Wisdom Comes from Leading a Certain Lifestyle
You must take part in knowledge acquisition or it slips from your grasp
I used to think I could gain wisdom from devouring knowledge. Then I discovered the greatest flow of enlightenment comes from leading a lifestyle that promotes reflection, understanding, and growth.
The library was always my friend. Stocked to the brim with information, it was a treasure trove of wisdom. I eagerly gorged on ancient knowledge, philosophy, and psychology and imagined that as I read, my know-how expanded.
Occasionally an ah-ha moment sparked in my welcoming brain, but it wasn’t until much later I recognized words, just like any wisdom providers, were simply triggers for personal growth rather than understanding itself.
It’s only when you ingest knowledge, allowing it to seep into your inner nature, and turn it over for inspection, you learn anything.
My love affair with books didn’t end but waned. Not because I thought I knew better than scribes of the past, far from it, but because I recognized the process of gaining wisdom wasn’t exactly as I’d been told. You can’t listen to a lecture, read a book, or take a class and emerge with all neurons firing like pinwheels as you burst with sage-like data.
No, wisdom stems from letting experiences mingle in your mind until, from the depths of your psyche, a small feeling or voice of triumph rises. When it does, you perceive more than you did a few seconds ago. What a miracle!
Development doesn’t follow fast, necessarily, if at all. Although you’ve enjoyed some sudden realization, you’ve not yet forged suitable brain networks to support your potential wisdom.
The next step is to put new knowledge into practice, to try it on for size. Extracting stable knowledge from a source comprises doing, even if the doing is internal, instead of mere observation. You must take part in knowledge acquisition or it slips out of your grasp.
A considerable amount of my wisdom comes from watching nature and assimilating what I learn from bumble bees, dung beetles, or other creatures. I note seedlings sprout in difficult places, yet continue to grow toward the light despite having a rocky foundation beneath them, for instance. Then I consider what their actions might mean and apply it to my own life. Only then can I extract nature’s intelligence and make it mine.
A lifestyle that supports wisdom includes the intention to learn and constant motivation to continue. We all learn, no matter what, but the process is slow unless we mean to do so and are wide open to the experience. Without awareness of your surroundings and the heart to read life’s stories unfolding before you, it’s harder to expand.
At times, wisdom is in short supply. It’s there, somewhere in the ether, perhaps, but I don’t act as a receiver. It’s only later I note my lifestyle wasn’t favorable. Maybe I was wrapped up in a drama or trapped in self-absorption: Both are hostile to development. They wrench you from the seat of wisdom and plunge you into tittle-tattle or give you an air of ‘poor me’
The best lifestyle habit to adopt for greater wisdom is being open to every moment. When you imagine everyone, and each event, has something to teach you, you’re ready to embrace what flows forth. Life lessons are ever-present. There’s never a time devoid of them. To receive them, though, you need to greet them with open arms, hug them close, and absorb them.
