Wisdom

       Consciousness or awareness is a characteristic of life. We know this because we experience it. We know it from the sheer act of being. But at first we do not know much of its expanse. It is like a seed. It has the potential to grow, flower and expand but requires certain conditions in order for it to fully flourish. Although inherent in all life, consciousness progressively reveals itself in dependence on biology, and in humans on dependence on personal intention and effort as well.

            In primitive life consciousness is more or less asleep as the conditions for its unfolding are incomplete. All that manifests are its rudimentary aspects that appear as fixed instincts necessary to insure survival and maintain homeostasis. With more developed forms of life new capacities arise in relationship to further biological development. These include social behaviors, more complex motor skills, memory and increasingly complex behavioral patterns. Each leap in the evolutionary cycle provides a more complex biological instrument that is capable of revealing more and more of the sophisticated and subtle aspects of consciousness.

            Human life is the pinnacle of evolutionary development. We alone are blessed with the biology, brain development and capacity for intention and will that are the basis for a highly developed consciousness. But this development is not guaranteed. There are many levels of consciousness that are available to us. To gain higher levels of development we must train and cultivate our mental capacities. We must work to mature our lives. This is a capacity reserved exclusively for human life. All other living beings are limited by their biology. Amazingly, we can take conscious control over the evolution of our mind and spirit. We are not limited by our biology.

            Our biology provides us with great latitude. There is a range of consciousness available to each of us. We can live our life in a semi-instinctual way by unconsciously following fixed mental habits and behavioral patterns. But we can also go further. We can gain psychological insight which further expands our consciousness, capacities and autonomy. And with considerable effort and devotion we can actually perfect the unfolding of our consciousness and come to know the very nature of our being, re-uniting with the sacred oneness of all of life. Through determination and perseverance we can evolve the fullness of our humanity, gaining remarkable wisdom, insight, peace and happiness. This is not a possibility reserved for a few sages. It is possible for each of us. It is not an ordinary life. It is an extraordinary one.

            However, this is not an easy task. We still have one foot, if not two, in the animal community. We are still evolving as humans, individually and collectively. As a result we feel the downward forces of a more rudimentary consciousness that emphasizes physical and emotional survival while we’re simultaneously pulled by the forces of evolution toward the perfection of our being. It is somewhat of a “tug-of-war.” That is where we are now. We live between two worlds, experiencing the powerful forces of our earlier evolutionary life as well as the insistent call of our human soul. We are pulled backed by the former and pushed forward by the latter.

            To understand this dynamic dilemma as it plays itself out in each of our lives is to bring awareness and choice into life. Do we wish to be drawn towards a lesser life or toward the completion of our possibilities? Will the past hold sway over the future or will the future transcend the past? How we each answer this question will determine how and if we evolve our innate seed of wisdom.

            Wisdom develops in tandem with the development of consciousness. In its most complete and perfected form it undermines superficial understandings, providing us with a penetrating, precise and full knowledge of our lives and of our existence. In this sense, the perfection of wisdom transcends all lesser understandings and apprehends the true nature of experience and phenomena with accuracy and finality. It knows the truth of how things are and how life is. The full flowering of consciousness leads to the perfection of wisdom. Full knowing frees us from the usual bounds of ordinary life, allowing us to experience an unfettered and radical freedom, peace, wholeness, happiness and love.

            Who could doubt that it is man’s purpose to go beyond himself, beyond the limitations and restrictions of ordinary life with all its anxieties, frustrations, self-centeredness, confusion and doubt? Who would question the evolutionary force in human life that propels us toward greater and greater understanding? Who would take from our life the possibility of knowing and merging with the sacred and divine forces of the great mystery? Who would knowingly deny themselves the beauty and magnificence of a perfected life that has touched and lived the full range and scope of the human experience? The unfortunate and sad fact is that most individuals live and die without ever experiencing much of life. They don’t know what they don’t know.

