HUMAN-TRANSCENDENCE
BOOK TWO
Eminent Persons
Classical Views Modern Views
Classical Views
Modern Views
A Contemplative Person's Views
Preface
Introductory Notes
I. A Human-Transcendent wisdom
II. The Psychology of Humanness
III. The Philosophy of Transcendence
IV: A Postscript: Human-transcendence as a Wisdom of Insecurity
Introductory Notes
1
A conscious transformation is underway! -- a transformation through a human-transcendent wisdom leading to the ascendancy of justice and wisdom.
As our nature is both human and transcendent (flesh and spirit, self and soul, so to speak), each pitted one against the other, as it always seems, this human-transcendent wisdom resolves this age-old conflict by having these two "antagonists" balanced into a harmonious wisdom -- hence a conscious transformation.
Underlying this wisdom is the unifying bond, or power, of Love that holds all things together in their proper place; so that rather than our humanness repelling our transcendence, and vice versa, each attracts one another in the right proportion, or tension, relative to the individual.
This human-transcendent transformation, then, has its accompanying human-transcendent wisdom as its guide, and Love [as the bond of unity] -- (or Love, with a capital 'L') as its source.
Human-Transcendence covers a wide range of human, transcendent, and human-transcendent observations of our complex humanity -- moral and spiritual idealism, evil, our vulnerabilities, our various moods and inclinations, our frailties, our inner and outer conflicts, our insecurities, and so on.
By pinpointing the array of our human complexities, this work helps us become acutely -- not just vaguely -- aware, and accepting of, the limitations of our humanness, the limitlessness and uplift of our transcendence, and the possibilities and refinements of our human-transcendence.
2
What is this conscious transformation in regards to wisdom?
It is an expanding self-understanding that comes through a wisdom that balances our humanness with our transcendence. This wisdom plumbs the psychological essentials of our humanness in relation to the philosophical essentials of our transcendence. Both these essentials originate from the source of wisdom; namely, Love [as the bond of all unity].
Transcendently speaking, we identify this bond of unity as the Meaning of unity, as an undivided, unmanifested whole: the oneness underlying all things, all reality. Spiritually speaking, we identify this bond of unity -- Love -- this meaning, this oneness, as God, or the Godhead, to be more precise.
And since each of us -- not to mention "things" -- is an individual unity-complex, there is this aforementioned underlying bond that unifies us into this particular being, interrelatedly part by part, so to speak. Hence we have our individual meaning in the scheme of things, are essentially Love, and so of oneness. Accordingly, in this sense, of Love, we are essentially God, are essentially the Godhead. And so, God is within us as It is within everything, unifying all being into infinitely relationships.
This "God within" paradigm is the cornerstone of the conscious transformation of which I speak; since it is the foremost living truth of our being --: that we are essentially the meaning, oneness, love, of all being. "God is love," as it has been handed down to us from all time and from all climes. And as God is love, so is love God.
These grand statements, of course, have to be demonstrated as believable -- hopefully true -- beyond just words, however philosophically, poetically, even scientifically, convincingly stated. And the closest we can get to that truth is to experience Love and its results. It is a simple enough matter to experience and witness acts of love in our everyday lives. These, however, do not transport us to the ultimate oneness, the bond, of Love. Yet there is the experience of that ultimate oneness known as the mystic experience. Perhaps we have all experienced, momentarily, at least, that oneness to one degree or another. If we were to read of this ultimate experience from authoritative sources from all time and from all places, we would become more familiar with its reality; and so perhaps be convinced of that reality as being Love, God, Power; as being ourselves too as that Love, God, Power, even though we may not have experienced it.
Having set down this evidence, the next stage would be to introduce the reader to the wisdom of this God- within reality; from which stage would follow the source of this wisdom, being Love.
As a person gains this wisdom, that is, attains self-understanding, he becomes more receptive and sensitive to the truths , the Meaning, of human nature and of essential nature: Love.
This conscious transformation happens through the contemplation and practice of these truths.
An Overview of Wisdom
Forward
We need a new wisdom for our times -- and urgently! A wisdom to put meaning into our lives; a wisdom that is as sacred as it is profane, transcendent as it is human; within, yet beyond, good and evil; a wisdom that is as old as the truth; a wisdom that can transform our psychological consciousness to another level: an intuitive consciousness; a new wisdom grounded on the old; a wisdom to keep our self-identity intact against the forces of social and political collectivizing; a wisdom that integrates, balances, both the human and transcendent in us -- a human-transcendent wisdom; a wisdom emanating from the Wisdom of the world, i.e. from the Love that binds all things together in unity.
The first question that might come from the reader is: What is wisdom? In answer, wisdom in its practical, human, aspect we normally understand as being wise in our actions, using good judgment. It goes beyond knowledge inasmuch as wisdom puts into practice what one knows as true or right. A person who knows what is right or true and habitually acts accordingly we call wise. Knowledge without a measure of wisdom in our lives is as lacking as fruit without flavor.
And though we understand wisdom in this sense, the attainment of it is mostly beyond our reach for most of our lives since our pleasures and pains, and our needs and our wants and our self continuously storm through us often enough making a wreck of us and our relationships in their wake. Not all the time, but enough that we hardly can gain a consistency that is necessary for "peace of mind." And no professional advise or therapy can give us this consistency. And though everything from psychology, philosophy, religion, art, may help a little and for a time,
Introductory Notes
1. Wisdom is the median, the synapse, as it were, between our humanness and our transcendence (the divine-in-us).
2. The psychological sciences -- psychology, psychiatry, psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, et al, attempt to lead us to an understanding of our humanness. Wisdom takes us to the next level by bridging our humanness to our transcendence. It attempts to answer not only the "why" but the "wherefore."
