Wisdom or intelligence
The traditional ways of life have been so diluted by the modern world, that the meanings of key human qualities have also been distorted. Have you heard anyone recently praising wisdom, or saying that it is the greater thing to be achieved ? It is all about intelligence nowadays, and, even worse, we have accepted the “artificial intelligence” as part of the conversation. On the other hand, in the works and sayings of the great people of history, wisdom is always in the forefront. So how did we manage to make such a sharp turn ?…
Intelligence, from the latin “intelligere”, is the capacity to understand. Because most of our learning capacity is based on a primary understanding of what is taught to us, the word has been more and more assimilated upwards to denote being learned, knowledgeable, and then further extended to being skilled in applying the knowledge, and so on. All this occurred as the pursuit of scientific thought blossomed in Europe in the last couple of centuries. But the true meaning of intelligence is comprehension. Of course, comprehension is a very important capacity, no doubt. But it is also very basic. And the ultimate proof of it is that we are willing to extend it to a computer. Basic indeed.
In contrast, wisdom has been extolled as a quality or power of the highest order from the most ancient scriptures onwards. In the Western world, the great Socrates has been a focal point of that conversation. He made famous one of the ways of describing wisdom, that is “knowing what we don't know”. This is extremely subtle and powerful - as we have to recognize the boundary of the unknown which by definition requires a higher view and a perfect discrimination devoid of ego or conditionings. Essentially seeing things in absolute light. Wisdom is not easy to define, it is a mix of intuitive recognition of the virtuous boundaries with discrimination and the character and action qualities required to follow that. A wise person just doesn't do wrong things. Automatically. No matter the apparent difficulty in following the right choice, it is just what needs to be done. The beauty of it all is that most wise choices require the least botheration and all of them eventually generate the largest amount of joy.
At a subtle system level, wisdom is generated by the first chakra, that supports our entire inner structure. And that's also a signal that wisdom has to be practiced at every level. Wisdom comes in a bundle with the other powers of the first chakra: innocence, humility, fearlessness. If we think about wisdom as part of that bundle we can locate and feel it better. There is no true wisdom without innocence and humility, and the other way around. We can thus easily detect false labelling that the modern society and media is rife with. Because truth stands out immediately when we approach it with this bundle in our attention - and that is one of the great features of having the inner light.
Just as with the other qualities of the first chakra, children embody them best. A well brought up child will often say that something is just not to be done and will not do it. Or will just keep saying or doing lovely sweet things, that we always wish grown-ups could still say or do, in a totally spontaneous, direct, uncomplicated way. And make everyone feel so much joy in the process. When this first chakra is in good condition, those qualities start manifesting in our adult life as well and we start following automatically that inner voice of wisdom that always keeps us on the proper side of everything in life. Thus all obstacles to inner evolution as well as the ones in our day to day existence dissolve very easily and we can truly make the best of life.