, imagine think out, intuit or otherwise build, possess and make use of. Mainly practical wisdom, of all level we may conceive.
*
The appetite grew as I did my study. It is so exciting to understand wisdom, so addictive to collect it; it is, claimed some philosophers, the way towards lasting happiness, success and bliss.
I do not share entirely this extravagant belief but still think that seeking wisdom gives to us meaning of life, aim, freedom and some mastery here on Earth.
Seeking wisdom - with or without some specific creed - is a form of spiritual life in its own right, morally equivalent to any religion.
If, beyond knowing about it, we even live by it, it may help us to a good, fulfilled life, worth respect, desirable, or at least safe and serene. Wisdom is a promise of a life of quality, worth living in spite of error, trouble and pain, one at the end of which you can say: Yes, I lived!
A wise attitude to life is one that makes the best possible of its given times and world.
I am aware that these are aims of worldly wisdom for Western people, still “rich” today, still free from barbarianism revived, when I start writing, in 2011, people climbing industriously the Maslow pyramid running ahead in a gilded Samsara squirrel cage, fighting mainly with the weaknesses of our own nature and character, the limitations of the human condition and the new perils of the artificial world we created.
In bad times and unfree places, good life is much simpler: survival or a sustainable one-day-at-a-time existence, God appearing to you (as Gandhi said) under the form of bread on the table [2b] and a flicker of inner freedom in the soul. That calls for stoic wisdom closely fitted to the situation. That wisdom is the humble art to avoid permanent danger and daily aggression, to hope better future by having many children who may live better, to cope with need, suffering and disappointment, and still find some dignity and contentment; a discipline of survival, keeping out of harm’s way, History's gear wheels and God’s wrath. Wisdom for perilous times is at least as deep and subtle in skills as the refined sapience of the great thinkers busy with absolute goodness, beauty and truth.
*
Wisdom appeals to me with an immediate promise: why not live my life better, right now ? Maybe old age will be lighter upon me if I grow wise (2024: it doesn't seem to be so). Studying wisdom is, as I experience, a very good occupation for an ageing man, in spite of the regret of understanding backwards how you wasted your young years. For a young person, to find the patience to read about these discoveries and regrets and to become aware of wisdom could be of life-altering value; young, you are still able to do and change important things. You have time to start again, and again, and again, to do better, even if it is less time than you believe to have. Young, you could build beyond and above my little wisdom instead of rediscovering it painfully at the expense your own life.
*
Becoming wise proved to be a tall order though. I did not awaken to see big light while I did my research. I did not learn The wisdom (this is a good sign for my sanity). I only learned about wisdom and its complications. This essay is not it, it is still only about it.
Perhaps, approximating what wisdom is, where to look for it, what it looks like, and how to recognise it when I meet it, how to chose it, how to practice some of it, is all that my personal wisdom can dream to be. Nevertheless, I believe now, stronger than before, that many people – especially foolish ones – become sensibly wiser from the very moment they start to pursue wisdom. It is like when you start to become a Buddha: from the instant you look into a sacred mirror and see your own face which you must discover. Seeking the wisdom we do not have, is wisdom already. The quest is more important than the destination.
*
What I aim to achieve here is a text allowing, - me and the patient reader - to put our arms around this huge, elusive subject, to increase our understanding of wisdom, of its various sorts, so that we have an image of what we may seek or at least that it looks familiar to us when we stumble upon it. It may also be valuable as a benchmark to detect easier the numerous follies and stupidities smuggled under its label.
Most of all, I hope to help my son, who is busy now with the normal life and distracted with the illusions of the young, to spare a few years when the time will come for him to become wiser:
My son has gone for a soldier.
For a soldier night and day;
But my son is wise, and may yet return,
When the drums have died away.
(The Odes of Confucius ) [4]
Maybe he will then write, at last and provided he has children, the family book about wisdom. This is why we sign and © this page together. But he is innocent of the errors I may commit at this time.