3. Religion makes that bridge between our humanness and transcendence primarily through faith. Wisdom, on the other hand, appeals to reason -- or more precisely, understanding: understanding of both our humanness and transcendence -- for that bridging.
4. Where the psychological sciences are concerned mainly with human matters, and religion, primarily with transcendent matters; wisdom, on the other hand, concerns itself with both sides of our nature - compare Aristotle's analysis of practical and contemplative wisdom.
5. Now as the psychological studies of man have been systemized into sciences, and religions systemized into theologies, doctrines, and rituals; wisdom requires the services of philosophy to systemize it into a coherent integral whole. Philosophy is the ideal medium for this task, since its etymological meaning is "love of wisdom." Philosophy, we might say, figuratively, is the sister of wisdom.
6. Wisdom, through philosophy makes good use of the psychological sciences for its human insights and councils, and of religion for its transcendent insights and councils.
7. Now the first task of philosophy, in this realm of wisdom, is to order the overall randomness of wisdom's truths, or eternal verities, into a semantics of contemporary meaning; first, into its practical meaning, then into its historically meaning, however sketchy and vague these meaning are -- wisdom, by its very nature is really, in the end, most elusive to us; and we can only do our best with what we have, which is not very much other than images. Practically, wisdom means the "quality of being wise; knowledge of what is true and right coupled with just judgment as to action; it means sagacity, discernment, or insight." In its spiritual or transcendent, or contemplative sense wisdom is characterized by intuitive insight into the nature of reality. The following quotations convey an impression of this meaning.
All men suppose what is called Wisdom to deal with the first causes and
the principles of things; so that...the man of experience is thought to be
wiser than the possessors of any sense-perception whatever; the artist
wiser than the men of experience, the master-worker than the mechanic,
and the theoretical kinds of knowledge to be more of the nature of
Wisdom than the productive. Clearly, then, Wisdom is knowledge about
certain principles and causes.
- Aristotle
Wisdom is the knowledge of things human and divine and of the causes
by which those things are controlled.
- Cicero
Wisdom is the knowledge of divine things
- Augustine
We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, a wisdom which is hidden."
- St. Paul
Among all human pursuits, the pursuit of wisdom is more perfect, more
noble, and more full of joy.
-Thomas Aquinas
Wisdom is radiant and unfading
Wisdom is a kindly spirit.
Because of her (wisdom) I shall have immortality
- The Old Testament, Book of Wisdom
A constant yearning to know the inner Spirit, and vision of Truth which
give liberation: this is true wisdom leading to vision. All against this is
ignorance.
- The Bhagavad Gita
8. Second. Since wisdom integrates the human with the transcendent in us, it would be proper to specifically name it. And the appropriate name would be a human-transcendent wisdom -- that which integrates, balances both the human and transcendent in us.
9. Since the "human" in us is so vast in meaning, it would be appropriate to narrow its meaning in reference to wisdom to our humanness, or in Nietzsche's words, our "all-too-human" self.
10. Third. Considering that one of the aspects of wisdom relates to our transcendent (or divine-in-us) nature, it would be appropriate to designate this transcendence into a specific meaningful concept -- through which we can borrow from the etymological meanings of both psychology and religion. The word "psychology" stems from the Greek psyche: spirit, soul; the vital principle of corporeal matter that is a distinct mental or spiritual entity that is coextensive with but independent of body or soma." The word "religion" has its French derivation religare meaning to tie back, tie up, tie fast; fasten...(re - RE + lig -bind, tie)
11. So we take from psychology its root meaning of "soul" and from religion it binding, tying together, or unifying-into-one. Taking these both these meanings, we have our transcendent basis of wisdom; namely Love; love in its historical meaning as an attractive force that draws and holds together all things (religion) into ordered structures, form, and function (psyche) -- that is, with meaning. I summarize this meaning of love as "the bond of unity."
12. Love, then, is the transcendent essence of everything (God is love), and so, serves appropriately as the underlying basis of our human-transcendent wisdom -- or simply, our human-transcendence. And since it is the essence of everything, is all-inclusive, is beyond, yet determinant of everything, the term "Transcendent Love" would be appropriate.
13. Now we have the groundwork from which to commence our human-transcendent wisdom. We have next to consider the method through which this wisdom is attained. For an explanation of this method, please turn to the WISDOM ENQUIRIES section.
14. To give a more complete panorama of the nature and way of wisdom, the following passages from contemporary, modern, and classic sources will provide both an aesthetic, moral, and spiritual understanding of its human divinity.
_____________
1
Some Contemporary Views of Wisdom
The following passages from scholars sum up the contemporary view of the need of wisdom in our times -- and in all times.
"Whatever wisdom is, it is complex, and not easy to describe. Yet isn't it important that we attempt to do just that? How can we hope to integrate wisdom into our lives if the concept isn't clear and we don't have the words to talk about it?
"Wisdom is a state of the human mind characterized by profound understanding and deep insight. It is often, but not necessarily, accompanied by extensive formal knowledge. Unschooled people can acquire wisdom, and wise people can be found among carpenters, fishermen, or housewives. Wherever it exists, wisdom shows itself as a perception of the relativity and relationships among things. It is an awareness of wholeness that does not lose sight of particularity or concreteness, or of the intricacies of interrelationships. It is where left and right brain come together in a union of logic and poetry and sensation, and where self-awareness is no longer at odds with awareness of the otherness of the world. Wisdom cannot be confined to a specialized field, nor is it an academic discipline; it is the consciousness of wholeness and integrity that transcends both. Wisdom is complexity understood and relationships accepted.
