Would you share with us your thoughts on this vital subject?
What are the best resources for cultivating wisdom?
There is a major section of The Wisdom Page headed RESOURCES FOR WISDOM DEVELOPMENT. It has several subsections:
- DEFINING THE TASK — CONSTRUCTING A WISDOM-BASED LIFE
- THE MEDITATION TOOL
- OTHER PRACTICES AND TOOLS
- WISDOM-RELATED SIGHT AND SOUND MEDIA
- OTHER WISDOM-RELATED RESOURCES
If you follow those links and visit that part of the website you will find essays aimed at helping us to develop wisdom, information about wisdom-fostering practices, a variety of A-V resources, and links to courses, websites, and organizations — all of which have the aim of helping us to become wiser individuals.
Here, we at The Wisdom Page would like feedback from you and others who are working intentionally to become wiser people. Among the things that we would like to better understand are:
- What are the most effective ways to develop wisdom?
- What practices work?
- Which ones are a waste of time?
- What attitudes, ways of being, and ways of seeing are important to cultivate? And how do we go about doing that?
- In your view, what resources — be they psychological therapies, spiritual practices, books, courses, institutions, etc. — can significantly help us move along the path toward greater wisdom?
We are interested in your comments about resources already available on The Wisdom Page, and about any truly helpful resources you know about which are not. Also, feel free to comment on the comments made here by others.
Your help in this is very much appreciated.
How Best to Cultivate Wisdom? 
January 16, 2009 at 1:55 pm |
The search for wisdom is an ongoing practice. I find wisdom in a number of sources. The book of Proverbs is one. It teaches that ‘wisdom is the principal thing’, Wisdom speaks truth, and ‘all the paths of wisdom are peace.’
I also look to wise individuals. Books by Mother Teresa, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, and Fred Rogers have been of great value to me.
The biographies of nobel peace prize winners are worthy of study. Jean Henri Dunant, Albert Schwietzer, Jane Addams, Desmond Tutu, The Red Cross, Amnesty international, Doctors without boarders, unicef, Nelson Mandela , Norman Borlaug are a few in the list of nobel peace prize recipiants i admire.
Biographies of other humanitarians i admire are also helpful. Edward Flanagan, Corrie Ten Boom, William Booth, Joseph Damien, Mattie Stepaneck, Dorothy Day, Dorthea Dix, Florence Nightingale, and George Washington Carver, are a few more of my heros, in whome i find wisdom.
The internet is a valuable resource. Three websites i know of where wisdom can be found are the (1.) Internet Public Library (2.) The gutenberg project at gutenberg.org (lots of books to read.) (3.) M.I.T. has alot of opened courseware for free online.
—John Brinson Jr.
January 16, 2009 at 2:02 pm |
There are none Wiser than Jesus.
The Golden Rule :Do unto others as you would have them do unto you; The Story of the Good Samaritan and the story of the Prodigal Son are Good Examples of Wisdom THat Jesus Teaches in the Gospel. He taught His Disciples “be wise as serpents, harmless as Doves’. HE taught ‘ blessed are the peacemakers, the meek, and the pure in heart’, them that thirst for righteousness.
–John
January 18, 2009 at 1:41 am |
Books are wonderful, sharing is wonderful, seeing is wonderful, touching and tasting are wonderful, believing is wonderful, searching is wonderful. Breathing is a gift.
Wisdom cannot be sought it must be lived.
February 11, 2009 at 9:22 am |
I was interested if the the book of life would be referenced .I was glad to see that it was.that is where my introduction bagan.I was searching for similar travelers on your website.
May 31, 2009 at 5:39 pm |
The best way to cultivate wisdom is to first find the source of wisdom. look for the bible and rad it diligently you will discover the source and all you need to cultivate wisdom.
