Wisdom

Hypomnemata

To be wise means to never demonstrate hypocrisy. To be wise means to strive for excellence in our unique natures. To be wise is to be consistent and to demonstrate a moral compass which leads to being true to your unique, rational self while helping others.

****

Your life time will not be enough to learn wisdom. Always know that you will never become a sage. But you must keep striving to breach the surface for the real air. Strive while you can.

****

The only prism through which you ought to see the world is through wisdom. The only interest you ought to seek is that of wisdom.

****

Examine yourself; other people, Nature, cause and effect. Then you will begin to see wisdom.

****

Knowledge is the beginning of wisdom. Acquire it; observe it; apply it.

****

Thoughts

Growing up in the Mormon church, many of the things I learned from my teachers were presented as black-or-white; wrong-or-right. There was very little gray area or middle ground. As I look back on those teachings and after observing life for over 40 years, I've come to conclude the human experience is vastly limited to be able to opine, with certainly, on many things. Socrates was indeed wise because he admitted he knew nothing, while everyone else claimed they knew what was good. He was on to something. The more I live and learn, the more I realize the world and Cosmos is far, far bigger and more complex than I was initially lead to believe.

Indeed, there are themes and virtues that seem to be timeless and persistent. We do know some things with absolute certainty. But then there are other things and circumstances where the ends are not seeable.

Hard dogmatic rules in Mormonism would range from not drinking alcohol and coffee to paying 10% of one's income to the church. Is it wise to never drink coffee or alcohol or to pay a tithe to a church? Perhaps it is for some, but perhaps it is not for others. And herein is why it becomes complex: our individual nature. While some religions like Mormonism will do the thinking for you and set up the rules for all, other philosophies will leave it to the individual to discover what their unique nature demands and thus the individual can perhaps channel his daimon to discover what his unique path is for living in agreement with Nature. What may be a wise course of action for one, may not be for another. But the themes of virtue and excellence and knowledge remain for all.

I find my programming from Mormonism is still running. Sometimes my kids make a decision which I think is un-wise. But in all honesty, I don't know that. Perhaps they know what is the wise course of action for themselves and they know better than I do. If their choice did not lead to the outcome they intended, then they will have to accept and manage the consequences. As they are adults, I don't have to be so controlling. They can make the choices and they can manage the consequences for better or for worse.

We can't see all ends. Simply recall the story of the farmer, his horse and son and don't get worked up about choices so much.

Who Knows? The Farmer's Son: Fortune or Misfortune?

One day in late summer, an old farmer was working in his field with his old sick horse. The farmer felt compassion for the horse and desired to lift its burden. So he left his horse loose to go the mountains and live out the rest of its life.

Soon after, neighbors from the nearby village visited, offering their condolences and said, "What a shame. Now your only horse is gone. How unfortunate you are!. You must be very sad. How will you live, work the land, and prosper?" The farmer replied: "Who knows? We shall see".

Two days later the old horse came back now rejuvenated after meandering in the mountainsides while eating the wild grasses. He came back with twelve new younger and healthy horses which followed the old horse into the corral.

Word got out in the village of the old farmer's good fortune and it wasn't long before people stopped by to congratulate the farmer on his good luck. "How fortunate you are!" they exclaimed. You must be very happy!" Again, the farmer softly said, "Who knows? We shall see."

At daybreak on the next morning, the farmer's only son set off to attempt to train the new wild horses, but the farmer's son was thrown to the ground and broke his leg. One by one villagers arrived during the day to bemoan the farmer's latest misfortune. "Oh, what a tragedy! Your son won't be able to help you farm with a broken leg. You'll have to do all the work yourself, How will you survive? You must be very sad". they said. Calmly going about his usual business the farmer answered, "Who knows? We shall see"

Several days later a war broke out. The Emperor's men arrived in the village demanding that young men come with them to be conscripted into the Emperor's army. As it happened the farmer's son was deemed unfit because of his broken leg. "What very good fortune you have!!" the villagers exclaimed as their own young sons were marched away. "You must be very happy." "Who knows? We shall see!", replied the old farmer as he headed off to work his field alone.

As time went on the broken leg healed but the son was left with a slight limp. Again the neighbors came to pay their condolences. "Oh what bad luck. Too bad for you"! But the old farmer simply replied; "Who knows? We shall see."

As it turned out the other young village boys had died in the war and the old farmer and his son were the only able bodied men capable of working the village lands. The old farmer became wealthy and was very generous to the villagers. They said: "Oh how fortunate we are, you must be very happy", to which the old farmer replied, "Who knows? We shall see!"