"John White's inaugural address (1994) offers some encouragement for those who would ask with trepidation why wisdom is not currently a goal of education in contemporary Western society. White argues for "an alternative picture of personal flourishing suitable for a non-religious society" (3). His basic thought "is that non-religious citizens need frameworks within which to make sense of their existence, both at the social and at the cosmic level" (3). His main question is whether "personal well-being needs to be understood against some kind of cosmic framework" (7). He identifies six values associated with personal well-being which invoke some cosmic consideration:
If the cosmos is not the source of values, it does provide the ultimate framework within which
values exist.
Nature, either in particular manifestations or globally, can be the object of many of our values.
Nature pleasures have their roots, if only as a matter of explanation and not justification, in our
animal nature.
Many feel attachment to nature as our dwelling place.
Many feel delight in the beauty of the natural world.
A sense of wonder by the very existence of anything at all is warranted.
"The first task is to understand what might be entailed by wisdom. Essentialist and stipulative approaches to definition must be disregarded--the first because it is impossible; the second because it is arbitrary. Wisdom has never been confined to a single meaning, though this does not mean that any definition will do. Wisdom has multiple meanings, some of which contrast sharply with others, while some will overlap. The concept is not tidy. Several characteristics are associated with wisdom. Biblical [from the Wisdom Books] examples are used to illustrate these points.
"Wisdom always refers to a state of mind that is judged to be good. This point is reminiscent of the one R.S. Peters once made about education: it would be odd to say of someone that she was wise but the worse for it. It would be equally odd to say of her that she was wise but unethical.
"The possession of wisdom is both a cognitive (part of ones understanding) and an affective matter (part of ones feelings and, thus, a source of motivation). While some wisdom may be encapsulated in precepts, it cannot be fully appreciated if it is simply learned by rote.
"Cosmological wisdom broadens the horizons of concern. It rests on a Weltanschauung), or world-view, and lays out how a person can live in harmony with the world. Toulmin puts it this way in The Return to Cosmology: Postmodern Science and the Theology of Nature (1982)
This ambition [to talk about the Universe as a Whole] has reflected the need to
recognize where we stand in the world into which we have been born, to grasp
our place in the scheme of things, and to feel at home within it.
"This last passage is in a way reminiscent of some statements the Carl Jung made regarding man's need of a religious, or spiritual, outlook in life -- or as he titled one of his books: Man in Search of a Soul."
I have treated many hundreds of patients, the larger number being Protestants, a
smaller number Jews, and not more than five or six believing Catholics. Among all my
patients in the second half of life -- that is to say, over thirty-five -- there has not been one
whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life. It is
safe to say that everyone of them fell ill because he had lost that which the living religions
of every age have given to their followers, and none of them has been really healed who
did not regain his religious outlook. This of course has nothing whatever to do with a
particular creed or membership of a church.
It seems to me, that, side by side with the decline of religious life, the neuroses grow
noticeably more frequent. ...Among my patients from many countries, all of them educated persons, there is a considerable number who came to see me, not because they were suffering from a neurosis, but because they could find no meaning in life or were torturing themselves with questions which neither present-day philosophy nor religion could answer. Some of them perhaps thought that I knew of a magic formula, but I was soon forced to tell them that I, too, had no answer to give. I have found that modern man has an ineradicable aversion for traditional opinions and 'inherited truths, He is a Bolshevist for whom all the spiritual standards and forms of the past have lost their validity, and who therefore wants to experiment in the world of the spirit as the Bolshevist experiments with economics. When confronted with this modern attitude, every ecclesiastical system is in a parlous state, be it Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, or Confucian. People no longer feel themselves to have been redeemed but the death of Christ. I heard a patient exclaim: “If only I knew that my life had some meaning and purpose, then there would be no silly story about my nerves”.
General conceptions of a spiritual nature are indispensable constituents of psychic life.
We can point them among all peoples whose level of consciousness makes them in some degree articulate. Their relative absence or their denial by a civilized people is therefore to be regarded as a sign of degeneration.
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THE NATURE OF WISDOM
Classical Views
[From The Old Testament-Wisdom Books: Ecclesiastes, Sirach, The Wisdom of Solomon, The Proverbs]
1. In her [wisdom] there is a spirit that is intelligent, holy, unique, manifold, subtle, mobile, clear, unpolluted, distinct, invulnerable, loving the good, keen, irresistible, beneficent, humane, steadfast, sure, free from anxiety, all-powerful, overseeing all, and penetrating through all spirits that are intelligent and pure and most subtle.
2. For wisdom is more mobile than any motion; because of her pureness she pervades and penetrates all things. For she is the breath of the power of God, and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty; therefore nothing defiled gains entrance into her. For she is a reflection of eternal life, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness.
3. Though she is but one, she can do all things, and while remaining in herself, she renews all things; in every generation she passes into holy souls and makes them friends of God, and prophets; for God loves nothing so much as the man who lives with wisdom. For she is more beautiful than the sun and excels every constellation of the stars. Compared with the light she is found to be superior, for it is succeeded by the night, but against wisdom evil does not prevail. She reaches mightily from one end of the earth to the other, and she orders all things well.
4. Kinship with wisdom there is immortality, and in friendship with her, pure delight, and in the labors of her hands, unfailing wealth, and in the experience of her company, understanding, and renown in sharing her words, I went about seeking how to get for myself.
