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Wise Genius
Vincenzi
Veteran
maybe everyone can become a buddha... but Shakyamuni was blessed (by karma) with charisma, intelligence and wisdom which the world has not seen again.
throughout history, there has being humans that were genius in one way or the other but that has been also wise. There may be a correlation.
a nihilist teacher (university, not really a teacher) once said that "there has being many geniuses, but that isn't (as) special (as 'ethical humans')"... I never agreed with that; most changes in humanity's history has being because of geniuses that worked in projects they believed in, without much consideration for ethics.
it may be much more useful to have an emphasis on wisdom than on "sainthood"... and geniality seems to tag along wisdom.
what do you think? how does being genius and being wise relate?
...I don't really know in which category to put this.
throughout history, there has being humans that were genius in one way or the other but that has been also wise. There may be a correlation.
a nihilist teacher (university, not really a teacher) once said that "there has being many geniuses, but that isn't (as) special (as 'ethical humans')"... I never agreed with that; most changes in humanity's history has being because of geniuses that worked in projects they believed in, without much consideration for ethics.
it may be much more useful to have an emphasis on wisdom than on "sainthood"... and geniality seems to tag along wisdom.
what do you think? how does being genius and being wise relate?
...I don't really know in which category to put this.
0
Comments
In terms of which is more rare, I would have to say that genius is more "special" than ethics.
In terms of which is more conducive to Awakening I would say that ethics is more "special" than genius. Ethics always leads to a wholesome outcome, regardless of whether that outcome is great or small. Genius itself is neither wholesome nor unwholesome.
While it is true that most changes in humanity's history are the result of "geniuses at work", those changes are not always for the best. One example of why I don't regard ingeniousness as a wholesome quality in-and-of itself is that if it weren't for (so-called) geniuses the atomic bomb would never have been invented.
Ingeniousness can act like a magnifying glass. If we have wholesome intentions, then ingenuity can lead to awe-inspiring results. If we have unwholesome intentions, then ingenuity can lead to disastrous results. Wisdom (Paññā) in Buddhism is sometimes used to mean something very specific - i.e. that particular type of wisdom which leads one out of suffering. Wisdom is also (again, in a Buddhist context) sometimes used to describe someone who not only understands the Dhamma well, but can teach and instruct others - e.g. Maha Sariputta (who was regarded by the Buddha as the disciple who was foremost in wisdom). You don't have to be a genius to become Awakened, but you have to develop your wisdom faculty.
In a worldly sense the word "wisdom" is often used to mean all kinds of things, sometimes wholesome in nature but not necessarily so. This is one of the problems of language! A genius (by the worldly defintion) is merely someone who has a much higher than average IQ - but what they do with that high IQ may not necessarily be wise (by the Buddhist definition).
Metta,
Guy
Maybe this is a subject for another thread, but I'm wondering if to some extent what we perceive as genius may have come about as the result of the unusual circumstances of the early part of his life. If he'd lived a normal life in the beginning, he may have grown up to be just another regional overlord.
Making a correlation between genius and clear understanding is a fool's errand, I think.
I mean like Da Vinci.