June 20, 2009 at 9:18 am |
WISDOM IS ALL AND A PART OF ALL THINGS AND LIFE
WISDOM IS A LOVE FOR LIFE AND ALL BEINGS IN LIFE
WISDOM IS GOD IN MAN AND MAN IN GOD
WISDOM IS YOU AND ME
WISDOM IS
July 11, 2009 at 4:04 am |
Wisdom is largely about an attitude of openness to see and hear beyond our own limitations. A kind of putting yourself in the other guys shoes. Wisdom starts by being still like a rabbit waiting for the fox to pass by. Without patience and being still we loose our lives in foolishness.
It is said to do onto others as you would have done unto you. That is fine if the others are just like you, but we all are different so maybe it is better to look, listen and wait for the real questions and the most important questions are: How can I come to know you? What is there lacking?
To fix most things it simply involves one of three things (1) fix it, (2) replace it, or (3) trash it.
August 12, 2009 at 5:01 pm |
From faith into action: Buddhism is wisdom. With wisdom we can put everything to its best use and turn even times of struggle into a window of opportunity. Faith manifests itself as wisdom, and wisdom is proof of faith. Nichiren daishonin says, ”when the skies are clear, the ground is illuminated” just as when the sun of wisdom rises in our lives, the correct path is illuminated.
October 3, 2009 at 11:49 am |
Cultivating Wisdom!
First resource in my view is ‘experience’.
To cultivate wisdom, an individual must be exposed to certain experience. By parent to a child; by teacher to a student; by a manager to a sub-ordinate and so on.
Second is a source of writing that would provide a perspective to view the experience. The individual, depending upon the age may be enabled to grasp the perspective and view the experiience.
Third, a provision for dialogue. this would make the individual’s understanding a little bit ’round’.
Taking it further, group discussion, presenting a talk, writing, publishing, writing criticisms and so on would help an individual become more wiser day by day by experieencing and exchanging his/her view about the experience in an organized way.
S.V.Anbazhagan
November 7, 2009 at 5:47 pm |
WISDOM IS LIFE AND LIFE IS WISDOM
AND YOU ARE IT LIFE , LOOK AT LIFE
AND THERE YOU WILL FIND WISDOM
AND THE PERSON WHO MADE WISDOM
November 7, 2009 at 5:53 pm |
WISDOM IS LIFE AND LIFE IS WISDOM
AND YOU ARE IT LIFE, LOOK AT LIFE
AND THERE YOU WILL FIND WISDOM
AND THE PERSON WHO MADE ALL WISDOM
AND LIFE {THIS IS REAL WISDOM}
THIS IS WISDOM
February 4, 2010 at 8:19 am |
To be wise is to be in tune with the nature or truth.When we go away from nature, we become unwise and unsustainable.This is because the continuity of the natural order is hindered by being too much intelligent,informative and practical and successful(?).
December 6, 2010 at 8:59 pm |
“when the sky is clear, the ground is illuminated” by Nichiren Daishonin to me this means that when my mind is correct I know the correct action to take.
March 9, 2011 at 12:09 pm |
To see events and things directly without the veil of discrimination, passions and conditioning factors is wisdom.
Belief is not wisdom for it is not direct knowing
March 9, 2011 at 12:16 pm |
Books, proverbs, scriptures and holy books are not wisdom but sign posts to wisdom. Collecting sign posts does not lead to wisdom either.
Going where the signposts lead- that offers the possibility of wisdom.
Thoughts , ideas and concepts are not wisdom.
Wisdom can never be captured fully in words and thoughs.
October 7, 2011 at 5:44 am |
What is there before Wisdom?
There is no ‘before wisdom’!
There is only before ‘awareness of wisdom’
Even before there is ‘awareness of wisdom’ there is occasional expressions of wisdom.
There is most likely no recognition that it is wisdom.
This is (possibly) because of the idea that wisdom is something that only old people from other cultures might possess.
Wisdom is not learned, it is revealed.
It cannot be possessed because it is a process and not a thing.
First there has to be an acceptance that Wisdom exists as a possibile reality.
Enquiry and recognition are the revealers.
Enquiry into whether there are more possibilities.
Recognition of a particular feeling, an altered state of consciousness.
Recognition of a rhythm in the flow.
Recognition of an effortless arising of possibilities.
Mindfulness Meditation has been a big part of this process for me.