Are you Wise?
lobster
Crusty Veteran
I hope this is a wise question, whether it is answerable by our assessment is another question ... 
I have found extraordinary insights from people here, across a range of ages from twelve upwards. Similarly people are not always older and wiser. They may be stuck in circular ignorance.
We could have a poll but self evaluation or opinions are indicative of preferences.
One of the benefits of youth and immaturity is feeling we have to share our wisdom and insight. However it may not be present. Sometimes it is how we hear what comes 'out of the mouths of babes'
Do you feel all teachers, monks and senior practitioners are wise? I don't. Similarly I have found wisdom in those who are not practitioners of Dharma. People here are discerning and know to take refuge in the three jewels. Is it important we expect and encourage wisdom in ourselves and our uniformed and priestly communities? I feel it is.
One of the qualities of spiritual wisdom is the capacity to know when to be ignorant. It takes insight and wisdom to for example provide unpopular requirements rather than dharma sound bytes or conventional responses.
Buddhism teaches that wisdom should be developed with compassion. At one extreme, you could be a good hearted fool and at the other extreme, you could attain knowledge without any emotion. Buddhism uses the middle path to develop both. The highest wisdom is seeing that in reality, all phenomena are incomplete, impermanent and do not constitute a fixed entity. True wisdom is not simply believing what we are told but instead experiencing and understanding truth and reality. Wisdom requires an open, objective, unbigoted mind. The Buddhist path requires courage, patience, flexibility and intelligence.
http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/5minbud.htm
What in you is wise?
Comments
@Lobster
What in you is wise?
Is that not like asking "What in you is selflessness?"
Today I think that wisdom
is just compassion and love
manifesting identities absence.
I am more aware of my ignorance.
If I had a gun to my head I'd probably have to guess that it's the water.
People are always telling me I'm a wise guy.
I read recently that Buddhism is an intellectually challenging religion that demands an extraordinarily high level of dedication and discipline among its members, and, of course, lots of time to devote to spiritual pursuits. Can wisdom be pursued or is it obtained organically and grown with care, patience, and practice?
I'm more simple-minded and tend to believe wisdom is as wisdom does. Harder to follow than imagined.
And, thanks for not posting a poll.
@lobster, I hope to be wise one day but I'm not there yet.
“Wisdom is knowing I am nothing,
Love is knowing I am everything,
and between the two my life moves.”
Nisargadatta Maharaj
Am I wise?
Wiser than I used to be.
Am I as wise as I could be?
You have to be kidding me....
Will I become Wiser?
Only a fool would consider that question...
I tend to find that wisdom comes from a totally different place in me than intelligence. I can think through something and offer a reasonably intelligent thought on it (usually, lol) but the times when wisdom comes forth it's kind of like "I'm not sure where those words came from..." The necessary words are just there in the moment they are needed, whether for myself or someone else. It is not something I have to think too much on. Just something I've experienced.
Wisdom can come from anywhere. My grandma is 89, and often she has great wisdom to offer. But not always. She still is stuck in habitual thought patterns and isn't terribly open-minded. But she still has wisdom to offer. Even my 6 year old son has wisdom to offer. Last night I had on Bruce Jenner's interview and my oldest (18) child and I were discussing it a bit. The youngest one came out of his room when the oldest was asking "well, is he gay or straight? I don't understand." And my 6 year old, who really while he hears the words probably doesn't quite grasp what they mean, said "people don't have to be just one thing or another thing. They can be a lot of in between things. People just are who they are." How does a 6 year old know that!? Wisdom comes from a place much deeper than simply our thinking minds.
Don't you think most people consider themselves wise?
I don't hear many people walking around saying, "Gee, I'm foolish."
You don't get to hear me all the time, while I'm "walking around", @vinlyn.
Believe me when I tell you, I verbally consider myself foolish frequently, but Wise?
It's the first time I've been asked, and it's the first time I've responded.
As far as I'm concerned, my opinion is that, the moment one considers themselves Wise - they've shot themselves in the foot.
Wise enough to know that I am an utter fool, buffeted about by foolish notions, preconceptions, emotions and, yes, actions.
I can't say that i'm wise for certain but I would say, having understanding that is independent of others makes one wise.
Thanks guys.
The dervish sometimes refer to themselves as idiots because their intense spirituality seems foolish to the ordinary Moslems.
I find heartening the tendency to recognise ignorance and wisdom as something to look for in others.
@how and @karasti have indicated a wisdom that is independent of person/identity/ego. I would suggest this sort of timeless and non aligned wisdom explains the common threads of compassion, kindness and other developed qualities attributed to the wise.
"Are you Wise?"
"Yes & No" "Yes" when ignorance is not playing tricks with the mind and "No" when it is....Happy to say the latter is gradually becoming obsolete
That said, with practice we can encourage some energies more than others.
I'd like to think I'm on the road, but it's way over the hill and maybe it always will be.
The part that shuts up and does more.
who is the mind that practices the paramitas?
Are you going to make us an offer we can't refuse?
Phew, that's a relief, I though we were going to be sleeping with the fishes!
Wisdom...
Such is the beauty and play of intellectual insight?
Would you revere the only king if he stated he was enobled, when you knew that every all knew that he was not.
Would you ask a fish to cook chips and then make a meal of himself, yet deride himself for not doing so...
Such is this...
Is this answer enough?
...\lol/...
You call the good fellas wise guys over there? Over here, wise guys crack jokes, not knee caps.
"With age Buddhism comes wisdom, but sometimes age Buddhism comes alone."
Oscar Wilde Shoshin
I know a little. What I do NOT know is much greater than what I do know.
I have had teachers who are wise, and teachers who were not wise.
The ones who were wise, both teachers and non-teachers, have opened my eyes to new ways of being and new ways of seeing.
But I think I learn the MOST from teachers who were NOT wise ... I learn compassion and empathy and how to be non-judgemental. They show we where I am "stuck", and they challenge me, through who they are, to stretch my growth.
I learn humility too ... I am not such a highly-accomplished Master that I require a Buddha or Arhat to instruct me. And whenever I start to grumble about the imperfections of a teacher, I remind myself that I do not require a Buddha to teach me. And those non-teachers, I remind myself that they ARE my teachers, especially when I trip on my own emotions.
All we really need is someone a few steps further down the path than we are, to give us a hand up as we apply OUR efforts to attain.
Thanks @FoibleFull I feel the fist quality of wisdom is recognition of our lack and that we can learn from bad and good teachers. Wisdom or discernment is indeed recognising that others may be ahead in qualities that are virtuous and helpful and we can learn from a variety of sources.
Reminds me of the eight verses
Thanks for linking the eight verses @lobster. Very inspiring.
I am not wise but I have Buddha Wisdom; same for teachers but they are usually more adept at using theirs...
The first step in wisdom is recognising its absence. An absence that is always present, especially in the wise.
Being clever, smart or knowledgeable is not wisdom. Part of the compassion that @how mentions is in unfolding our limitations.
It is why people never become wise by expounding their understanding in ways that remain unhearble, egoism, narcissism or innaproriate to the situation and circumstance.
People recognise understanding because it resonates with their situation and experience.
You and I can be confident that Buddhism and mystical/spiritual paths do produce wisdom. We can find it. We can share it.
Non-harming is wise.
I hope not, I'm rather enjoying searching for the wise me though.
Thanks, @lobster. I agree with you completely.
I confirm I was guy.
Not as much as you think you were....
~ Aphra Behn, 1640-1689
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/aphrabehn169959.html#J1ilscWD2XlzxYzu.99