1 u2e. Let's have a Wisdom Corner

What makes life easy? How do we see a better way, (better than we used to see it)? How do we find a more direct route to what we want out of life? Is there some irritating thing, and then it can STOP?

What is Wisdom?   Let's travel through some dictionary terms:

✓The natural ability to understand things that most other people cannot understand.
✓Knowledge that is gained by having many experiences in life.
✓The ability to discern or judge what is true, right, or lasting; to have an insight.
✓Common sense and good judgment. ✓The ability or result of an ability to think and act utilizing knowledge,  experience, understanding, common sense, and insight.
✓Accumulated knowledge, erudition, or enlightenment.

Is this a good purpose for life? Gain Wisdom?

Frankly, most of these definitions have a connotation that wisdom is only for special people. I might even say they are blooper definitions, promoting more and more misunderstanding.

Wisdom is made of word-pictures. Word pictures are a model of the universe, or a conjecture of how it could be. I am not considering other word pictures that are not related to real life, fiction or fantasy. For me, fantasy doesn't fit in with Wisdom.

Often when word pictures don't seem to fit with reality the attempt is to make them more complicated, to take into account those exceptions. So now wisdom also becomes more complicated and in the purview of only sages and masters, or exceptional people.

I want to propose that wisdom is actually a simplification of our word pictures, and readily available to everyone who is willing to strip away the mental chaff that we are all burdened with. There are some requirements.

✓First you have to look at it. Face in the right direction. What are my word pictures? Where did they come from and why did I adopt them? What am I saying to myself here?

✓Then you have to consider that they may be false. (Or at least say, out of date, past their shelf life.) Are you afraid of injecting any doubt into your foundational assumptions? Is it another chore? Will it make you feel unsure or unstable? (One step at a time of course.)

✓You have to inform yourself that new ideas are not built on top of the old or obsolete ones. New ideas have their own - new foundations, - and they make new actions possible. If these new actions are smoother, make it easier for constructing your life, and living with those around you, these new ideas are called Wisdom. (If not, throw them out and keep searching, keep simplifying.)

✓Uneasy feelings are always at the edge of your current knowing, and they are the gateway to growth. They are also the gateway to solving seemingly intractable problems. So, these feelings are not to be taken as danger. They are your guides, so don't run from them.

If someone is coaching you on this, it can be annoying. It is a delicate ground all based on your willingness. Why do you want some "woodpecker" chipping away at your thoughts? (Sorry about that.) When you begin to see how easy it is, and more than that, how immediately effective it is, it becomes 2nd nature. You just see the "word fences", and you move to deconstruct them. You never take them all the way down. You just keep lowering them little by little, and pushing them out to contain more territory. Anyway, they are all around, so there are plenty of opportunities to expand you field of possible actions.

We can talk more about it.
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