            However, the capacity for full wisdom is already and always present within each of us. We are wired with an irrepressible force that drives our lives toward complete fulfillment, full consciousness and the perfection of wisdom. But how do we know that this seed, this possibility resides within each of us? We know this because courageous men and woman across time and diverse cultures have themselves taken the journey from “dust to divine” – from ignorance to transcendent wisdom. They have taught us by their example and left an extensive set of teachings that serve to guide us. The roadmap we are given is twofold. First, we are taught about the progressive levels of development that take us from an instinctual consciousness to a matured wisdom. Second, we are provided with the understandings and practices that enable each one of us to take this journey. Through their efforts we know what is possible and we know how to get there. The rest is up to us.

The Levels of Development

            The growth from ignorance to wisdom ascends along what we are calling a “line of development.” It is like a ladder. Each step represents an expansion of consciousness. As we ascend from one level to another we gain new perspectives, understandings, resources and capacities. These achievements expand our life and take us closer to the full embrace of our humanity. We never loose what we have gained. Each level of development transcends what was previously achieved and incorporates it into our expanding repertoire of knowledge and skills. The formula is “transcend and embrace.” For example, although our life is no longer focused around survival we retain this life-sustaining instinct. We see it awaken when we step in front of a moving car. Our mind and body quickly gear up to take the actions necessary for survival. Although we still retain this capacity it is no longer the center of our lives. We have embraced its importance to us yet transcended its dominance in our lives, allowing for further growth and development. That is how we progressively evolve towards full wisdom. We embrace what was and shift to what is next on the ladder of development.

            There is no guarantee that we will mature towards greater wisdom and capacity. There is no guarantee that we will move up the ladder of development. As noted earlier there are always two forces at work. The first is the yearning of the soul to live in its fullness, freedom, connectedness and truth. This is a powerful life yearning that calls us toward what we can become. However, there is also a second powerful force at work – the force of inertia. This force pulls us back towards the known – towards safety, comfort, security and the familiar. We each experience both these forces. And we will each make a choice, unconscious or conscious, between the forces that pull us back toward our animal-like existence and the forces that pull us toward the divine. This is a choice between an ordinary life and an extraordinary life. Imagine reviewing your life at the time of death. From that perspective which choice would you make?

             The reason that there is a choice is that the capacity for wisdom is encoded into every human life. It is present as a potential even in the infant. If you rub charcoal you will never find gold. If you take the encrustations off of gold ore you will fine gold. It is the same for us. Unless the capacity for a higher wisdom was encoded in us from the beginning we could never attain it regardless of our efforts.

            But like milk that has to be churned to reveal its sweet essence of butter, a human life must be worked with to reveal its greatest potential. Without intention, guidance, effort and devotion our mental life will remain quite primitive. However, if we are decisive about our choice and apply our self to this noble human endeavor it is possible for each of us to move through successive levels of development to attain a full and comprehensive wisdom.

Instinctual “Knowledge”

            There can be little argument that the young child has no idea whatsoever about the nature of their own life, less existence itself. The child is unconsciously focused on physical survival and the biological mechanisms that sustain life. These physical/mental instincts dominate early life. They are impersonal. They are unconscious reflex mechanisms that secure survival. There is a “knowing” in these instincts. However, it is a knowing that is far more physical than mental. It is where we start.

            This starting point in human development is a recapitulation of the sensory-motor level of conscious that is present in all living organisms from amoeba to human. The actual instinctive survival mechanisms differ according to species and environment but the mechanics are much the same. However, as humans we have the capacity to move far beyond these basic instincts. They will always be part of our being – silently running our physiology or becoming more evident at times of grave threat. They are never given up. But they can be transcended in which case they are no longer the central focus of our existence.

            There is a sweet innocence to early life. The world is experienced directly with a simplistic ease and awe. But this cannot be romanticized and mistaken for the mature and wise simplicity, naked awareness and beauty that are seen by the wise one. The child’s innocence exists in the context of ignorance. It cannot be translated into rich relationships, authentic love or compassionate service. The child’s sweet innocence is vulnerable and will be broken in time. The child-like simplicity of a wise one is immune and invulnerable to the downward pulls and forces of life’s adversities.  Profound wisdom always translates into profound action.

