Wisdom

A bodhisattva must practice the six perfections:  giving, morality, patience, vigour, contemplation, and wisdom.  Wisdom is the most important of these because it dispels the darkness of sensory delusion and allows things to be seen as they really are.”—R.C. Jamieson, The Perfection of Wisdom, pp. 8-9

    Wisdom is central to our spiritual development.  There are many ways to look at or define wisdom, just as they are many ways to understand the other five paramitas that we’ve been discussing over the last five months.  In this issue, I’d like to talk about three aspects of wisdom, which are the different in some respects, but are intertwined in how we relate to the world.  Those three aspects are developed wisdom, innate wisdom and perfect wisdom.

    Developed wisdom is our increasing ability not only to acquire knowledge, but to see the relationships of what we have learned to our everyday lives, and to develop a more complex and vast understanding of the interrelationship of everything in our world.  If you are a person who likes to give advice about eating habits, for example, and have given advice, to no avail, to someone you care about, wisdom will tell you that you can’t control another person’s thoughts and behaviors (unless you want to try something insidious!), and wisdom calls you to notice your pain and disappointment in the person and the hopelessness of getting the person to change because you want him to behave differently.  The acquired knowledge of how little you actually can control, the other person’s lifelong experience in not taking care of himself, your ineffective pattern of trying to control others and alienating them in the process—wisdom tells you that your advice might be good, and even your motives might be true, but there’s nothing else you can do but watch what the other person is doing and let go of your need to change him.  Otherwise you’ll both be miserable.

    Innate wisdom is that source within you that is connected to the sacred or universal wisdom.  You are not just connected to that wisdom; you are that wisdom.  This is the wisdom that can emerge when we are fully present and open to its gifts.  This is the wisdom that is within everyone, that can be accessed when we quiet down, pay attention and welcome deep understanding into our life.  With this wisdom, we learn to discern the steps to take in our journey and ways that we can grow to be a more compassionate, just and loving person.

    The final wisdom is perfect wisdom.  This is the wisdom that often emerges when we have practiced diligently to discover who we really are, to clarify the meaning of life.  It tells us that as human beings, we live lives of delusion, because we are continually trapped in the material world.  It allows the veils of illusion to part, providing us with the view that we are indeed all one.  We perceive deeply that although we are part of the material world, that everything is impermanent and that we are part of, and one with, something much larger.  We realize that we need an ego to survive in the world, but in perfect wisdom, the ego drops away, and we come to the truth that we are part of everything and everything is part of us.  Whether we ordinarily feel included or alienated, engaged or distant, we realize in perfect wisdom that we are engaged with and part of everything.

    So developed wisdom, innate wisdom and perfect wisdom appear to be three different categories of wisdom, but from another viewpoint, they are really the same.  When we practice one, we practice them all.  Because from the place of perfect wisdom, they are not three, but one.  And we discover that wisdom, in one sense is acquired, but from another viewpoint, is waiting to be born.  We only need to create the conditions to allow it to manifest in our lives.

In addition to her spiritual practices, Susan R. Quinn of the Quinn Company has been an independent consultant and trainer since 1978.  She specializes in facilitation of problem solving for teams and groups in conflict.  She is certified to train using the DiSC Personal Profile System.  Her other best-received training programs are “Dealing with Difficult People,”  “Managing Conflict,” and “Learning to Live in the Eye of the Hurricane.”  She also offers values clarification workshops and strategic planning services in partnership with her husband, Jerry.  To subscribe to her business ezine, go to www.thequinncompany.com.  You can reach Susan at the Quinn Company, 246 Via Presa, San Clemente, CA  92672, (949) 366-5890, or email susan@thedeepestspirituallife.com.