5. Wisdom is a kindly spirit.
6. Wisdom is radiant and unfading, and she is easily discerned by those who love her, and is found by those who seek her. She hastens to make herself known to those who desire her. He who rises early to seek her will have no difficulty for he will find no difficulty, for he will find her sitting at his gates. To fix one's thought on her is perfect understanding, and he who is vigilant on her account will soon be free from care.
7. The beginning of wisdom is the most sincere desire for instruction, and concern for instruction is love of her, and love of her is the keeping of her laws, and giving heed to her laws is assurance of immortality [being in touch with one's immortal being], and immortality brings one near to God; so the desire for wisdom leads to a kingdom.
8. Happy is the man who gains wisdom, and the man who gets understanding, for the gain from it is better than gain from silver and its profits better than gold. She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called happy.
9. I learned both what is secret and what is manifest, for wisdom, the fashioner of all things, taught me. I loved her and sought her from my youth, and I desired to take her for my bride, and I became enamored of her beauty. She glorifies her noble birth by living with God, and Lord of all loves her. For she is an initiate in the knowledge of God, and an associate in his works.
10. If riches are a desirable possession in life, what is richer than wisdom who effects all things? And if understanding is effective, who more than she is fashioner of what exists? And if any one loves righteousness, her labors are virtues; for she teaches self-control and prudence, justice and courage; nothing in life is more profitable for men like these. And if any one longs for wide experience, she knows the things of old, and infers the things to come; she understands turns of speech and the solutions of riddles; she has foreknowledge of signs and wonders and the outcome of seasons and times.
Therefore I determined to take her to live with me, knowing that she would give me good counsel and encouragement in cares and grief….
11. When I enter my house, I shall find rest with her, for companionship with her has no bitterness, and life with her has no pain, but gladness and joy.
12. I prayed and understanding was given to me; I called upon God, and the spirit of wisdom came to me. I preferred her to scepters and thrones, and I accounted wealth as nothing in comparison with her. Neither did I liken to her any priceless gem, because all gold is but a little sand in her sight, and silver will be accounted as clay before her. I loved her more than health and beauty, and I chose to have her rather than light, because her radiance [pure light bliss] never ceases.
13. All good things came to me along with her, and in her hands unaccounted wealth. I rejoiced in them all, because wisdom leads them; but I did not know that she was their mother. I learned without guile and I impart without grudging; I do not hide her wealth, for it is an unfailing treasure for men; those who get it obtain friendship with god, commended for the gifts that come from instruction.
Augustine
1. Wisdom is the knowledge of divine things
2. Wisdom is the charity of God.
St. Gregory
Wisdom is a remedy against folly.
Heraclitus
1. Wisdom consists in speaking and acting the truth, giving heed to the nature of things.
2. Wisdom is one and unique; it is unwilling and yet willing to be called by the name of Zeus [God, the Creator of all being]
3. Wisdom is one -- to know the intelligence by which all things are steered through all things.
Plato
1. The virtue of wisdom more than anything else contains a divine element which always remains, and by this conversion is rendered useful and profitable.
2. When a man is always occupied with the cravings of desire and ambition, and is eagerly striving to satisfy them, all his thoughts must be mortal, and as far as it is possible altogether to become such, he must be mortal every whit, because he has cherished his mortal part. But he who has been earnest in the love of knowledge and of true wisdom, and has exercised his intellect more than any other part of him, must have thoughts immortal and divine, if he attain truth, and in so far as human nature is capable of sharing in immortality, he must altogether be immortal; and since he is ever cherishing the divine power, and has the divinity within him in perfect order, he will be perfectly happy. Now there is only one way of taking care of things, and this is to give each the food and motion which are natural to it. And the motions which are naturally akin to the divine principle within us are the thoughts and revolutions of the universe. These each man should follow, and correct the courses of the head which were corrupted at our birth, and by learning the harmonies and revolutions of the universe, should assimilate the thinking being to the thought, renewing his original nature, and having assimilated them should attain to that perfect life which the gods have set before mankind, both for the present and the future.
Aristotle
1. We do not regard any of the senses as Wisdom; yet surely these give the most authoritative knowledge of particulars. But they do not tell us the why' of anything - e.g. why fire is hot; they only say that it is hot.
2 All men suppose what is called Wisdom to deal with the first causes and the principles of things, so that the man of experience is thought to be wiser than the possessors of any sense-perception whatever, the artist wiser than men of experience, the master-worker than the mechanic, and theoretical kinds of knowledge to be more of the nature of Wisdom than the productive. Clearly then Wisdom is knowledge about certain principles and causes.
3. Theoretical wisdom comprises both scientific knowledge and apprehension by the intelligence of things which by their nature are valued most highly. That is why it is said that men like Anaxagoras and Thales have theoretical but not practical wisdom: when we see that they do not know what is advantageous to them, we admit that they know extraordinary, wonderful, difficult, and superhuman things, but call their knowledge useless because the good they are seeking is not human. Practical wisdom, on the other hand, is concerned with human affairs and with matters about which deliberation is possible
Cicero
Wisdom is the knowledge of things human and divine and of the causes by which those things are controlled.
St. Thomas Aquinas
1. The wisdom which is called a gift of the Holy Ghost, differs from that which is an acquired intellectual virtue, for the latter is attained by human effort, whereas the latter is descending from above.
2. It belongs to the gift of wisdom to judge according to the Divine truth. Hence the gift of wisdom presupposes faith...
3. It belongs to the wisdom that is an intellectual virtue to pronounce right judgment about Divine things after reason has made its inquiry, but it belongs to wisdom as a gift of the Holy Ghost to judge aright about them on account of connaturally with them."
