an Essay on Wisdom

An essay on wisdom

What is wise in the present world of the now, is foolish in considering the future; and is a waste ground on the wisdom of the past.   Even Solomon called “wisdom” chasing after wind. (Futile) Yet God blessed him with this in abundance because all he asked for from his God was wisdom.  If, of course, the myth is to be believed that is.
          So what is wisdom? The Oxford English dictionary defines wisdom as   The “quality of being wise” or “a body of knowledge and experience that develops within a specified society or (time) period “ (1.) it then breaks “wise”  down into two sense  meanings and within that  three sense terms. From the “Wis” in the ancient Germanic in relation to the word to know.  To the adjective of having or showing knowledge and good judgement. Or to be aware of and know how to act.  Therefore, wisdom is a form of teaching; and in proverbial form, are metaphorical lessons, handed down from a teacher to a pupil through a specific culture, to strengthen that specific traditional base or culture for the next generation.  Therefore, when we analyse how these proverbs or to overuse a metaphor “pearls” of wisdom function, we have to consider ourselves as pupils listening to teachers.  For the people, who are giving this perspective of their understanding, are teaching their lesson, though the complexity of metaphor and we, the pupils have to break the phrase, or saying down, to interpret the intended meaning behind it.   
       I have to say I particularly like the “pearl of wisdom” metaphor.  I like it because it shows precisely how “wisdom” functions.  For a pearl is simply a grain of sand caught in the mouth of a clam that overtime is shaped by  both the clam and the sea that the clam filters.
​       But wisdom cannot be set to any single form of  set religious practice.Biblical wisdom though naturally connected to Judaic wisdom is similar in many ways, but is also very different from Buddhist wisdom; which in turn is also different from Islamic wisdom, and even that wisdom is divided, by its two separate ideas and notions of what it is and what it means to be wise.  To see this, let us look at some comparative phrases. "The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe." -Proverbs 18:10 Here Solomon, one assumes it is he who is the author of proverbs, points towards how the name of the Lord has “strength” within it and those who are righteous or morally right or justifiable in this understanding of the word  will find safety in it.  Opposed to this is “No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.”  ― Gautama Buddha, Sayings of Buddha.  Here Guatama Buddha  is  stating that it’s up to us to “save” or rescue ourselves  from harm or preserve a soul.  Let us also look at other phrases considered as wisdom from all over the world: "…And if Allah touches you with hurt, there is none who can remove it but He; and if He intends any good for you, there is none who can keep back His favour; He brings it to whom He pleases of His servants; And He is the Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful." - Qur'an, surah Yunus; 10:107 Here the author points towards suffering as being a gift from “Allah” and that this gift of hurt can only be taken away by “Allah”, to thus give “Allah” an understanding of how merciful Allah is. 
          This I found while considering Hindustani wisdom: "The mind of a sage, even when angered, is never perturbed. Can a man heat the waters of the sea with a lighted straw?"  Hitopadesha.   Here, Hitopadesha believes that the heart of a wise man, or a sage, though angered is not anxious or unsettled by life’s struggle, and he uses a beautiful metaphor That of “lighting a the sea with a straw” to warrant his position. Also from India: “There's no greater enemy than pride.”  Sanskrit (2.)   which can be found in pretty much every belief system on the planet. One of the most beautiful I have found is this: “Treat the earth well. It was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children.”  This is a beautiful  Ancient native Proverb from the  “Americas” (3) and though it contains no metaphor, it doesn’t need to  and is a  very valuable lesson to learn today.  Here the author inspires the reader to respect the land of his birth, because it has no ownership tied to it.  This can be expanded upon to co relate to both the children that are to come and the parents we one had. It shows that there is a balance that must be adhered to. Before we move on here are some other proverbs, this time from ancient Egypt and ancient Greece:“ - The best and shortest road towards knowledge of truth is Nature.”  And”- The body is the house of god. That is why it is said, "Man know yourself." (4) Both of the above are ancient Egyptian proverbs. The first one states that the “best” and quickest   is as seen in the metaphor for the “shortest road”  towards knowledge is nature.  Therefore, a key element in understanding how the world functions is to understand the physical world we see.  Which is the bedrock of many scientific principles today.  This is juxtaposed with the second proverb.  Here, “the body” is considered as God’s house, Or the home of God so to understand God One has to understand ourselves.   “There's a victory, and defeat; the first and best of victories, the lowest and worst of defeats which each man gains or sustains at the hands not of another, but of himself.” Plato (5) this Plato points out that when considering war and conflict, in victory there is also defeat. Because the victory one gains, comes at the price of the other, and the victims are everywhere and sadly everyone.  There are many, many Greek proverbs, I could be here all day, find your own and see for yourselves   in my final  analysis let’s look at both Chinese and Japanese proverbs. 
