“Wisdom: An Endangered Natural Resource” by Lama Surya Das

Via The Huffington Post, the most recent article by Lama Surya Das,

Can you tell me What is Wisdom while standing on one leg? This was the challenge put to a rabbi of old.

King Solomon said that wisdom was the knowledge and judgment to know right from wrong. He received his vaunted wisdom from God in a dream; would that we too had such dreams!

“Blessed is the man who finds wisdom,

the man who gains understanding,

for he is more profitable than silver

and yields better returns than gold.”

— Proverbs 3:13

The Talmud says that the wisest among men is he who learns from all. My father’s view on the subject was that it would be wise if I did what he said and didn’t say what he did. Wisdom is as wisdom does.

Wisdom is an endangered natural resource today in our Over-Information Age, where knowledge is rising and genuine sagacity increasingly rare. If we wish to become wiser and more sane, we’d do well exploit and develop our own innate natural resources for a change while furthering the sustainability of our planet and civilization. For example, time too is a natural resource; though we seem to live in a time-starved era, I personally believe that it’s not time we lack but focus and prioritization. This is an inside job. The evergreen subject of how to live our lives is the very purview of wisdom and the necessary cultivation of self-knowledge and awareness. Perspicacious wisdom is the highest form of sanity.

There was a time when wisdom, as the pinnacle of human insight and understanding, was prized above anything else. Knowledge looks around, wisdom sees deeper. Wisdom is available within each and every one of us, a combination of clear vision–seeing things as they are, not as we might like them to be–combined with understanding how things are interconnected and function. Truth or reality is things as they are, just as they are–stripped of concepts, preconceptions and judgment — and not as we are, heavily conditioned by projections and interpretations.

Read the entire article here