4. Wisdom which is a gift, has its cause in the will, which cause is charity, but it has its essence in the intellect, whose act is to judge aright..." Wisdom (sapientia) takes its name, insofar as it denotes a certain sweetness (saporem)
5. The intellect exercises a two-fold act, perception and judgment. The gift of understanding regards the former; the gift of wisdom regards the latter according to the Divine ideas,
6. Wisdom is about Divine things which are eternal and necessary.
7. Wisdom regards the vision of Divine things...
8. Wisdom denotes a certain rectitude of judgment according to the Eternal Law.
9. Augustine says (De Trin.xii 14)the higher part of the reason is the province of wisdom, while the lower part is the domain of knowledge.” Now the higher reason according to the same authority (ibid. 7) is intent on the consideration and consultation of the heavenly, i.e., Divine types; it considers them, in so far as it contemplates Divine things in themselves, and it consults them, in so far as it judges of human acts by Divine things, and directs human acts according to Divine rules. ….Accordingly, wisdom as a gift, is not merely speculative but also practical."
Buddha
The fact is there is only one world -- there are not two worlds...People think there are two worlds by the activity of their own minds. If they could get rid of these false judgments and keep their minds pure with the light of wisdom, then they would see only one world and that world bathed in the light of wisdom.
Modern Views
Schopenhauer
1. If we go to bottom of the matter, all truth and wisdom, in fact the ultimate secret of things, is contained in everything actual…like gold hidden in the ore.
2. When I consider the vastness of the world, the most important thing is that the essence in itself, the phenomenon whereof is the world -- be it whatever else it may -- cannot have its true self stretched out and dispersed in such fashion is boundless space, but that this endless extension belongs simply and solely to its phenomenon or appearance. On the other hand, the inner being itself is present whole and undivided in everything in nature, in every living being. Therefore we lose nothing if we stop at any particular thing, and true wisdom is not to be acquired by our measuring the boundless world, or, what would be more appropriate, by our personally floating through endless space. On the contrary, it is acquired by thoroughly investigating any individual thing, in that we try thus to know and understand perfectly its true and peculiar nature.
3. Wisdom proper is something intuitive, not something abstract. It does not consist in principles and ideas which a person carries round ready in his head, as results of his own or others' investigation; it is the whole way in which the world presents itself in his head. This is so exceedingly different, that by reason of it the wise man lives in a different world from the fool, and the genius sees a world different from that of a dull-witted person.
Nietzsche
1. Courageous, untroubled, mocking and violent - that is what Wisdom wants us to be. Wisdom is a woman, and loves only a warrior.
2. Does wisdom perhaps appear on the earth as a raven which is inspired by the smell of carrion?
Krishnamurti
Wisdom is as the running waters; it cannot be captured or acquired, wisdom is true intelligence, and true intelligence is the discernment of right fact.
William Butler Yeats
Land of Heart's Desire,
Where beauty has no ebb, decay no flood,
But joy is wisdom, time an endless song.
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The Way of Wisdom
CLASSICAL VIEWS
[From The Old Testament-Wisdom Books: Ecclesiastes, Sirach, The Wisdom of Solomon, The Proverbs]
1. A man's wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his countenance is changed.
2. But I say that wisdom is better than might, though the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heeded.
3. Blessed is the man who meditates on wisdom and who reasons intelligently. He who reflects in his mind on her ways will also ponder her secrets. Pursue wisdom like a hunter, and lie in wait on her paths. He who peers through her windows will also listen at her doors; he who encamps near her house will also fasten his tent peg to her walls; he will pitch his tent near her, and will lodge in an excellent lodging place; he will place his children under her shelter, and will camp under her boughs; he will be sheltered by her from the heat, and will dwell in the midst of her glory.
4. Get wisdom; get insight. Do not forsake her, and she will keep you; love her, and she will guard you. The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight. Prize her highly, and she will exalt you; she will honor you if you embrace her. She will place on your head a fair garland; she will bestow on you a beautiful crown.
5. He who gets wisdom loves himself; he who keeps understanding will prosper.
6. Wisdom abides in the mind of a man of understanding, but it is not known in the heart of fools.
7. Wisdom will not enter a deceitful soul, nor dwell in a body enslaved to sin. For a holy and disciplined spirit will flee from deceit, and will rise and depart from foolish thoughts, and will be ashamed at the approach of unrighteousness.
8. In much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
9. Wisdom is the wealth of the wise.
From The Talmud
In seeking wisdom thou art wise; in imagining that thou hast attained it -- thou art a fool.
James, from The New Testament
Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good life let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This wisdom is not much as comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual…For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, without uncertainty or insincerity. And the harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
Matthew, from The New Testament
Be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves.
Homer
1. In youth and beauty wisdom is but rare!
2. Wisdom never lies.
Heraclitus
1. Men who love wisdom should acquaint themselves with a great many particulars.
2. Wisdom consists in speaking and acting the truth, giving heed to the nature of things.
Plato /Socrates
1. Wisdom begins in wonder.
2. Perfect wisdom has four parts, viz., wisdom, the principle of doing things aright; justice, the principle of doing things equally in public and private; fortitude, the principle of not flying danger, but meeting it; and temperance, the principle of subduing desires and living moderately.
3. The philosopher [a person who loves and lives primarily for and in wisdom] with his passion for wisdom will be one who desires all wisdom, not only some part of it.
Only the man who has a taste for every sort of knowledge and throws himself into acquiring it with insatiable curiosity will deserve to be called a philosopher.
One trait of the philosophic nature we may take as already granted: a constant passion for any knowledge that will reveal to them something of that reality which endures for ever and is not always passing into and out of existence.