Mechanical Knowledge

            The young child rapidly begins to learn about how the world works. This assimilation of mechanical knowledge continues unabated throughout adult life. For a child it may be about how to get food from the table into ones mouth, to move from here to there, to communicate about needs and preferences and to progressively learn to navigate the world. For an adult it may range from filling out applications to learning how a car or computer works. The characteristic of mechanical knowledge is that it is about how to do this or that. There is no personal or psychological aspect to it. It is largely factual and practical. There is no wisdom involved and only a superficial level of reflection.

            Knowledge of this sort helps us live life. Because it is largely factual and mechanical, it neither causes us mental distress nor contributes to the growth of wisdom. We can spend our entire life perfecting mechanical knowledge, enabling us to successfully navigate the outer world and even achieve worldly success. In fact, in modern times we have mastered the skill of “doing.” Yet such knowledge offers no guarantee that we attain the wisdom and understanding that is necessary for optimal health, happiness, inner peace and compassion. It does not guarantee or even offer us an in-depth understanding of our life, satisfying intimacy or the understanding that enables us to skillfully and peacefully move through life’s adversities. That requires an expanded consciousness rather than merely an expanded capacity “to do.”

            It is possible to remain at this level of development for an entire lifetime. But we will undoubtedly feel the effects of an unexamined and undeveloped inner life. These effects will show up as an uncontrollable overactive mind, unrelenting stress, anxiety, mood disorders, unhappiness, dysfunctional relationships and their physical counterparts of stress related disease and premature illness. This is the result of an over dominant mechanical life of doing and an absence of inner development. A stunted development that fixates on mechanical doing may achieve worldly success but this is invariably accompanied by the epidemics of mental distress and chronic disease that characterize modern times.

            However, given the modern day renewal of psychological thought in the 19^th century it is increasingly difficult to avoid the realities of our inner life. And that is good. If we want more we have to grow larger. For this we must begin with our psychology, our inner life. We have to learn how “to be” as well as how “to do.”

Psychological Knowledge

            Psychological understanding is a bridge between the instinctual and mechanical life of the infant and young child and the capacity for wisdom that can emerge in the adult. Psychological development is a necessary foundation for a larger life. Without this foundation wisdom remains an unrealized potential.

            If we are to gain wisdom and an expansive life we must illuminate and understand the fixed attitudes and behavioral patterns that guide the first part of life. The inertia of early patterns prefers seeming “stability” to the uncertainty of change. As a result, we are usually not moved to grow beyond familiar ways until we have experienced a level of stress or distress that is sufficient to “wake” us up. However, when life breaks us open and old ways no longer work we become primed for psychological development. We have a choice – either grow or stagnate. It is as if a door opens and we stand at the threshold of possibility. We are  ready yet at the same time bit anxious to step through to the other side. If we choose growth, which at this level means psychological development. We will begin the journey toward another level of being. We will open new possibilities and gain expanded resources and capacities. If we turn away we will have more if what was.

            Psychological knowledge is different from mechanical knowledge. Unlike the latter which is about outer objects, psychological knowledge is about our inner life. It is far less tangible than mechanical knowledge. Although it may seem otherwise, it is far easier to read an instruction manual for a new car or navigate the complexities of outer life than it is to understand the intricate pathways of our thoughts, feelings, mental imagery, vivid night dreams, attitudes and behaviors. It requires a new-found and carefully developed awareness, skill and insight to navigate the nuances of ones inner life and interpersonal relationships.

