What does wisdom mean to you? If you look around at people
you know and admire, you can detect those who are wise. We are naturally
attracted to these people. Their wisdom can forge significant changes in the
organizations we work with or even the world. These people are different. They
do not have the same fears that drive the majority of the population. They act
with integrity from their own values and are willing to stick to those values
no matter what the consequence.
There may have been times when you, too, felt wise, perhaps
a time when you were clear about what you wanted to achieve and what drove you
toward your goals. The decisions made with such clarity are the ones that stand
the test of time.
Though it is useful to consider wisdom, I feel that wisdom
cannot be acquired from a book. But we can touch upon the wisdom that comes
from meditation, providing yet another reason to develop mental resilience.
Understanding Wisdom
Wisdom has been defined as navigational intelligence.
Mariners know the importance of finding their bearings before starting a
voyage. We all have to know our own North Star. Once we have identified it, we
can make progress toward our destination. Wisdom can also be considered the
ability to make the choices that create the positive consequences we want in
our lives. It is a kind of clarity to facilitate making effective choices and
decisions. Without this wisdom we are at the whims of others' needs,
instructions, or expectations.
In the context of meditation, we can gain wisdom only by
asking questions and not forcing the answers, but waiting for them to arise.
(This does sound somewhat esoteric or Zenlike, as in the conundrum, "What
is the sound of one hand clapping?" At the end of the day, wisdom is
experiential and therefore difficult to convey with words.) How does this
happen? Going back to our metaphor of the glass filled with muddy water, after
a period of settling down, the water becomes absolutely clear. If you then
shine a flashlight through that glass of water, you start to see clearly. This
is when answers appear.
When you ask yourself, "Why am I here? What's the
meaning of life? What does my life really mean?" you may start getting a
different response than more conventional answers such as "to be
somebody's parent" or "to be somebody's husband, wife, child,
brother, sister, or friend." You begin to understand what you want from
your own existence. After meditation the mind becomes resilient and resembles a
mirror, reflecting thoughts and sensations while remaining untouched by them.
The luster of the mirror with its ability to reflect the continual changes of
life remains unchanged.
The wisdom gained from meditation is not one size fits all;
some call it enlightenment. While many people take enlightenment very seriously,
the best definition of enlightenment I have heard is deceptively simple: the
ability to lighten up. A meditation teacher I respect greatly, Ayya Khema, a
German Jew who fled the Nazis, explained it like this: "Enlightenment is
like playing a game with a child. You get involved with them, you celebrate the
victories, and you mourn the losses. However, you know, always, that it is a
game. As you play, you do not feel the stress of the game, knowing you can step
back from it anytime."
We have heard the phrase, "life is just a game"
many times, but how much do we really believe or practice it? If we really
experienced it, how would it affect our level of stress? What if, in your body
twenty-four hours a day, you truly felt that this life is just a game? What if
you believed that everything you did - every achievement, every relationship,
every thought you had - was just part of a game?
Imagine playing a game of Monopoly with a child. You feel
excited and passionate about the game, and you enjoy the child's involvement.
You play with an open heart, knowing full well that you will walk away from the
game without consequence. There's no reality associated with it, so there's no
stress, although there's a lot of fun and even a bit of tension.
In the same way, once you gain the wisdom that life is a
game, you will look at it differently, even if the components of your life are
the same. One of my favorite traditional Zen sayings is this: "Before
enlightenment, chop wood, carry water; after enlightenment, chop wood, carry
water."
Turning to our modern lives, we might say, "Before
enlightenment, attend meetings, give presentations, engage in relationships,
live healthfully; after enlightenment, attend meetings, give presentations,
engage in relationships, live healthfully." With enlightenment, the silt
in the glass is still there, but it has settled! What you do looks very much
the same. However, your perception of life is significantly different.