[There is] another trait which the nature we are seeking cannot fail to possess -- truthfulness, a love of truth and a hatred of falsehood that will not tolerate untruth in any form.
There is nothing more closely akin to wisdom than truth. So the same nature cannot love wisdom and falsehood; the genuine lover of knowledge cannot fail, from his youth up, to strive after the whole truth.
We surely know that when a man's desires set strongly in one direction, in every other channel they flow more feebly, like a stream diverted into another bed. So when the current has set towards knowledge and all that goes with it, desire will abandon those pleasures of which the body is the instrument and be concerned only with the pleasure which the soul enjoys independently - if, that is to say, the love of wisdom is more than a mere pretence. Accordingly, such a one will be temperate and no lover of money; for he will be the last person to care about the things for the sake of which money is eagerly sought and lavishly spent.
In seeking to distinguish the philosophic nature, you must not overlook the least touch of meanness. Nothing could be more contrary than pettiness to a mind constantly bent on grasping the whole of things, both divine and human. One who is so high-minded and whose thought can contemplate all time and all existence will [not] count this life of man a matter of much concern. For such a man death will have no terrors.
Another indication of the philosophic temper [is that] from youth up, he is fair-minded, gentle and sociable.
[The philosophic nature has] a mind endowed with measure and grace, which will be instinctively drawn to see every reality in its true light.
[The philosophic nature is] quick to learn and to remember, magnanimous and gracious, the friend and kinsman of truth, justice, courage, temperance.
Aristotle
1. The capacity of deliberating well about what is good and advantageous for oneself is regarded as typical of a man of practical wisdom--not deliberating well about what is good and advantageous in a partial sense, for example, what contributes to health or strength, but what sort of thing contributes to the good life in general.
2. [Practical wisdom] is a truthful characteristic of acting rationally in matters of good and bad for man…[It] is an excellence or virtue.
3. Since it is a mark of men of practical wisdom to have deliberated well, excellence in deliberation will be correctness in assessing what is conducive to the end [i.e. one's good], concerning which practical wisdom gives a true conviction.
4. We contribute good sense, understanding, practical wisdom, and intelligence to the same persons, and in saying that they have good sense, we imply at the same time that they have a mature intelligence and that they are men of practical wisdom and understanding. ...To say that a person has good judgment in matters of practical wisdom implies that he is understanding and has good sense or that he has sympathetic understanding; for equitable acts are common to all good men in their relation with someone else.
5. Practical wisdom deals with what is just, noble, and good for man; and it is doing such things that characterizes a man as good.
6. A man fulfills his proper function only by way of practical wisdom and moral excellence or virtue: virtue makes us aim at the right target, and practical wisdom makes us use the right means to hit the target at the center. ...It is virtue which makes our choice right.
7. It is impossible to be good in the full sense of the word without practical wisdom or to be a man of practical wisdom without moral excellence or virtue. Moreover…we can also refute the dialectical argument which might be used to prove that the virtues exist independently of one another. The same individual, it might be argues, is not equally well-endowed by nature for all the virtues, with the result that at a given point he will have acquired one virtue [generosity, for example] but not yet another [courage, for example]. In the case of the natural virtues this may be true, but it cannot happen in the case of those virtues which entitle a man to be called good in an unqualified sense. For in the latter case, as soon as he possess this single virtue of practical wisdom, he will also possess all the rest.
8. We should still need practical wisdom even if it had no bearing on action, because it is the virtue of a part of our soul. But it is also clear that it does have an important bearing on action, since no choice will be right without practical wisdom and virtue. For virtue determines the end and practical wisdom makes us do what is conducive to the end.
Aeschylus
1. He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.
2. It is high advantage for a wise man not to seem wise.
Sophocles
1. There is no happiness where there is no wisdom
2. Much wisdom often goes with fewest words.
3. Wisdom outweighs any wealth.
4. No wisdom but in submission to the gods [the eternal nature of things]
Seneca
1. Wisdom allows nothing to be good that will not be so forever; no man to be happy but he that needs no other happiness than what he has within himself; no man to be great or powerful that is not master of himself.
2. Wisdom does not show itself so much in precept as in life -- in firmness of mind and a mastery of appetite. It teaches us to do, as well as talk, and to make our words and actions all of a color.
3. Wisdom is the perfect good of the human mind; philosophy is the love of wisdom and the endeavor to attain it.
4. Wisdom, which is the only liberty.
Epictetus
1. The two powers which in my opinion constitute a wise man are those of bearing and forbearing.
2. He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.
Juvenal
1. Wisdom is the conqueror of fortune.
2. Wisdom first teaches what is right.
3. Nature never says one thing and wisdom another
Plautus
Not by age but by capacity is wisdom acquired.
Cato the Elder
Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise.
Pliny The Elder
No one is wise at all times.
Terence
True wisdom consists not only in seeing what is before your eyes, but in foreseeing what is to come.
Horace
1. Dare to be wise.
2. To flee from folly is the beginning of wisdom.
Cicero
1. They call him the wisest man to whose mind that which is required at once occurs.
2. The wise man does nothing of which he can repent, nothing against his will, but does everything nobly, consistently, soberly, rightly.
From Tao The King
Without going beyond his own nature, one can achieve ultimate wisdom.
Confucius
By three methods we may learn wisdom:
First, by reflection which is noblest;
second, by imitation, which is the easiest;
and third, by experience, which is the bitterest.
From the Maitri Upanishad
The mind should be kept in the heart [as the image of love] as long as it has not reached the Highest End. This is wisdom, and this is liberation. Everything else is only words.
From the Taittiriya Upanishad
May the light of sacred knowledge illumine us, and may we attain the glory of wisdom.