            The problem in understanding our inner life is that the mind that we are attempting to use to understand itself is the same mind that veils the truth of our life. Our mind keeps us from seeing the very things we need to see. Our habitual ways of perceiving and acting are so fixed that we cannot see through them. We cannot easily detect or examine our hidden motivations and untapped possibilities. This is compared to the impossibility of a knife cutting itself. As a result, it is very difficult to understand ones psychology without an outside observer. In fact, it is close to impossible. To explore our psychology it is first necessary to tame the active mind and develop a field of openness and clarity. From that perspective, with the help of a mentor and guide, we can begin to penetrate the depths of our being where we are certain to move beyond the constraints of an undeveloped mind and discover the truth of who and what we are.

            The psychological mind grows through several levels of development, ranging from coarse to subtle to most subtle. At the coarsest level is the simple awareness of thoughts, feelings, mental imagery, happiness and distress. This is the overt experience of our inner life. We are aware of our mental life but are unaware of its motivation and meaning. We cannot see the underlying patterns and attitudes that shape and govern our life. We think we have free will but nothing could be further from the truth. We are enslaved to our past and condemned to repeat it again and again. We are moved by inner and outer forces over which we have little control. Our mind is like a flag automatically following the movements of the wind. We are pushed and pulled by ceaseless mental chatter. The best we can do is attempt to arrange the world in a way that provides us with as much comfort, security and pleasure as possible.            

            If there is enough suffering we may be forced to look beneath the surface. If we do so our psychological life will begin to unfold. We will slowly become aware of how our life actually works. We can trace our disturbances back in time and understand the sources of behavior. We shine a light on what was once hidden. We see the repetitive patterns that underlie our day-to-day experience. This growth in understanding softens distress, allows for new behaviors, enhances our relationships and expands our life. We learn how to communicate, hear others, be intimate, dampen our reactivity and gain emotional stability. We become more mindful, attentive and present to life. We feel more autonomy and less helplessness. There is greater inner peace, stability, understanding and autonomy. We develop an increasingly healthier self.           

            With greater subtlety we shift from understanding and cleaning up dysfunction to gaining psychological well being. We are ready to establish basic wellness. How do we do this? We discover that we cannot control the outer world but that we can control how we relate to it. We slowly develop an internal locus of control. We gain greater understanding in our values, talents and capacities. We are more capable of committing our self in a direction that is consistent and authentic to our soul. We become increasingly resourceful. We know how to find and apply resources toward goals and directions that are expressive of our nature. We are able to meet life’s challenges, viewing them as opportunities for growth rather than sources of despair. We no longer respond with fear. We respond with enthusiastic expectancy. We develop a sense of meaning and purpose that is uniquely our own. In these and other ways we evolve an increasingly healthy psychology.

            These are the three ways in which we relate to our psychology. The first is the mere experience of our overt thoughts and feelings, an experience that lacks understanding. The second is the movement toward an understanding of our psychology which releases us from outdated mental habits and behaviors and increases self-knowledge and personal autonomy. The third focuses most directly on enhancing our psychological well being. The latter is a movement towards wholeness and self-actualization rather than a reaction to distress. Not everyone takes this full psychological journey, but those who do gain greater capacity, resources, fulfilling relationships and enduring happiness. They have prepared themselves for the next step in inner development. The highest levels of mental development require that we first move beyond the limitations of an unseen psychology to a healthy psychology. This becomes the basis for the next level of development.

Wisdom

            Psychological well being is the necessary basis for the development of wisdom. There are two basic levels of wisdom. This first is the wisdom of the sage. The sage has attained the pinnacle of mental development – the full development of the cognitive mind. The second is the wisdom of the realized spiritual being – an all-encompassing and all-seeing knowledge that transcends intellect and cognition and apprehends the essential nature of self and life. This level of achievement is the final and complete perfection of wisdom. There is no more.

            Let’s begin with the wisdom of the sage. When self-centeredness and mental afflictions have been replaced by psychological well being our mind is released from relentless mental chatter, fixed perspectives, habitual behaviors and reactivity. What remains is a stable spaciousness, stillness, clarity, openness, mental ease and present moment awareness. We simply rest, relax and experience life in the context of inner stillness and calm. What we then discover is that the mind, no longer dominated or obstructed by disruptive mental activity, has the capacity to “see” beyond the immediacy and pull of ordinary mental activity and the patterns and biases of personal perspectives. We are increasingly free to experience life as it actually is, neither embellished nor altered by an overactive mental life.

