An Introduction About Wisdom
Wisdom may be a tool, a destination, a source of happiness or a source of pain. The humankind has spent ages trying to unveil the secrets of wisdom, making impressive achievements as a result.
Buddhism explains the source of pain as an attachment to worldly events and advice people to develop deeper understanding of the world. Christianity has proposed love as an ultimate solution. Rene Descartes said, “I think, therefore I am”, emphasizing how all aspects of reality are deeply interrelated with our existence. The reality cannot exist without human mind and vice versa.
That’s how the world operates. Nothing exists on its own. This sentence is a summary of wisdom. We create cosmos, and cosmos in turn gives us our existence.
On Relationships Between Entities That Comprise The World
At interface with Buddhist ideas, this idea of reality as a group of interconnected objects is true. It is truer than most phenomena that seem true to our eyes. Indeed, we can’t see anything if this statement were not true.
Let’s say that there is a blue square in front of you. If the square is completely surrounded by other blue squares, would you be able to identify the square? No, because there’s no contrast. However, once the surrounding squares are removed, you can now see the square and know that it’s there.
Without contrast, we can’t recognize anything. There would be no such thing as knowledge. If so, would there be any point in discussing what wisdom is?
Figure 1. A diagram showing contrast
On The Method Of Getting Wiser
Wisdom doesn’t come to us unless we are willing to put what we have learnt into practice.
Why do some people get wiser than others? It isn’t attributable to difference in intelligence. People who have achieved wisdom spent time and effort to get wiser. People who fail didn’t. If you are content with not having a broad understanding of the world, you will never get it.
We know that dream comes true. However, only people who have spent significant amount of time trying to achieve what they have dreamt of will eventually reach their goals. People who simply read this statement and ignore it won’t.
To be wise, we have to spend time on getting wiser.
To be happy, we have to spend time on getting happier. Extra money, real estate and fame won’t get you happy for long. To be happy, you have to study happiness and try many things in life, so that you can find out what makes you happy for long. Whatever you choose as your occupation, you will encounter great challenges and times of despair. Only the ones who move forward no matter what succeed.
How To Deal With Theoretical Facts
Theoretical facts aren’t some unnecessary extras. No one wants their pilot to know nothing about the plane.
The key is, we have to study facts that are relevant to what we are trying to do. If you are studying economics to come up with better fiscal policies, for instance, spending time memorizing theories about entrepreneurship won’t do much good for you. You should use your time more wisely by focusing on macroeconomics and international economics.
If you don’t know how to use it, an extra sentence of theory is useless, to you. Collecting tangible objects, such as stone, would be a better use of time. I have written a post related to this topic, here, so please take a look if you are interested.
How To Always Have Objective View Of Events
No one, no one is truly objective. The instant your brain develops from a fertilized egg, your mind is dependent on biology. After birth, you will be influenced by your parents, the society around you and people you get to meet. No one is objective. Everyone is subjective.
However, we can make objective claims, simply by providing evidence to whatever we are saying.
Exposure to sunlight is bad. That’s subjective.
Exposure to sunlight is bad, because it has been proven through research that UV light can damage genetic materials present inside skin cells, elevating the chance for developing skin cancer. Objective.
Wisdom is more about objectivity than subjectivity.
Conclusion
I hope this post gave you support in your journey to wisdom. Thanks for reading, and see you later!