The first three below are considered to be attributed to Confucius  (551 -497 BCE)  Confucius is  considered to be a Chinese, teacher, editor, politician and philosopher.  And  though there are many people who might say “hey Confucius not say that”  They are, to the best of my present ability recognised as  phrases he wrote down.  “Without truth I know not how man can live. A cart without a crosspole, a carriage without a harness, how could they be moved?”  Here Confucius  recognises the need for “truth”. (6)Here, the  metaphor’s used point that without truth there is no means to move or to travel, let alone carry the heavy load to its destination. Here is another one:-“Unruly when young, unmentioned as a man, undying when old, spells good-for-nothing!”  here Confucius spells out his version of a fool.  One who is unruly or wild in his youth, forgotten about as a man and in old age unrepentant of his acts, is useless.  Finally, another of my favourites: “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”  Mainly because when this has been filtered as a clam it is a self-evident fact.  We do tend to make our lives more complicated than they are or need to be. Why? Well you tell me.  and  fainally Here are three Japanese proverbs all of which are rich in metaphor.  “A bad wife spells a hundred years of bad harvest.” This is very similar to many proverbs in the book of that name. it basically states that a bad wife is the ruin of her husband.  “ If you do not enter the tiger's cave, you will not catch its cub. “here the packet metaphor infers that if nothing is ventured (if you do not enter the tiger’s cave) then nothing will be gained (you will not get the cub) and finally “Wake from death and return to life” or to come out of a desperate situation and make a complete return in one sudden burst.  So as we have seen, from Greek philosophy, to ancient Egyptian religious teaching to the collected sayings of Confucius, to the proverbs of the ancient Japanese, to the natives of the places we have named  the “America’s”  to the abundant wisdom of the followers of many of the Hindustani  belief systems:  Wisdom is everywhere.  Of course, the real gift is finding, amongst all this wisdom something that really wise; because, one man’s wisdom, is another man’s folly.  (perhaps the word “man” might be seen as sexist here, let’s change it then.)  let us state that “One human’s wisdom is another human’s folly.” Are we happy now?  (no doubt many will not be.)
 Now, Let’s take this a step further.  If we except that language, that being the sharing of ideas, of thought through speaking, writing, reading and learning, as seen above, is something only a human being can do, Then can Scientific knowledge  be equated to wisdom?
       The ancient Egyptians considered that this was so, however, the ancient Chinese chose to separate science from other forms of philosophy, as they considered both parts incompatible with both the world that through experiment was perceived and the human understanding it gave. There seemed to be an impasse between the two
          “In a paper titled “Why China Has No Science,” published in 1922, Fung Yu-lan [Feng Youlan] 馮友蘭 (1895–1990), then a student of John Dewey, argued that: “what keeps China back is that she has no science,” but that: “China has no science, because according to her own standard of value she does not need any.”(1922, 237 and 238). To make this argument, he introduces what he calls two tendencies in Chinese philosophy, which he calls “nature” and “art” or “human,” referring to the products of human artifice. On his account, the Warring States period (475–221 BCE) developed two philosophies, Daoism and Mohism respectively, which followed these two tendencies to extreme, and a third, Confucianism, which he represents as a compromise between them.” (8)
​         China was not alone in doing this. Many ancient and present day cultures have separated the sciences away from other philosophical pursuits, in a quest to both legitimise science and understand the human condition. Moreover, as science cannot be equated to philosophical wisdom, as wisdom is essentially something from within a human via human subjective experience.  Scientific knowledge is the understanding of of an outside form, through a tried and tested set of evaluated procedures, that lead to an understanding of that external force. Ergo knowledge and wisdom are two very different forms.  Considering these two very different forms:-  a scientist might be able to equate a universal theory while being seriously pissed, or under a schizophrenic break from reality,  but, is being drunk wise? And is a “mad” man truly ill?
         In some cultures those who considered philosophy were considered “wise”. Yet in Greece, Socrates was considered foolish by the people of Athens and was killed for asking too many questions; which  interestingly enough led to more questions and to thinking and in  thinking leads to connections and that leads to answers, that in turn lead to more questions...Also  Homer was blind, yet, this led to him being connected to the Gods. Who themselves spoke to him via the internal dreamscape of the mind. So who are we to say what wisdom and knowledge is; or what value rests in it.  For  if a human knows all there is to know, then does not this make this person  proud? vain? egotistical? if a human professes all knowledge and loses his soul then where is that human if not lost? Is it wise to be all wise? And in thinking are we not merely chasing our tales? The conclusion lies somewhere in the middle of this cline. For Intelligence is not all to the human.
​        The human has to accept that there is a place where all knowledge ends and this must be at the door of something greater humankind itself.  Why? Because wisdom and knowledge must end somewhere, for as I have pointed out, there are always far more questions than answers; and the higher up the learning tree, any individual tries to climb; the more questions the person has that they simply cannot answer.  So, is wisdom worth it? Why bother with wisdom? Why try? What’s the point? Wisdom does not make a person any brighter, it does not make a person feel any different, it’s just another box of acquired personal knowledge that might have a use at some stage, or perhaps later, perhaps now, perhaps not at all. Why not eat drink and be merry because tomorrow we die?  Is wisdom a gift from God? Or is it like the box where only hope remains? Was wisdom given by Prometheus at cost to his life of eternal pain? Wisdom might be a gift but, in looking at the world now, it’s a gift we don't use much or care to or want to. Moreover, if it is considered by other's, it’s like seeing with the eyes of Cassandra, leaving us unable to do a thing about these now ongoing, uncontrollable and unfolding events.

1. OED. 28/08/16
2. ( 2.)   see  “Quotable Quotes ... Indian and Eastern Wisdom, Proverbs, Sayings from Sanskrit and others” internet dated 28/08/16
3. http://www.sapphyr.net/natam/quotes-nativeamerican.htmdated 28/08/16(link is external)
4. http://www.aldokkan.com/art/proverbs.htm(link is external) (28/08/16)
5. http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/p/plato401471.html dated 28/08/16(link is external)
6. http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Chinese_Proverb 28/08/16(link is external)
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucius(link is external) 28/08/16
8. http://www.linguanaut.com/japanese_sayings.htm#ixzz4Id0Iap53(link is external)
9. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/chinese-phil-science/dated 28/08/16(link is external)