Forum: General Wisdom: The wisdom of posting to this forum

I think it natural to distinguish between process and product. Is wisdom a process or a product? In posting to this forum, am I displaying a wise (or not) process (and thus evidencing a property of the process that lead me to do this post?) or am I displaying a wise (or not) product (and posting a post that that is itself, independent of me, either wise or not)?

I don't pretend to know a "right" answer to the question I ask, but, like (I imagine) all, I have opinons and favored possibilities.

There are certainly a wide number of possible understandings of what wisdom is. I thought it would be good to get started with a discussion on this, to hear others' views, and to try to see the potential of this forum realized. (If no one responds, I guess it is a sign that I was not so wise to post this.)

I imagine the product, or preferably, the goal of posting on this website is for us to get acquainted; to break the ice before we all meet in August. 

The process however, is one in progress. That is, as we log on and engage in exchange with each other, the process itself evolves and assumes existence.

It is simply wise to post on this website since it would allow some sort of sharing our individual 'wisdom's. 

I agree with Shabnam that this website can help to break the ice before the finalists meet in August, and that the larger goal is to engage all those who are interested in wisdom.   The Wisdom Research Network aims to encourage the exchange of ideas and perspectives from all schools of thought and practice.  All are welcome to join the Wisdom Research Network. 

It will be interesting to see how conversations unfold across the many disciplines of theory and practice, further enriched by diverse perspectives across cultures and lifespan.

I pose the question:

Is it more difficult to practice wisdom, than it is to define it?

 Thank you brendah for posting the question "Is it more difficult to practice wisdom, than it is to define it?"

This reads like a yes or no question, and yet, I see reasons for both.

It is easy to say it is easier to define wisdom than to practice is, because we can define anything however we see fit. It reminds me of the story of the engineer, the scientist, and the mathematician. They were all asked to use the minimal amount of fence to enclose some sheep. The engineer took some exact measurements of where the sheep were roaming and made a rectangle of minimum length and minimum width to encompass the sheep. The scientist made a circle of minimum radius to encompass the sheet. The mathematician surrounded only himself with the fence, and then said "I define myself to be on the outside." (and everything else to be on the inside. Inside and outside are just two different ways of labeling the opposite sides of the fence, and labels are arbitrary, right?)

So, in that respect, it is easier to define wisdom than to practice it. But, the objection to that may be that it is harder because we wish to aim for some sort of degree of external validation of our definition. By such reasoning, we might be inclined to believe that it is easier to practice it than to define it, because defining it seems to be hard (especially if you reject the viewpoint of the mathematician in the above story). But, I would suggest that perhaps if wisdom is practiced right, then it is not difficult. I'll offer the following extended quote below to articulate this:

Living and growth become increasingly spontaneous, a condition Buddhism calls "effortless effort." ... any sense of personal striving or doing drops away. ... continues to act and serve, but such actions are experienced paradoxically as spontaneous, unmotivated responses to each situation ... can respond easily and appropriately in all circumstances. This is the condition of "effortless being" which Meister Eckhart described as "acting without why," and Taoism calls "nondoing" or "non-action." Buddhism claims that "Not to act is the vital point of great action," while according to the Tao Te Ching:

Less and less do you need to force things,

until finally you arrive at non-action

Where nothing is done, nothing is left undone . . . .

The Master does nothing

yet . . . leaves nothing undone 

- "Essential Spirituality" (Roger Walsh, M. D., Ph. D.)

So, we have a reason to believe that it is easy to define (it is just a label - apply it to anything) and yet, when practiced right, can be practiced effortlessly (and therefore must be quite easy too).

[Note: See a related post in Discussion Forum:  Wise Decisions, Heuristics, and Leadership]

brendah:

I believe that wisdom is generally more difficult to practice, than it is to define…but even much more difficult to practice “rightly”.  If given that the “right” way is to practice “effortlessly”, I find that acting effortlessly, or just being effortless, can be a challenge in and of itself.   I feel that many of us have been conditioned to strive, to achieve, and to seek reward for hard work and action.  With each success, the desire to succeed and the craving for reward eventually may lead to a greater need to strive, and a greater need to act with more effort.  Undoing this pairing does not seem easy. Only until I can practice “effortless effort” can I say that I can practice wisdom effortlessly (or “rightly”).

[Note: See a related post in Discussion Forum:  Wise Decisions, Heuristics, and Leadership]

I agree that undoing that pairing is not easy.

Becoming wise is not effortless, and does require effort, I think.

It is the actual exercise of the wisdom that we have, that is effortless.

If we have "wisened up" to something, it comes naturally, does it not?