Verse Twenty-FourSubtle awareness of the truth of the universe should not be regarded as an achievement. To think in terms of achieving it is to place it outside your own nature. This is erroneous and misleading. Your nature and the integral nature of the universe are one and the same: indescribable, but eternally present. Simply open yourself to this.~ Translated by Brian Walker ~
I think we each know individuals (including ourselves) who like to trumpet their achievements in everyone's ears. Such people like to point out that they are more virtuous, worldly, pious, charitable, environmentally-conscious, intelligent or helpful than others. My all-time favorite is when someone boasts that he/she is more humble than the average person! Talk about a contradiction in terms!
True wisdom is not something you can set out to obtain. It's not like deciding on a college major or plotting out a career strategy. You can't arrange certain activities in a prescribed order and check them off one-by-one on the road to sagacity. In fact, if you pursue wisdom in this manner, it will forever elude your grasp. Every rung you climb will bring you no closer to the sought after goal.
For this reason, people who try to coach you into celebrating their wisdom unwittingly are proving their lack thereof. A person who is genuinely wise would never admit to it! This disavowal is not due to a faux veneer of humility; it's due to the knowledge that there is always more to learn.
You see, many people view wisdom as a static state. It's like winning a ribbon or trophy. Once you've arrived in the land of sagaciousness and the medal of wisdom has been pinned upon your bosom, many people believe it will remain there forever more.
But wisdom is anything but static. The wisest person today can be tomorrow's biggest fool or a person can be wise in one area in life and a complete nincompoop in another. In other words, wisdom is fluid and often transitory!
That's why the truly wise person would never pronounce him/herself a sage.
This post is part of a "miniseries". For an introduction, go here.
True wisdom is not something you can set out to obtain. It's not like deciding on a college major or plotting out a career strategy. You can't arrange certain activities in a prescribed order and check them off one-by-one on the road to sagacity. In fact, if you pursue wisdom in this manner, it will forever elude your grasp. Every rung you climb will bring you no closer to the sought after goal.
For this reason, people who try to coach you into celebrating their wisdom unwittingly are proving their lack thereof. A person who is genuinely wise would never admit to it! This disavowal is not due to a faux veneer of humility; it's due to the knowledge that there is always more to learn.
You see, many people view wisdom as a static state. It's like winning a ribbon or trophy. Once you've arrived in the land of sagaciousness and the medal of wisdom has been pinned upon your bosom, many people believe it will remain there forever more.
But wisdom is anything but static. The wisest person today can be tomorrow's biggest fool or a person can be wise in one area in life and a complete nincompoop in another. In other words, wisdom is fluid and often transitory!
That's why the truly wise person would never pronounce him/herself a sage.
This post is part of a "miniseries". For an introduction, go here.
i am more humble than thou...
ReplyDeleteteehee :)
Oh no you aren't. I'm a zillion times more humble than you! :>b And my feet are bigger too.
ReplyDeletei just re-read this verse and got something totally different out of it (than when i read it the first time.)
ReplyDeletemost religions have a ton of goals- achieve goodness, achieve submission, achieve eternal life, etc... but tao does not really have a goal because the essence of tao is not striving.
the "duh!" lightbulb just went off in my head... eureka!