            The wisdom of the sage is grounded in intellect. We are still in the realm of cognition. But at this level of development thought is vision-like rather than analytic. We have all had a taste of vision-like knowing. At one time or another we’ve had the experience of a sudden inner illumination which allows us to envision things in a more connected and whole way. We refer to this as an “aha” experience. In a moment of mental stillness and clarity, so brief that it often goes unnoticed, a spontaneous knowing arises that is immediately sensed as a higher, more comprehensive and illuminating truth. These intuitive revelatory moments of holistic insight are not confined to information or knowledge about a particular object or experience. This glimpse of all-encompassing knowledge apprehends patterns and connections, the whole rather than the parts.

            Unlike information and knowledge that is limited by the biases of personal perspective and the coloration of past experience, this broader understanding is impersonal, impartial and truth-based rather than perspective-based. It is unchanging over time and across diverse cultures. It informs us about what is common to all humanity and to existence itself.

            For example, from this higher perspective we can apprehend the interdependence of all things. With an uncanny clarity we can see that nothing exists independently or autonomously. Nothing is partless. Nothing is an island onto itself. Consider our body. It is dependent on its organs which are dependent on their tissues and cells which are dependent on nutrients from the environment and so on. Existence is a seamless interwoven inter-related whole. Everything affects everything else. This is a single example of a wise truth that is impersonal, impartial, all-encompassing and shared by humanity. This is an integral perspective, There are no exceptions to it.

            But there is more. What are the implications of this universal truth? If everything is interdependent and inter-related we must consider all aspects of an experience to arrive at a comprehensive and accurate understanding. For example, consider health and disease. For the purposes of this discussion we can say that human life manifests in four ways. We are psychospiritual, biological, interpersonal and cultural beings. We cannot fully understand health or disease without considering each of these areas of our life. They are interdependent. They work together. If we consider only one aspect – in modern times this is usually the biological – we only have a partial understanding, a partial health and a partial healing of disease. When we gain a larger and more comprehensive understanding we do not give up the biological perspective but rather embrace it as an essential part of an expanded integral and holistic vision. We gain a more precise and expansive knowledge, enhanced capacities and new skills.

            The capacity for integral holistic thinking is a characteristic of the higher mind. We are no longer contaminated by the half-light and half-truth of information and knowledge that is individually based and thereby relative to ones self, personal history, fixed perspectives, and habitual behaviors. We have moved beyond our small self and into our larger self. As a result, we can apprehend a holistic wisdom-truth all at once, in a single sweep that transcends mental analysis, reductive thinking, the logic of interactive dialogue and debate, and the “built-up” knowledge based on prior premises and data. We now see from an impartial and broader perspective. We gain the capacity to intuit a single all-encompassing holistic integral view of existence. This way of knowing embraces and transcends fragmentary subjective thinking. This is what distinguishes this aspect of wisdom from psychological well being.

            For a better understanding we can divide the development of this aspect of wisdom into three phases. The first is the movement beyond fragmentary and self-based understandings. This movement apprehends the integration and interdependence of all aspects of experience. We are no longer self-encapsulated. We become participants in a seamlessly interactive singular organism we can call “life.” The focus on self expands to include others which then expands to include all of us, other living creatures and finally, our nurturing earth. We now know we are not alone. We are neither separate from nor disconnected from the whole. We are fully integrated into a larger community that heals together or becomes ill together, stagnates or flourishes. We begin to think and act from this larger vision.

            The second phase is a further maturation of wisdom. Our growing sense of interdependence and inter-relatedness becomes more firmly rooted in a holistic and integral vision. At first this vision come as a flash, arising in the spacious awareness and openness of the still mind. There is a gap between two thoughts. There is a standstill of mental activity. And then there is a breakthrough to a larger vision that comes fully intact and complete. By cultivating these momentary flashes of wisdom-truth we progressively gain stability in the capacity to use our higher mind. It increasingly becomes a part of our life, embracing but not supplanting lesser forms of knowledge. In this second phase we increasingly turn our life towards holistic integral perspectives. It is marked by the progressive dominance and stability of integral thinking.

