WISDOM IN BEING & ACTION

Two of my most revered wisdom teachers – Rabbi Zalman Schacter and Ram Dass

WISDOM IN BEING & ACTION

THE ELDER’S MISSION IMPOSSIBLE

An elder ultimately realizes that knowledge is self-limiting. Although knowledge is valuable for achieving success in our Western cultural context, ultimately, it limits the self from becoming its full self.

I'm speaking about the unappreciated portion of, the segment of the self that refers to your sense of personal identity, consciousness, and individuality. Your core essence. Your thoughts, emotions, and beliefs. How you encounter the world. How you perceive your own existence.

Knowledge is focused on acquiring, creating, and disseminating knowledge.

Knowledge in our cultural values is the holy grail.

Knowledge, when examined, is the accumulation and sculpting of harvested information. Knowledge attempts to retain information in all forms - data, facts, statistics, numbers, percentages, interpretations, images, conversations, theories, formulas, and existing models.

Some knowledge may allow you to understand the self better but doesn’t have enough existential power to change the self. As one of my teachers once said, “Understanding is the booby prize.”

Basically, information consists of particles of data that have been organized, processed, and then given meaning. It is a process of transforming raw data into a structured and meaningful form so you can understand the world. But knowledge doesn’t allow you to get to the deeper self.

Knowledge exists in both time and form. Anything that exists in time and form is impermanent. Remember the vast knowledge you had for your major in college? Where did that knowledge go?

Knowledge is primarily a function of intellect. Intellect is only a fragment of the self. If you can’t access the other parts while only residing in the intellect, then a precious part of the self remains dormant.

To access the larger self, examine where you impose limitations or restrictions on yourself. Those boundaries and barriers, set consciously or unconsciously, remain unexamined.

Reflect on boundaries associated with fear, self-doubt, grief, lack of confidence, past painful experiences, or negative beliefs about yourself. Knowledge won’t help you here. Knowledge won’t change the script; the actor needs to change.

In our culture, this unquenchable thirst for knowledge comes with the belief that knowledge will improve the quality of life is flawed. The cumulation of knowledge usually leads to a fixed mindset, immovable beliefs, and secure perspectives that create a ridge mindset and resistance to change and deflects any new or alternative possibilities. Knowledge puts up walls.

Over the last forty years of consulting work, I have engaged with many erudite people who have accumulated vast stores of knowledge. Yet, their expanding volumes of knowledge did not impact the quality of their lives.

Knowledge impacts what you do, not who you are.

Knowledge, as the only source of self, comes with very limiting factors. Confirmation bias is the most frequently encountered. Confirmation bias is where accumulated knowledge reinforces existing beliefs and biases.

Confirmation bias leads individuals to seek information that confirms their perceived notions while ignoring any information that challenges their perspectives.

With confirmation bias, you get to be right that you are right. That’s called righteous. A steel door to what’s on the other side of knowledge. The self is confined to only knowing what it already knows. And what is doesn’t know already is only an extension of what they already know.

Knowledge runs in a narrow corridor.

The other element I encounter with smart people is intellectual arrogance. A subtle yet distinct sense of superiority. A curtain that separates the self from other people, kills collaboration, trashes empathy and mutual understanding, and hears coaching as accusatory.

Knowledge bends smart to smug.

There is a point in aging when you realize that expanding your knowledge further, standing on your platform of those hundreds of books, podcasts, YouTube videos, seminars, meetings, files, and online courses, those thousands of conversations, has not given you a deeper self-understanding.

Knowledge doesn’t reveal the self to the self.

Knowledge doesn’t make you happier. It doesn’t give you greater peace, ease, and grace. It doesn’t have any existential or metaphysical capacities. When more knowledge doesn’t improve the quality of your life, this is when you finally realize what is missing is wisdom.

This is the moment that you consciously transition from older to elder. For now, you come to seek wisdom, not more knowledge. And wisdom lives within, not without. Wisdom is an indoor event.

WISDOM & THE SELF

Wisdom is self-awareness, self-understanding, and self-consciousness. Knowledge is external knowledge, and functional understanding, which has little to do with who you are being in life.

Wisdom goes beyond intelligence or the accumulation of information by encompassing insight, discernment, and awareness to allow you to see the actual implications of your thinking and actions.

Wisdom provides clarity, perspective, empathy, and humility. Knowledge does none of these. In fact, knowledge does the opposite.

Wisdom integrates your knowledge and values and empowers intuition to navigate complex situations and dilemmas effectively. Your core values become your rudder, and you become keenly aware of their pulsation.

Knowledge doesn’t operate from core values.

Wisdom heightens self-awareness through contemplation, reflection, and self-discovery. Knowledge doesn’t require these practices. They are not needed to accumulate more information.

Wisdom is not limited to any specific field but can be applied across most aspects of life – personal relationships, ethics, leadership, problem-solving, spiritual, and philosophical contemplation.

Knowledge is domain specific.

Wisdom nurtures your desire for personal growth, well-being, and the betterment of others. Knowledge doesn’t care much about your personal growth and rarely about others.

Knowledge is inert. Wisdom is alive.

Attaining wisdom is the path to becoming a contemporary elder. To walk the path, elders realize they need to cultivate an open mind, a willingness to learn, and an openness to being wrong. And on this path, elders must welcome different perspectives while consistently engaging in self-reflection, mediation, and introspection.

Knowledge shuns these practices.

FINAL STATEMENT

Look at the world today. Take a look at our politics, environment, inequities, suffering, hate and pain. If knowledge were the answer, these problems would get better, not worse. What is lacking is wisdom.

What the world needs now is wisdom. It will alter many conversations that allow these failures to continue and worsen.

Becoming a contemporary elder and attaining wisdom is a journey. A journey requiring self-awareness, self-understanding, and truthful self-disclosure.

Contemporary elders can alter the nature and character of conversations and bring themselves and others to operate as their highest selves, with the greatest humanity, the scariest humility, the fullest self-expression, and the deepest appreciation for life.

THE OPEN SANGA CALL AND SPECIAL GUEST EVENT

This series of calls has and is working on Forgiveness. The call is open to those interested in looking at themselves in areas that are often masked, hidden, or suppressed – that reduce aliveness and compassion, compassion for self and others.

The Open Sanga call is on July 26th, from 4:00 pm to 5:15 pm PT. If you are new to these Sangha calls, please register at https://form.jotform.com/230334570253044

The Special Guest event with Dr. Buck Blodgett, August 9th, “Forgiving the Unforgiveable,” from 4:00 pm to 5:15 pm PT. If you haven’t participated in a Sangha event previously, please register at https://form.jotform.com/231344021420134