|
Today's
quotation:
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
|
|
Today's
Meditation:
I'm
always amazed at just how many wise words that I read,
only to go out and commit very unwise actions on a fairly
regular basis. My attempts to develop my own
knowledge from the gathered knowledge of other people is
only somewhat successful-- sometimes I simply do something
quite silly even after being exposed to possible actions
that would have been much wiser.
And
I don't say this to criticize myself, but simply to act as
an observer of my own actions. I've come to find
that Marcel is right-- I do have to discover, or perhaps
uncover, wisdom for myself. I think that the
readings that I do help me to build a base from which I'm
able to recognize and accept my wisdom much more readily
and quickly, but the bottom line is that I do uncover my
wisdom in the process of my journey through the
wilderness, in the trials that I face, and in the
obstacles that I overcome.
I
find that as time goes on, I'm also much more in tune with
Marcel's last line, that my perspective of the world is a
result, or a reflection of, the wisdom that's built up
inside me. My wisdom helps me to refrain from
judging, to see the beautiful even in what seems not to be
beautiful, to feel the love and sincerity from sources
that seem to have none. My wisdom allows me balance,
equanimity, from which I'm able to experience the world in
richer and fuller ways.
We
must not be discouraged if building our wisdom is a slower
process than we feel it should be. I can build
knowledge simply by reading, but my wisdom is deeper and
it must be built more slowly and carefully through
experience.
|
