Wisdom is Not Book Learning-Daily Meditation-9.5.23

Today’s quotation:

Wisdom is not book learning but, rather, a quality or state of knowing  what is true or right coupled with the judgment to discern constructive action.  Wisdom is the insight and intuition contained in the proverbial still, small voice that only a quiet mind can hear and know.-Sue Patton Thoele

Today’s Meditation:

When we live in a world where simple information is considered the most essential aspect of our lives, wisdom can be rather tricky to find, much less develop.  We face a constant battle against this need-to-know information versus our desire to be truly wise, to be able to discern truth from untruth, valuable from useless, and relevant from irrelevant.

If we want to develop wisdom, then we need to pull ourselves away from the constant onslaught of pieces of information masquerading as important.  In our world today, people want to quantify everything, count everything, and “know” everything.  But the sage recognizes that any relevant and important information today will be irrelevant and unimportant tomorrow when we start a new task.  Rather than allow ourselves to be inundated with a million pieces of disparate information, we need to find quiet time to process what we do know and come to terms with that voice inside that is our wisdom.

I can learn a lot from books.  I can learn names and dates, equations and vocabulary, and rules.  But my wisdom comes from taking the time to process what goes into my mind, to allow it to settle, and then to examine it to figure out if it truly makes sense in my life.  I read lots of material about the importance of focusing a lot of time and effort on my finances, for example. While I know that they’re important, I also know that on the day I die, I’ll look back with more satisfaction on the time I spent being with others and helping them than on the time I spent making and managing money.  Someone who works in finance and helps others with theirs probably will see this dynamic differently, of course, but their wisdom isn’t necessarily mine.

Let’s not be fooled by information masquerading as wisdom.  Let’s make sure that we know what we know and how it applies to our lives and the lives of those we affect in any way.  When I gain my wisdom and do my best to expand and strengthen it, there really is no telling just how beneficial I can be to others because of what I’ve learned.

Questions to consider:

What’s the difference to you between wisdom and knowledge?

How do you go about gaining wisdom?

Why do so many people not make an effort to become wise?

For further thought:

We do not receive wisdom–we must discover it for ourselves after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can make for us, which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world.-Marcel Proust

Did you miss our last Daily Meditation? You will find it here.