Doubts
___________________________________________________________________________
[1] Charles the Bold (15th century) or William of Orange 17th century
[2] Gabriel Garcia Marques, One Hundred Years of Solitude
[2a] "Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it. This is an illusion, and one should recognise it as such, but one ought also to stick to one's own world-view, even at the price of seeming old-fashioned: for that world-view springs out of experiences that the younger generation has not had, and to abandon it is to kill one's intellectual roots." in Orwell, Sonia and Angus, Ian, Orwell, THE COLLECTED ESSAYS, JOURNALISM AND LETTERS OF GEORGE ORWELL, Volume IV, In Front of Your Nose 1945-1950, LONDON • SECKER & WARBURG, 1968, p. 48:
[2b] "It is good enough to talk of God whilst we are sitting here after a nice breakfast and looking forward to a nicer luncheon, but how am I to talk of God to the millions who have to go without two meals a day ? To them God can only appear as bread and butter." Young India, 15-10-'31, p. 310 Weekly journal, was edited by Mahatma Gandhi (1919-1932) at Ahmedabad
[3] The Odes of Confucius, in Wisdom of the East - A Lute Of Jade, Rendered with an Introduction by L. Cranmer-Byng, E. P. Dutton and Company, New York,1915, p 30
he overturneth the mountains by the roots.
He cutteth out rivers among the rocks;
and his eye seeth every precious thing.
He bindeth the floods from overflowing;
and the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light.
But where shall wisdom be found?
and where is the place of understanding?
(KJV Bible Book of Job 28 1-12)
It is not necessary to hope in order to undertake,
nor to succeed in order to persevere.
(Charles the Bold) [1]
"The world was so recent that many things lacked
names, and in order to indicate them it was necessary to point."
(Gabriel Garcia Marques) [2]
*
Some time ago, I retold in writing a few Eastern stories for the benefit of my still imaginary grand-children. The usefulness of such stories used to be obvious in my teaching work. I decided that I would do the same with some fables. Incorrigible fool as I am, I still long to leave behind me, as if I counted, some compelling counsels of worldly wisdom. As George Orwell said [2a] each generation believes to be more intelligent than their parents and wiser than their children.
To write fables that carry wisdom, I thought, I need to recollect what I found to be wisdom in my own time, in my experiences and readings. Then, I would seek some vivid examples that illustrate those wise thoughts or actions, to cast the wisdom into convincing form, easy to understand. This is what fables are – wisdom made simple.
Of course, at this point, Socrates would have defied me with a sarcastic smile: “So, now you want to impart wisdom, Sir ? You are a teacher of wisdom? Then, you must certainly know what wisdom is. Would you mind explaining me - since I, Socrates, am totally ignorant - what it is?”
In fact, do I know what it is? Do I know at least by what criteria to recognise it when I meet it? Do I know the signs useful to discern true wisdom from befooling pretence? Do you? This is how I came to write the following and never ending study representing my own much-needed investigation of what wisdom is.
With an initial choice, however; I don't mind believing that real wisdom is reserved to divinity, but I mind wisdom to be accessible to the human being, that is I care for human wisdom, whatever its source. Waiting to be illuminated is not what I wait for. I am seeking after wisdom human beings can obtain, imagine think out, intuit or otherwise build, possess and make use of. Mainly practical wisdom, of all level we may conceive.
*
The appetite grew as I did my study. It is so exciting to understand wisdom, so addictive to collect it; it is, claimed some philosophers, the way towards lasting happiness, success and bliss.
I do not share entirely this extravagant belief but still think that seeking wisdom gives to us meaning of life, aim, freedom and some mastery here on Earth.
Seeking wisdom - with or without some specific creed - is a form of spiritual life in its own right, morally equivalent to any religion.
If, beyond knowing about it, we even live by it, it may help us to a good, fulfilled life, worth respect, desirable, or at least safe and serene. Wisdom is a promise of a life of quality, worth living in spite of error, trouble and pain, one at the end of which you can say: Yes, I lived!
A wise attitude to life is one that makes the best possible of its given times and world.
I am aware that these are aims of worldly wisdom for Western people, still “rich” today, still free from barbarianism revived, when I start writing, in 2011, people climbing industriously the Maslow pyramid running ahead in a gilded Samsara squirrel cage, fighting mainly with the weaknesses of our own nature and character, the limitations of the human condition and the new perils of the artificial world we created.