            The third and final phase – the culmination of our mental capacities – is the emergence of a unitary or non-dual vision which is an intimation of the final achievement, the perfection of wisdom. This unitary or non-dual vision is the intellectual understanding and certainty that life is a seamless whole. The mental division into parts is now seen as a useful tool that broadens our understanding, but that is not how existence actually is. Life is “as is.” It is unconstructed, uncontrived, unlabelled and unembellished by our mind. It is a naked moment-to-moment awareness. It is neither integrated nor interdependent. It is a singular indivisible unity of movement and being.

            This illuminated understanding is like a partial light ray emerging from transcendent wisdom which knows this truth directly and decisively, free of the slightest element of cognitive thinking. Here, at the pinnacle of mental development, we are gaining the intellectual vision that intimates the wisdom of direct knowledge. It is difficult to grasp the oneness of life by using our mental capacities because we are attempting to comprehend an experience that transcends the mind. So words begin to fail us. We can only fully grasp this vision when we reach transcendent knowing, the perfection of wisdom. Therefore, this peak of mental development must satisfy itself with a mere intellectual intimation of transcendent wisdom.

            We have now traversed the full scope of mental development ranging from the basic instinctual mind to mechanical thinking to psychological understanding to the wisdom of the sage. It is not as if this development occurs in a linear fashion. It doesn’t. It is not that each period of growth is stabilized from the beginning. It is not. There is always a strong gravitational pull from lower levels of development which refuse to give up their dominance without a fight. But in time we ascend the ladder of development, gaining and stabilizing greater capacity, knowledge and wisdom.

The Perfection of Wisdom

            We are twice blessed. First, we are endowed with an extraordinary intellect which enables us to gain insight and understanding into our psychology and day-to-day world. And then, we are also endowed with a unique capacity to directly and decisively experience the fundamental nature of self and life. This latter capacity transcends the intellect and is informed through the direct experience of our essential being, without the mediation of cognition. The individual who attains the peak of intellectual understanding is called the sage. The individual who goes beyond intellect to discern the very nature of self and life is called a spiritual being. Our intellect teaches us about the psychological and material world. Spiritual wisdom teaches us about a subtler unseen world that underlies and supports our conventional experience of life.

            Although mastery of our intellectual capacities is an essential, if not necessary, foundation for the perfection of spiritual understanding, it cannot take us to this final wisdom. Why not? Because the wisdom of the spiritual being is non-conceptual. It reveals to us the fundamental ground of existence that is beyond words. Therefore, it cannot be reached through conceptual means, through reason and logic. So how do we arrive at transcendental wisdom? We experience it by resting in what we can call open awareness.

            Open awareness is actually our natural home. It is our deepest self. It is a deceptively simple and ordinary moment-to-moment presence and being that is undistracted by the pull of mental activity. We are simply aware, open and nakedly aware, of life itself  precisely as it is untouched by the elaborations of thought. It is the gap between two thoughts, the sudden loss of selfness, the letting go at the peak of orgasm, the moment of the union of the dancer and the dance, the singer and the song, I and other. Open awareness is spacious like space, vast and stable like an ocean and luminous like the sun. Because names only approximate the experience itself, open awareness has been given many names. It has been called presence, pure being, pure awareness, timeless awareness, naked awareness, essential truth and has even been given the name of a creator. Although the direct experience of open awareness is unchanging over time and across diverse cultures, it is characterized and labeled according to its cultural context. However, even though the experience goes by many names, it is unchanging.

            The great teacher Tilopa expressed his experience with open awareness in the following way:

To realize this inexpressible truth,

Do not manipulate mind or body

But simply open into transparency

With relaxed, natural grace –

Intellect at ease in silence,

Limbs at rest in stillness

Like hollow bamboos.

