WISDOM

Dictionaries:

• The quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment.
• The soundness of an action or decision with regard to the application of experience, knowledge, and good judgment.
• Ability to discern inner qualities and relationships: INSIGHT
• Accumulated philosophical or scientific learning: KNOWLEDGE
• Good sense: JUDGMENT
• The ability to use your knowledge and experience to make good decisions and judgments.
• The quality or state of being wise; knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment and action; sagacity, discernment, or insight.
• Wisdom is the combination of experience, knowledge and careful judgment.
• The ability or result of an ability to think and act utilizing accumulated knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense, insight, erudition, or enlightenment.

Wisdom is the ability to think and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense, and insight. It is the quality of having good judgment and being able to discern what is true, right, or lasting. Wisdom is often associated with attributes such as compassion, fairness, and empathy, and is considered a virtue that is highly valued in many cultures and traditions. Wisdom can also refer to the body of knowledge and principles acquired by a person through experience or education. It is often seen as a trait that is developed over time, through the accumulation of knowledge and the application of that knowledge to life experiences.

I define Wisdom as the highest form of human consciousness. At its most fundamental, Wisdom is the ability to know why, when, where and how to use or not use your energy in your environment. Wisdom is knowledge, understanding, keen discernment (insight), proper priorities (sacrificing the lower for the higher) & good judgment. Wisdom is a state of being that can be used to manifest one’s desired outcomes within the conditions of their environment.

Wisdom is the outcome of the pursuit of knowledge through spirituality, experience, understanding, common sense, emotion, intuition, insight, erudition, enlightenment, and really, all you do; uniting the individual mind and thought with the cosmos, all its laws, and the natural order of things. Wisdom is the product of spiritual striving through constant contemplation to obtain true knowledge of our existence as it actually exists with single mindedness and absoluteness of heart. Wisdom is a living, dynamic, creative force within you that you can cultivate.

Wisdom is this knowledge of truth in and of itself and enables one to act in a more effective way. Wisdom gives the ability to make good decisions within a complex system while dealing with the tragedy, messiness, ambiguity, paradoxes, counter-intuitiveness, contingencies, contexts, setbacks, risks and uncertainties of life. 

Wisdom in application can be flexible or inflexible, situational or general, conditional or universal, contingent or free, dependent or independent, variable or constant, contextual or universal, paradoxical or straight forward.

“You can’t just teach wisdom by rote memorization. Wisdom is implicit, you can’t explicate wisdom into a “Ten Commandments”. As soon as you do it stops being Wisdom and turns into foolishness. Wisdom is the ability to have that keen discernment and be adaptable”.

Wisdom enables the correct application of the spectrum of values for the unique situation at hand relative to your intention. Most times it is wise to be loving and open, sometimes it can be wise to be harsh and cruel. It is the acknowledgement and discernment of contingencies, ignorances, paradoxes, and relativity within a broader system that is the beginning of wise decisions. 

Wisdom is important because it determines the applicability & relativity of all other values. The objective is to put the higher values over the lower values and Wisdom informs you in this process.

Wisdom is the key to not wasting your time or energy.

The opposite of Wisdom is Foolishness.

Foolishness is essentially poor judgment and lack of discernment. Making the wrong choices over and over again and doubling down on your mistakes. As they say, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Foolishness is a poor sense of priorities. Fools have life backwards. Fools place the low before the high. They pursue sex, drugs, pleasure, money, fame, reputation over everything. Because of this lack of proper priorities, craziness, calamity, and suffering ensues and seems to be on repeat in their life. 

Examples of foolishness include: tribalism, entitlement, gambling, smoking, drugs, hedonism, gossip, tabloids, junk media, chasing get rich quick schemes, cheating people, cheating on people, criminal behavior, staying in toxic relationships, anger, blame, scapegoating, joining cults and ideologies, conspiracy theories, smoking weed and playing games, conformity.

There are uneducated, educated, shrewd, and ambitious fools. Foolishness is not a trait of a specific group of people. Most of society is designed to prey on fools as they are easy to exploit value from.

I have been a fool many times in my life.

Wisdom is a combination of knowledge, experience, and good judgment. Here are some ways you can develop wisdom:

1. Learn from others: Seek out people who are wise and have a lot of life experience, and try to learn from them. This could be through reading books or articles written by wise individuals, or by seeking out mentors or coaches who can offer guidance and advice.
2. Reflect on your experiences: Take time to think about the things you have experienced and the lessons you have learned. Consider what you would do differently in similar situations in the future.
3. Practice good decision-making: Pay attention to your thought processes when making decisions. Try to consider all the options and their potential consequences before making a choice. 
4. Seek out new experiences: Don’t be afraid to try new things and step outside your comfort zone. This can help you gain new perspectives and insights. 
5. Practice mindfulness: Pay attention to your thoughts and emotions in the present moment. This can help you develop self-awareness and better understand your own motivations and actions.
6. Practice compassion and empathy: Try to see things from other people’s perspectives and treat others with kindness and understanding. This can help you develop a deeper understanding of the world and the people around you.