In bad times and unfree places, good life is much simpler: survival or a sustainable one-day-at-a-time existence, God appearing to you (as Gandhi said) under the form of bread on the table [2b] and a flicker of inner freedom in the soul. That calls for stoic wisdom closely fitted to the situation. That wisdom is the humble art to avoid permanent danger and daily aggression, to hope better future by having many children who may live better, to cope with need, suffering and disappointment, and still find some dignity and contentment; a discipline of survival, keeping out of harm’s way, History's gear wheels and God’s wrath. Wisdom for perilous times is at least as deep and subtle in skills as the refined sapience of the great thinkers busy with absolute goodness, beauty and truth.
*
Wisdom appeals to me with an immediate promise: why not live my life better, right now ? Maybe old age will be lighter upon me if I grow wise (2024: it doesn't seem to be so). Studying wisdom is, as I experience, a very good occupation for an ageing man, in spite of the regret of understanding backwards how you wasted your young years. For a young person, to find the patience to read about these discoveries and regrets and to become aware of wisdom could be of life-altering value; young, you are still able to do and change important things. You have time to start again, and again, and again, to do better, even if it is less time than you believe to have. Young, you could build beyond and above my little wisdom instead of rediscovering it painfully at the expense your own life.
*
Becoming wise proved to be a tall order though. I did not awaken to see big light while I did my research. I did not learn The wisdom (this is a good sign for my sanity). I only learned about wisdom and its complications. This essay is not it, it is still only about it.
Perhaps, approximating what wisdom is, where to look for it, what it looks like, and how to recognise it when I meet it, how to chose it, how to practice some of it, is all that my personal wisdom can dream to be. Nevertheless, I believe now, stronger than before, that many people – especially foolish ones – become sensibly wiser from the very moment they start to pursue wisdom. It is like when you start to become a Buddha: from the instant you look into a sacred mirror and see your own face which you must discover. Seeking the wisdom we do not have, is wisdom already. The quest is more important than the destination.
*
What I aim to achieve here is a text allowing, - me and the patient reader - to put our arms around this huge, elusive subject, to increase our understanding of wisdom, of its various sorts, so that we have an image of what we may seek or at least that it looks familiar to us when we stumble upon it. It may also be valuable as a benchmark to detect easier the numerous follies and stupidities smuggled under its label.
Most of all, I hope to help my son, who is busy now with the normal life and distracted with the illusions of the young, to spare a few years when the time will come for him to become wiser:
My son has gone for a soldier.
For a soldier night and day;
But my son is wise, and may yet return,
When the drums have died away.
(The Odes of Confucius ) [4]
Maybe he will then write, at last and provided he has children, the family book about wisdom. This is why we sign and © this page together. But he is innocent of the errors I may commit at this time.
Doubts
___________________________________________________________________________
[1] Charles the Bold (15th century) or William of Orange 17th century
[2] Gabriel Garcia Marques, One Hundred Years of Solitude
[2a] "Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it. This is an illusion, and one should recognise it as such, but one ought also to stick to one's own world-view, even at the price of seeming old-fashioned: for that world-view springs out of experiences that the younger generation has not had, and to abandon it is to kill one's intellectual roots." in Orwell, Sonia and Angus, Ian, Orwell, THE COLLECTED ESSAYS, JOURNALISM AND LETTERS OF GEORGE ORWELL, Volume IV, In Front of Your Nose 1945-1950, LONDON • SECKER & WARBURG, 1968, p. 48:
[2b] "It is good enough to talk of God whilst we are sitting here after a nice breakfast and looking forward to a nicer luncheon, but how am I to talk of God to the millions who have to go without two meals a day ? To them God can only appear as bread and butter." Young India, 15-10-'31, p. 310 Weekly journal, was edited by Mahatma Gandhi (1919-1932) at Ahmedabad
[3] The Odes of Confucius, in Wisdom of the East - A Lute Of Jade, Rendered with an Introduction by L. Cranmer-Byng, E. P. Dutton and Company, New York,1915, p 30