From the Brihad-Aranyaka Upanishad
While we are here in this life we may reach the light of wisdom; and if we reach it not, how deep is the darkness. Those who see the light enter life eternal: those who live in darkness enter into sorrow.
From The Upanishads
The childish go after outward pleasures;
They walk into the net of widespread death.
But the wise, knowing immortality,
Seek not the stable among things which are unstable here.
From The Bhagavad Gita
1. Seers in union with wisdom forsake the rewards of their work.
2. A constant yearning to know the inner Spirit, and a vision of Truth which gives liberation: this is true wisdom leading to vision. All against this is ignorance.
3. When in recollection he withdraws all his senses from the attractions of the pleasure of sense, even as a tortoise withdraws all its limbs, then his is a serene wisdom.
4. When the heart has found quietness, wisdom has also found peace.
5. When the mind becomes bound to a passion of the wandering senses, this passion carries away man's wisdom, even as the wind drives a vessel on the waves.
6. He whose undertakings are free from anxious desire and fanciful thought, whose work is made pure in the fire of wisdom: he is called wise by those who see.
7. He has attained liberation: he is free from all bonds, his mind has found peace in wisdom, and his work is a holy sacrifice. The work of such a man is pure.
8. There is nothing like wisdom which can make us pure on this earth. The man who lives in self-harmony finds this truth in his soul.
9. He who has faith has wisdom, who lives in self-harmony, whose faith in his life; and he finds wisdom, soon finds the peace Supreme.
10. Kill therefore with the sword of wisdom the doubt born of ignorance that lies in thy heart. Be one in self-harmony in Yoga [divine union], and arise, great warrior, arise.
From Buddhist Scriptures
1. Blessed is he who has attained the sacred state of Buddhahood [spiritual enlightenment], for he is fit to work out the salvation of his fellow-beings. The truth has taken its abode in him. Perfect wisdom illumines his understanding, and righteousness ensouls the purpose of all his actions.
2. To neglect wisdom will lead to failure in life. The teachings of all religions should center here, for without wisdom there is no reason.
3. Learning is a good thing; but it availeth not. True wisdom can be acquired by practice only.
4. Be strict with speech, control your mind, let not the body do evil. This is the way to wisdom.
5. Meditation brings wisdom, lack of meditation is folly….How can one without wisdom meditate? How can one without meditation be wise? Both together, meditation and wisdom, lead to Nirvana [ Pure Bliss; Enlightenment]
6. Small pleasures given up for a larger joy - this is the way of the wise, the far-seeing man.
From The Crest Jewel of Wisdom
1. The scriptures declare that true wisdom is to know the oneness of the Eternal and the Self [one's inward divinity].
2. Whenever the seeker after wisdom makes a division, even no greater than an atom, in the infinite Eternal, what he beholds through negligent loss of recollection as separate from the Eternal, become for him a source of danger.
3. As the Masters who stand on the further shore and the Scriptures reveal, let the wise man cross over through that wisdom which comes through the divine grace of the Lord, the Logos [the rational Principle of the world]
4. I [the God of all being] am established within all beings through the Self of wisdom, secure within and without; I am both he who experiences and what is experienced, whatever was seen as separate before, with the thought of “that.”
From The Zen Teaching of Huang Po
1. What is called supreme perfect wisdom implies that there is really nothing whatever to be attained.
2. All wisdom and all holiness are but streaks of lightning. None of them have the reality of Mind.
From The Way of the Sufi / Ali
The honour of man is his learning. Wise people are torches lighting the path of truth. In knowledge lies man's opportunity for immortality. While man may die, wisdom lives eternally.
Chinese Proverb
The pine stays green in winter...Wisdom in hardship
Matsuo Basho
Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought.
Solomon Ibn Gabirol
In seeking Wisdom, the first stage is silence,
the second listening,
the third remembrance,
the fourth practicing,
the fifth teaching.
Thomas Aquinas
1. Among all human pursuits, the pursuit of wisdom is more perfect, more noble, more useful, and more full of joy.
It is more perfect because, in so far as a man gives himself to the pursuit of wisdom, so far does he even now have some share in true beatitude. And so a wise man has said: “Blessed is the man that shall continue in wisdom." (Ecclus. 14:22)
It is more noble because though this pursuit man especially approaches to a likeness of God who "made all things in wisdom" (Ps. 103:24). And since likeness is the cause of love, the pursuit of wisdom especially joins man to God in friendship. That is why it is said of wisdom that “she is an infinite treasure to men! which they that use become the friends of God” (Wis. 7:14)
It is more useful because through wisdom we arrive at the kingdom of immortality. For “the desire of wisdom bringeth to the everlasting kingdom” (Wis. 6:21)
It is more full of joy because “'her conversation hath no bitterness, nor her company any tediousness, but joy and gladness' ( Wis. 7:16 )
2. From the very fact that wisdom as a gift is more excellent than wisdom as an intellectual virtue, since it attains to God more intimately by a kind of union of the soul with Him, it is able to direct us not only in contemplation but also in action.
3. To wisdom belongs first of all contemplation which is the vision of the Beginning, and afterwards the direction of human acts according to the Divine rules.
4. The wisdom of which we are speaking presupposes charity [brotherly or spiritual love].
From The Imitation of Christ
Claim nothing for yourself, think of others kindly and with admiration; that is the height of wisdom, and its masterpiece. Never think of yourself better than the next man, however glaring his faults, however grievous his offenses; you are in good dispositions now, but how long will they last? Tell yourself, “We are frail, all of us, none so frail as I.”
