Today, here is a bit of Native American wisdom:
I hope this doesn't come across as me just having a conversation with myself, (although I don't think there's anything wrong with that), but as I've been reading Old Indian philosophers and poets recently, I've been thinking a lot about those times when people didn't have the technology or the knowledge we have today, but when they (seemed to have) had the kind of wisdom that we still possess today. In other words, the question that I pose is: Has
human wisdom, on the level of our species - Homo sapiens, increased at all since then? Who knows... The question probably cannot be answered, because 1. how do you measure wisdom? (it's not the same thing as the amount of knowledge, information, skill, or technology we may possess, which -though difficult to measure- is still more quantifiable than the concept of wisdom), and 2. how do you recognise "new" wisdom?....
I forget at the moment who said it, but someone once said that everything has already been written, that writers have nothing new to write about - all the stories have already been told and all the ideas have already been expressed by someone somewhere some time ago. To me, that translates as: there is no new wisdom - human wisdom is at the same level today as it was thousands of years ago. The only thing that's new is discoveries in science which have increased our knowledge and skills, and which have allowed us access to more information and different kinds of technology. But, with all of that, have humans as a species become wiser?
Sorry, I don't have an answer to this question - the only true answer is: I don't
know.
What do I
think?
I think that wisdom is not found in every human being. Just like not every human being is tall or fluent in Japanese.
I also think that wisdom is not the same thing as intelligence, knowledge, and/or skill. It doesn't follow that just because you have a PhD in something, or because you have a high IQ, or whatever, that you are also a wise person. It also doesn't follow that if you're a high school dropout or if you aren't computer literate, that you cannot be wise. Wisdom seems not to be correlated with technology - or at least, not the way I understand the concept of wisdom. And there's the main "rub": it's so difficult to define wisdom...
What is it? Who is wise? Can one become wise? Can one gain wisdom, as we can gain knowledge, information, technology, or skills?... Is wisdom somehow related to age, and older people must necessarily be wiser than the young simply because of their age, or are we confusing the concept of wisdom with the concept of experience here?... Is it impossible for a young person to be wise? What is young, however? Today, in Europe, you're considered part of "the youth" up until age 33, or somewhere around that number.... Three thousand years ago, you were lucky if you saw 33 years on this planet.... Three thousand years ago, poets and philosophers, thinkers and wise people in general, didn't have time to wait until they were 80 to be wise. In fact, wisdom seems to defy age limits as well. You can be very young and very wise at the same time, it seems.
Is it, then, simply genetics? Some people are born with wisdom, just like some are born with high IQ? Perhaps... Mind you, I don't want to imply that high IQ equals wisdom... IQ merely measures one kind of intelligence, and wisdom seems to be more than that. But here I arrive at the same question again: what
is wisdom? Why do I think it's not the same thing as intelligence? After all, both intelligence and wisdom have to do with brain power and thinking and reasoning. You cannot be wise if you cannot reason with your mind, and you can't have logical intelligence without it, either. So, what's the problem? Well, the problem is that high (or low) IQ doesn't seem to reflect a person's wisdom. Could it be that wisdom can encompass more than one kind of reasoning, more than one kind of intelligence? Could it be that logical intelligence is only
one possible path that can lead to wisdom, but not the
only one? Perhaps...
Wisdom is prized by some and despised by others. So, who is wise, and what is it like to be wise? Can you forget to be wise, like you can forget some information you had learnt in school? Or are wise people doomed to wisdom for the rest of their lives, all day every day?... Is it a curse or a gift for the individual in question?... No doubt, that individual is a gift to the world, but is their wisdom sometimes a burden for them? A burden they must carry for the sake of humanity...for the sake of the species and its evolution?... Who is wise? How can we recognise a wise person? Are all wise people grey-haired or do they have some other distinguishing mark on their person?.... Can we trust somebody who claims to be wise - who blows their own horn, so to speak?....
And there's another question popping up again: can something
lead us to wisdom - can it be acquired, as you acquire a skill, or at least broadened, as you may broaden your knowledge? Can wisdom be taught? If you have a wise teacher, perhaps, will you be able to learn wisdom from them? I am not talking about A teacher, I am talking about THE teacher - your guru, or sifu, or mentor, or however you want to call it. A teacher gives you information, knowledge, skills.... But THE teacher is supposed to give you wisdom.... At least, that's the idea.... And I'm sure we can find plenty of examples where wise people had wise teachers, which would seem to confirm the idea that wisdom can be learnt and taught. But my question here is: would an unwise person have had enough wisdom to realise that they needed THE teacher? Perhaps the student was already wise, before the teacher taught them a single thing. Just by coming to the teacher, they demonstrate wisdom....
Perhaps wisdom exists everywhere, but one must simply learn how to open one's mind to it.... Perhaps... who knows? Maybe somebody wiser than me...
After all, remember, I am just a poet....
Wisdom is simplicity. Wisdom is complexity. Wisdom is beauty and truth; wisdom is art and science. Wisdom resides in the farthest corners of our consciousness as well as on the tips of our tongues. Wisdom is something we've heard a hundred times and something we've only just heard and understood. Wisdom is an idea, or a thought process, or a way of life. Wisdom is the human mind at its best: at its loftiest and at its most profound.
After all, remember, I am just a poet....