Quotes

Your death will soon be on you: and you are not yet clearminded, or untroubled, or free from the fear of external harm, or kindly to all people, or convinced that justice of action is the only wisdom (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.37).

look and see whether there is not something more agreeable in magnanimity, generosity, simplicity, consideration, piety. And what is more agreeable than wisdom itself, when you reflect on the sure and constant flow of our faculty for application and understanding? (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 5.9).

Remember that your directing mind becomes invincible when it withdraws into its own self-sufficiency, not doing anything it does not wish to do, even if its position is unreasonable. How much more, then, when the judgement it forms is reasoned and deliberate? That is why a mind free from passions is a fortress: people have no stronger place of retreat, and someone taking refuge here is then impregnable. Anyone who has not seen this is short of wisdom: anyone who has seen it and does not take refuge is short of fortune (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 8.48).

This coherence with oneself is thus the fundamental principle of Stoicism. For Seneca, all wisdom may be summed up in the formula: "Always want the same thing, and always refuse the same thing." (Pierre Hadot, The Inner Citadel, p. 75).

Therefore, to omit the ancient definitions of wisdom and to include the whole manner of human life, I can be satisfied with the following: "What is wisdom? Always desiring the same things, and always refusing the same things." You may be excused from adding the little proviso, – that what you wish, should be right; since no man can always be satisfied with the same thing, unless it is right (Seneca, Letter 20).

no man can live a happy life, or even a supportable life, without the study of wisdom; you know also that a happy life is reached when our wisdom is brought to completion, but that life is at least endurable even when our wisdom is only begun. This idea, however, clear though it is, must be strengthened and implanted more deeply by daily reflection; it is more important for you to keep the resolutions you have already made than to go on and make noble ones (Seneca, Letter 16).

None of us goes deep below the surface. We skim the top only, and we regard the smattering of time spent in the search for wisdom as enough and to spare for a busy man. 11. What hinders us most of all is that we are too readily satisfied with ourselves (Seneca, Letter 59).

Wisdom will bring the conviction that there is but one good – that which is honourable; that this can neither be shortened nor extended, any more than a carpenter's rule, with which straight lines are tested, can be bent. Any change in the rule means spoiling the straight line (Seneca, Letter 71).

In the first place, therefore, if you approve, I shall draw the distinction between wisdom and philosophy. Wisdom is the perfect good of the human mind; philosophy is the love of wisdom, and the endeavour to attain it. The latter strives toward the goal which the former has already reached. And it is clear why philosophy was so called. For it acknowledges by its very name the object of its love. Certain persons have defined wisdom as the knowledge of things divine and things human. Still others say: "Wisdom is knowing things divine and things human, and their causes also." This added phrase seems to me to be superfluous, since the causes of things divine and things human are a part of the divine system. Philosophy also has been defined in various ways; some have called it "the study of virtue," others have referred to it as "a study of the way to amend the mind," and some have named it "the search for right reason." One thing is practically settled, that there is some difference between philosophy and wisdom (Seneca, Letter 89).

We of the Stoic school believe that the Good is corporeal, because the Good is active, and whatever is active is corporeal. That which is good, is helpful. But, in order to be helpful, it must be active; so, if it is active, it is corporeal. They (the Stoics) declare that wisdom is a Good; it therefore follows that one must also call wisdom corporeal (Seneca, Letter 117).

A Aenus I. Preface 2 (SVF 2.35) The Stoics said that wisdom is scientific knowledge of the divine and the human, and that philosophy is the practice of expertise in utility. Virtue singly and at its highest is utility, and virtues, at their most generic, are triple - the physical one, the ethical one, and the logical one. For this reason philosophy also has three parts - physics, ethics and logic. Physics is practised whenever we investigate the world and its contents, -ethics is our engagement with human life, and logic our engagement with discourse, which they also call dialectic (Long, Sedley, p. 158).

Citations and further reading

Aurelius, M., & Hammond, M. (2014). Meditations.

Epictetus, ., Hard, R., & Gill, C. (2014). Discourses, fragments, handbook. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Hadot, P., & Hadot, P. (2001). The inner citadel: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard Univ. Press.

Long, A. A., & Sedley, D. N. (January 01, 1987). The Hellenistic Philosophers.

Seneca, L. A., & Gummere, R. M. (1917). Ad Lucilium epistulae morales: London: Heinemann.