Shakespeare
1. To be wise and love exceeds man's might.
2. Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile; Filth's savour but themselves.
3. Wisdom cries out in the streets, and no man regards it.
Phaedrus
Wisdom is always an overmatch for strength.
From Proverbs of Good Counsel
He has wisdom at will
That can with angry heart be still.
Rawlinson
Wisdom shall never enter an evil-willed (person).
Pilgrimage LM
It is great wisdom sometime to feign folly.
Ashby Dicta
It is great wisdom to speak little.
From Rivers Morale Proverbes
They lack wisdom that do not dread fortune.
Guinicelli
He that has grown to wisdom hurries not,
But thinks and weighs what wisdom bids him do.
Rousseau
What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?
Montaigne
1. The most evident token and apparent sign of true wisdom is a constant and unconstrained rejoicing.
2. The most manifest sign of wisdom is a continual cheerfulness: her state is like that of things in the regions above the moon, always clear and serene.
Young
1. The clouds may drop down titles and estates, wealth may seek us; but wisdom must be sought.
2. The weak have remedies, the wise have joys; superior wisdom is superior bliss.
Jeremy Taylor
The sublimity of wisdom is to do those things living which are to be desired when dying.
J.R. Lowell
For only by unlearning wisdom comes.
William Cowper
Wisdom and goodness are twin-born, one heart
Must hold both sisters, never seen apart.
Richard Cumberland
Extremes of fortune are true wisdom's test,
And he's of men most wise who bears them best.
William Blake
1. The hours of folly are measured by the clock; but of wisdom, no clock can measure.
2. The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
Thomas Jefferson
1. Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.
2. The wise know too well their weaknesses to assume infallibility; and he who knows most, knows best how little he knows.
John Milton
To know that which before us lies in daily life is the prime wisdom; what is more is fume.
Francois, Duc de La Rochefoucauld
1. It is more easy to be wise for others than for ourselves.
2. The strongest symptom of wisdom in man is his being sensible of his own follies.
3. Wisdom is to the mind what health is to the body.
Goethe
1. This is the highest wisdom that I own; freedom and life are earned by those alone who conquer them each day anew.
2. All truly wise thoughts have been thought honestly already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again, till they take root in our personal experience.
Schopenhauer
The known goodness of a character makes us patient and accommodating to weaknesses of understanding as well as to the obtuseness and childishness of old age. A decidedly noble character, in spite of a complete lack of intellectual merits and culture, stands out as one that lacks nothing; on the other hand, the greatest mind, if tainted by strong moral defects, will nevertheless always seem blameworthy. For just as torches and fireworks become pale and insignificant in the presence of the sun, so intellect, even genius, and beauty likewise, are outshone and eclipsed by goodness of heart. Where such goodness appears in a high degree, it can compensate for the lack of those qualities to such an extent that we are ashamed of having regretted their absence. Even the most limited understanding and grotesque ugliness, whenever extraordinary goodness of heart has proclaimed itself as their accompaniment, become transfigured, as it were, enwrapped in rays of a beauty of a more exalted kind, since now a wisdom speaks out of them in whose presence all other wisdom must be reduced to silence. For goodness of heart is a transcendent quality; it belongs to an order of things reaching beyond this life, and is incommensurable with any other perfection. Where it is present in a high degree, it makes the heart so large that this embraces the world, so that its own nature. It then extends to others the boundless indulgence that everyone ordinarily bestows only on himself. Such a man is not capable of becoming angry; even when his own intellectual or physical defects have provoked the malicious sneers and jeers of others, in his heart he reproaches himself alone for having been the occasion of such expressions. He therefore continues, without imposing restrictions on himself, to treat those persons in the kindest manner, confidently hoping that they will turn from their error in his regard, and will recognize themselves also in him. What are wit and genius in comparison with this?
Amiel
1. Wisdom consists in rising superior both to madness and to common sense, and in lending oneself to the universal illusion without becoming its dupe.
Thomas Carlyle
1. The wise man is but a clever infant, spelling letters from a hieroglyphical prophetic book, the lexicon of which lies in eternity.
Walt Whitman
1. Wisdom is finally tested in the schools,
Wisdom cannot be passed from one having
it to another not having it,
wisdom is of the soul, not susceptible of
proof, it is its own proof.
Henry David Thoreau
It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.
William Wordsworth
1. Wisdom is ofttimes nearer when we stoop than when we soar.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
1. The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.
2. The wise through excess of wisdom is made a fool.
3. Raphael paints wisdom; Handel sings it, Phidias carves it, Shakespeare writes it, Wren builds it, Columbus sails it, Luther preaches it, Washington arms it, Watt mechanizes it.
Charles Dickens
There is a wisdom of the head, and a wisdom of the heart.
George Eliot (Pen Name of Mary Ann Evans Cross)
No man can be wise on an empty stomach.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Common-sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom.
E. S. Bouton
True wisdom lies in gathering the precious things out of each day as it goes by.
Frank Birch
The price of wisdom is eternal thought.
George Santayana
O World, thou choosest not the better part!
It is not wisdom to be only wise,
And on the inward vision close the eyes,
But it is wisdom to believe the heart.
Miguel De Unamuno
Wisdom is to science what death is to life, or, if you prefer it, wisdom is to death what science is to life.
Lavater
Call him wise whose actions, words, and steps are all a clear because to a clear why.
Hermann Hesse
[from Siddhartha] Within Siddhartha there slowly grew and ripened the knowledge of what wisdom really was and the goal of his long seeking. It was nothing but a preparation of the soul, a capacity, a secret art of thinking, feeling and breathing thoughts of unity at every moment of life.