Neither breathing in nor breathing out

With the breath of habitual thinking,

Allow the mind to experience peace

In brilliant wakefulness.

            Shakbhar, another great teacher, gives us his description of this inconceivable state.

                    Let your mind spontaneously relax and rest.

                   When left to itself it is fresh and naked.

                   If observed, it is a vivid clarity with out anything to see,           

                   A direct awareness, sharp and awake.

            The instructions given above are clear. Rest and relax your mind. Don’t grasp at mental movements. Don’t elaborate mental movements with habitual perspectives. Rest with natural ease. Be present in what is as is. Then, for a glorious moment, you will experience what it is to be fully awake and alive in the moment as it is happening. You will not linger in the past, elaborate or obsess in the present, nor project into the future. You will experience a radical presence, aliveness, clarity and freedom. And that is the essence of who you are. It is your essential, simple unelaborated self – an impersonal all-encompassing awareness. The wise ones call this the ordinary mind. We call it extraordinary.

            When we rest in this all-encompassing awareness certain qualities arise that are as inseparable from it as wetness is from water. Among these qualities is a natural and all-encompassing wisdom. Because we are abiding in the basic space of awareness, knowledge that arises in this basic space is in relationship to this experience. When we experience an object through a microscope we gain knowledge about that object. When we experience the ground of awareness we gain knowledge about the nature of existence itself. We must rest in the presence and being of life itself to know life as it is. There is no other way to attain this definitive knowledge. This experience-based knowledge is what we have referred to as transcendent wisdom. It transcends all previous and partial forms of knowledge acquired through logic, reason and analysis. It cuts through all confusion, illusion, mental afflictions, distress and suffering to reveal a peaceful, compassionate, holistic and unitary presence and being. More cannot be said. We must learn from the experience itself.

            Transcendent wisdom naturally abides in open awareness. In actuality, this far-reaching wisdom is not difficult to experience. It is quite simple and ordinary. That is what is so amazing about it. It is with us all the time, yet we miss it. What is difficult, quite difficult, is to reverse the powerful tendency of our mind to stray from open awareness towards mental or sensory experiences. Because we cannot maintain a stable open awareness we remain immersed in the world of mental chatter and sensory experiences, forfeiting the ultimate wisdom that only arises in the context of our natural state of being. So the effort is to skillfully gain access to and stabilize open awareness. It is then and there that we will decisively and directly know the nature of all things. And that nature is peaceful and good.

            We have now discussed the full scope of wisdom, ranging from the instinctual and mechanical mind to the wisdom of the sage and finally, to transcendent wisdom. Like the lotus seed that unfolds and emerges through the mud to attain its final flowering, the seed of a fully evolved wisdom similarly emerges from the darkness and afflictions of an undeveloped mind into the light of transcendent wisdom.  Unlike the lotus this latter unfolding does not happen automatically. To gain wisdom we must choose to develop our mind.

The Path

         Butter is the natural unseen sweet essence of milk, but to reveal butter one must churn the milk. Wisdom is the natural unseen sweet essence of our mind, but to reveal wisdom we must develop our mind. To develop it means to undertake the actions and practices that sweep away the obscuring clouds of self-centeredness and emotional afflictions. The fruit of these activities is a cleansing of our overactive mental state, the stabilization of a present moment awareness, and the revelation of our natural birthright – a profound wisdom and selfless compassion. This is human flourishing – the perfection of our humanity.

            Wisdom and its fruits are available to each of us. In fact, they are already and always within us – unseen and untouched but nevertheless encoded in our humanity. We do not have to wait until we reach the peaks of inner development to experience the genius of our wisdom. Like the sun that sends out its rays to warm the earth our inner wisdom sends out its tendrils to touch our life as soon as we open the inner space to receive them. This is not the full sun, the full flowering of wisdom, but these are very important insights from the source itself as well as hopeful premonitions of what is to come with further inner development.

