Most people live their daily lives with little understanding
of their actions and behavior. Life seems to push them around and they feel confused
and wonder how circumstances appeared as they do. The reason is that we are not
taught the basics of living intelligently, or the Art of Wisdom.
Wisdom is different from Knowledge. In school, we remember learning facts and
other tidbits of knowledge of our society. This is important, but this doesn’t give us
any clues on how to live. We think that wisdom grows with age, but we do not
have to wait this long. Wisdom, or the act of living intelligence, is an actual skill,
which can be learned, just like any other skill - at any time.
There are three types of Wisdom: Cultural, Universal and Self-knowledge. The
first type, cultural, is through experience in certain areas of life, such as learning the
wisdom of relationships, career, health, etc. Universal Wisdom, the second type, are
broad theories about life, God, experience, phenomena, etc. that we learn from other
people, secular institutions or in sacred books. The third type, Self-knowledge, the third
type, is based upon your contact with a deeper part of you being, and does not necessarily
involve any knowledge whatsoever. Many people have great wisdom in one or two
spheres of life, but area confused with everything else. Experiential Wisdom, or Self-
knowledge enables you to act intelligently in all facets of daily life,
in order to feel joy, clarity and freedom.
This third type of Wisdom is the ancient Art of Self-knowledge, understood by
Socrates and other wise men and woman throughout the ages. It involves methods of
observing the self and helps us discriminate between material in our minds (thoughts and
feelings) that are real and that which are illusory and brings confusion. The method
involves learning to train the mind and body in a certain way to enable you to understand
your own experience clearly and with little distortion.
One of the methods of self-knowledge is to apply self-observation to the many
thoughts and feelings that are part of the normal motion of your mind. When you learn to
look or observe these thoughts and feelings, you will discover that there are Spaces in
between them. It is through these Spaces that you can contact Wisdom, for there is a
deeper intelligence ‘hidden’ within this Space. Finally, through this Space in our minds,
we can contact deeper qualities, such as freedom, clarity and confidence, which enables
us to transfer this intelligence into daily living.
Besides the internal Spaces between thoughts and feelings, we also have to
understand the thoughts and feelings themselves, particularly if they continue in the
psyche as distractions. Distraction is what blocks the natural Wisdom
of our primal mind, which is Pure Awareness. Therefore, when our minds string together
thoughts and feelings in a very compelling manner, we need to look at what is really
going on. If not, then we will, more likely that not, get carried away
with our self and not act intelligently.
How do we eliminate distraction? Distraction is not only what prevents us from
being in the moment, but prevents a truly focused clarity from emerging. We cannot
eliminate distraction through the power of Will; it will just rear its ugly head in a manner
of time. What we do need are important trainings which allow us to move into a different
level of being, thus allowing us to observe distraction better. This quality of observation
will enable us to get to the heart of our personal distractions.
William Edwards, Author and Trainer
The Skill of Wisdom, Workbook on Self-knowledge
www.wisdomskill.com
email: wisdomskill@gmail.com
Myth: Sitting in a cross-legged position and concentrating on a symbol
is meditating. Wrong; this is only a practice or utilizing a technique. What is
true meditation? The ability or the condition of contacting an aspect of the psyche
that is beyond any thought, feeling or motivation. It is contacting the essential Spaciousness
of our mind.
The reader may wonder: well, one needs to do techniques in order to reach a
condition of Meditation. This is only partially true. One can use a technique to
have a temporary relief from our compelling movmement of the mind, but the real Meditation begins
through an intelligent examination of the mind, and the manner in which we form conclusions,
judgements and motivations. This takes some training and interest, but does not depend
upon any concentration exercise.
How does one examine the mind? By learning the art of self-observation.
This sounds easy and self-evident, but it involves many things. Our minds move so
quickly and are rooted in so many patterns that it may be arduous to imagine that we
can transcend it. However, we already know how to observe our mind, especially when we
are concentrating on something important to us. When we are involved,
we have notice distraction and then let go of the distraction. This “letting go” involves the
act of perceiving something that does not belong, plus the act of elimimating it from our Awareness.
But let us take an example, and show that we really do this in daily
life.
Let’s say that you are in a restaurant having dinner with a loved one and he or
she begins to talk about something important to you. Now, there is noise there in the
restaurant; the bus boy comes around and the waiter comes by a couple of times to ask for your order,
which you postpone, let’s say. Now, how are you able to focus on this person? Through letting go
of distraction. This is how self-observation works, the ability to find something to watch
and then, to eliminate the distraction. In this case, you “let go” of the distraction of the waiter
and the bus boy, in order to focus back on the conversation. We notice the distraction and then we
eliminate it, from our experience. The waiter and bus boy are gone and now we can continue the conversation.
What is it what we are looking at in our self which would be the analogy to the loved one at
the restaurant? The object of our our self-observation is our own mind. We are observing what
is in our consciousness at any time. What is our distraction, similar to the noise and the
restaurant workers in our analogy? The constant movement of thoughts, feelings and motivations
that are always in motion. when a distraction emerges in our mind, especially one that is not practical,
we can learn to observe it, by watching it move through our consciousness. When it does take hold, we can
look at it and realize that it is not important, (just as we were not ready to give the waiter our order).
Then when we percieve that it is not important, we can “let it go”, thus eliminating it from our consciousness. .
You may ask: how does could it actually stop? Well, it never completely stops; we only
find ‘Spaces’. These Spaces are very important, because not only does it give insight into
how we think and feel, but leads to the discovery of who we really are. The more we discover
this Space between our thoughts, the more we can discover the process of why we think the way
we do. This is because the Spaces are very objective, and can watch the different contents that
arise from the manner in which we process social experience. And the more we can observe and let go
of the contents of the mind (especially those that are not practical), the more we can enter this internal
Space, which is true meditation.
In the beginning, it will be difficult, because of the many patterns that we use to enable us to
be distracted. However, through passion and interest, we will come to look at the material more easily, and thus
learn to find these Spaces at will.
Having said that, there are advantages to having assistance in this important project
of Self-observation. For example, to sit still or to hold the body in place
is not just a technique, it actually makes it easier to look at what is going on inside of us.
Similarly, there are other trainings that can be utilized that can enable us to observe what
is going on within us. However, it is the act of observation that does the trick; meditation
occurs more easily when we can observe the movement of our mind, and find these Spaces.
What emerges within when we find these Spaces? We find that the essence of our
mind is naturall quiet or Silence. This silence is transcendant or beyond the constant motion
of our conventional mind, which is always strategizing to “figure out” our self, life and the world.
The internal action of “figuring out” has technical and practical functions; our frontal lobes are wired
up to manage this important action. However, we do not just process technical information, but personal
forms that are very subjective and narcissistic. These latter forms are what clog up consciousness,
and prevent us from discovering a deeper aspect of their mind, which is a pure Space. This meditative
Space can be contacted at any time and can be utilized in many differnent situations and environments.
We do not need to learn exotic techniques in order to Meditate; we only need to utilize
a few practical trainings in order to enable us to easily observe what is going on within us. This
helps us discover who we really are and how to transform this movement into something practical and
functional, instead of the constant motion of our normal subjective patterns. This meditative Space is
the prerequisite for tuning into our essential Wisdom, which is usually distorted through our complelling
need to process social experience. Meditation can allow us to “digest” experience more easily, thus enabling
us to realize forms of intelligence, such as clarity, freedom and compassion, which we can utilize as living
intelligences.
William Edwards, author
The Skill of Wisdom
www.wisdomskill.com
wisdomskill@gmail.com