Wisdom

"Meditation brings wisdom; lack of meditation leaves ignorance.  Know well what leads you forward and what holds you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom."

-- Buddha 

"Who then are lovers of wisdom?

Those who seek to discern the ultimate nature of reality."

                                                                           -- Plato, The Commonwealth

WISDOM IS THE FACULTY OF KNOWING WHAT WILL BE THE EFFECT OF A CAUSE[1]

This is the process known to Hindu and Buddhist philosophy as viveka, “discrimination.” 

Knowing the path to achieving peace is the first step to achieving peace.  To understand right from wrong, the ramifications of what we say and do, and the process of cause and effect elevates wisdom.  The eight-fold path guides us in our decisions to know right from wrong.  It is the lamp that let’s us see both the traps and treasures along our path. 

The highest wisdom is to know the true nature of the universe.  Knowing the impermanent and changing nature of all things frees us from clinging to our attachments and desires. 

There are two parts to be aware of in the field of Wisdom

·    Right Wisdom - Most specifically the wisdom of the 8-fold path

·    Right Thinking

  ‘We must shift America from a needs to a desires culture.  People must be trained to desire.  To want new things even before the old has been entirely consumed.  Man’s desires must overshadow his needs.   

                                                                      Paul Maser of Lehman brothers

Knowing the true nature of our body and mind gives us equanimity in the face of hardship. 

Concentration develops Wisdom.  We read things and can't remember what we just read.    Or are in conversations not listening to the other person because the conversation in our own head is louder.  We learn more by listening, and we learn more about our mind when we are engaged in listening and observing our thoughts rather than participating in the cyclical conversations in our heads.

“bhāvanā-mayā-paṅṅā, the wisdom that develops within oneself, at the experiential level.  This is real wisdom.” 

In part, wisdom is the acquired knowledge that you have received over time, but it’s also good to think of Wisdom, as something already existing in your mind that you have to dissolve the encasement of, as opposed to something you must learn.

“To finish the moment, to find the journey’s end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom.”

                                                                                       -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Do not underestimate good, thinking it will not affect you.  Dripping water can fill a pitcher, drop by drop; one who is wise is filled with good, even if one accumulates it little by little.

                                                                 Dhammapada 9.7

"As one with eyes who carries a lamp sees all objects, so too with one who has heard the Moral Law will become perfectly wise."
                                           - The Buddha (Udanavarga 22.4)

Wisdom is the principle thing;

Therefore get wisdom

And with all thy getting

Get understanding

                                                                                       Proverbs 4:7

The Arising of Wisdom

Wisdom is to see the truth of the various manifestations of body and mind. When we use our trained and concentrated minds to examine the five khandas, we will see clearly that both body and mind are impermanent, unsatisfactory and soul-less. In seeing all compounded things with wisdom we do not cling or grasp. Whatever we receive, we receive mindfully. We are not excessively happy. When things of ours break up or disappear, we are not unhappy and do not suffer painful feelings -- for we see clearly the impermanent nature of all things. When we encounter illness and pain of any sort, we have equanimity because our minds have been well trained. The true refuge is the trained mind. All of this is known as wisdom which knows the true characteristics of things as they arise. Wisdom arises from mindfulness and concentration. Concentration arises from a base of morality or virtue. All of these things, morality, concentration and wisdom, are so inter-related that it is not really possible to separate them. In practice it can be looked at in this way: first there is the disciplining of the mind to be attentive to breathing. This is the arising of morality. When mindfulness of breathing is practiced continuously until the mind is quiet, this is the arising of concentration. Then examination showing the breath as impermanent, unsatisfactory and not-self, and the subsequent non-attachment, is the arising of wisdom. Thus the practice of mindfulness of breathing can be said to be a course for the development of morality, concentration and wisdom. They all come together. When morality, concentration and wisdom are all developed, we call this practicing the Eightfold Path which the Buddha taught as our only way out of suffering. The Eightfold Path is above all others because if properly practiced it leads directly to Nibbana, to peace. We can say that this practice reaches the Buddha-Dhamma truly and precisely.

Sophia

As you know, the Sophia is called philanthropos, “the one who loves man.”  She is an attitude of love toward mankind, which naturally means being human among other human beings and loving them.  That is the highest form of eros.  As Jung sketches it in his paper on the transference, it is even higher than the highest love symbolized by the Virgin Mary because, as he says, very meaningfully, “the less sometimes means the more.”  This means that if I have an idealistic love for mankind, wanting to do only good, that is less than just being human among human beings.  TPoPA 220

Wisdom does not consist of trying to wrest the good from the evil but in learning to “ride” them as a cork adapts itself the crests and troughs of the waves.

Light means wisdom, that eradicates the darkness of ignorance.  The benightedness of the mind.  Wisdom helps bring enduring peace to the world.  (Ong Bak 3 - 48m)

Through study [and by that he means just reading alchemical literature] one acquires knowledge; through knowledge, love, which creates devotion; devotion creates repetition, and by making continuous repetition one creates in oneself experience, virtue, and power, through which the miraculous work is done, and the work in nature is of this quality. 

             -- Gerhard Dorn