            There are two ways to open our self to the warmth of wisdom. They work together. The first is to tame and open the mind. Our usual ceaseless and uncontrolled mental chatter is so dense that it does not allow an opening for inner knowledge, much like thick clouds obscure the sun. The second is to open the heart by removing the defensiveness, protectiveness and fear that similarly blocks our access to wisdom. The unconditioned open mind and the unconditional open heart are the basis for the revelation of inner wisdom.

            First we must quiet our chattering mind. Until we tame our mind we cannot begin the process of developing it. Unless we accomplish this we are doomed to helplessly follow whatever arises in our mind much like a flag following the wind. We tame the mind by using a variety of meditation techniques. We don’t limit our self to formal meditation sessions but integrate what we learn into daily life. Meditation is a tool to train and explore the mind much like a microscope is a tool to explore the material world. It allows us to see inward the same as a microscope allows us to see outward. There is nothing mystical about meditation. It is just a very useful tool for inner development.

            Within weeks of our initial efforts we will notice changes in our life. We will experience greater calm, less reactivity, more mindfulness, patience and improved relationships. Here and there we will begin to notice that rays of wisdom break through in the form of sudden insights. These new insights and understandings progressively grow and coalesce into new and more expansive perspectives. This is how we incrementally gain wisdom.

            Simultaneously we begin to develop the quality of loving-kindness through mind training. Loving-kindness is also already and always within us but is blocked from our view by a wounded and fearful heart, the remnants of a childhood gone wrong and a competition-based early education. There two aspects to opening the heart. The first is what we call aspirational loving-kindness. During our meditation practices, as well as during daily life, we send out loving-kindness to others, to all others. We wish that they be happy and free of suffering. Why not? We wish this more than anything for our self. Are others less deserving? The second we call engaged loving-kindness. These are outer actions such as patience, kindness, open listening, non-judgment, generosity and caring. Even if you are not quite there you practice these actions as best you can. In time they will feel increasingly natural and become a habit. Slowly your heart will open and this will help calm your mind, which in turn will soften the heart. A wise mind and heart come together in the same package. That is how it is.

            What is most important here is not to focus on the mountain tops but to begin with small steps wherever you are. Begin by taming the mind and developing loving-kindness. Do not feel intimidated by the scope of wisdom described above. I’ve offered this overview as a form of guidance and inspiration. This is a roadmap to full wisdom. However, this roadmap has no value unless you get on the road and follow the map. In fact, it cannot be fully understood until you begin and take the step-by-step journey your self, always accompanied by a wise companion who offers support and expert guidance.

            Please remember that it is not as important to strive towards the next level as much as it is to secure the one you’re on. For example, psychological development can easily take a lifetime. It is a major accomplishment itself. As we progressively gain psychological understanding our body, mind and spirit gain high levels of health, happiness and well being. So take your time. If your psychological understanding is strong you will have built a very stable foundation for the next steps which will naturally emerge from this foundation. So be patient, mindful and persevere.

            It is very difficult to undertake this journey without wise guidance. Your mind cannot heal itself without appropriate practices tailored to your specific needs. This requires the helpful and wise mentoring of others. There are many questions that arise, moments of disillusionment and unexpected and unseen detours. No less than you would seek teachers when learning any new skill the same must be done here. Unfortunately this is not always so easy. Too many are eager to teach before they are fully prepared. You will have to use your judgment. It will help to be certain that your guide has studied carefully in a wisdom tradition, has teachers of his own, “walks his talk,” is humble, upholds values, has students that are clearly advancing and does not try to promote his efforts. True wisdom is most often silent and its focus is caring service to others. If you make the wrong choice feel comfortable looking for another teacher.

            Wisdom is the basis for personal flourishing as well as cultural flourishing. Unwise individuals create havoc in the world and cause great suffering. Wise individuals are healers. They are the precious gifts to humanity. They are world treasures. There is so much each of us can do to begin to become healers. Let’s begin in our own live, today.

www.elliottdacher.org