What the Practical Sphere Contributes to the Wisdom Sphere |
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We learn through experience -- it's a well-known fact. Study yields knowledge, but without practical experience, the greatest fruit of knowledge -- true wisdom -- does not appear. Wisdom requires more than a grasp of information. According to Webster's Dictionary, wisdom is "the intelligent application of learning, conferring the ability to discern essential qualities and inner relationships." The definition goes on to state that wisdom is "the ability to deal with persons, situations, etc., rightly, based on a broad range of knowledge, experience, and understanding." Clearly, study is only one of wisdom's "parents." Practical life experience is the other. No matter what the subject, a person seasoned in the school of practical experience grows much wiser and more capable than any mere scholar can become. The many roles experience plays in developing wisdom Deepening understanding. Part of the way practical experience contributes is by deepening the comprehension we began to acquire through intellectual learning. Words convey ideas and DESCRIBE experiences, but even the best-chosen words convey little meaning compared to the living experiences to which they refer.
Learning from mistakes. Valuable wisdom can even come from our mistakes -- not theoretical mistakes, like the questions we missed on a test in school -- ACTUAL mistakes.
Raising more questions. Practical experience increases wisdom partly by raising more questions. Clearly, the nuances of life are more numerous than can be documented in books. Experience not only the confirms things we learned, which is important in itself, but it does something more valuable: It makes us aware of things that we need to know, but DIDN'T KNOW we needed to know. Experience expands our awareness of the nuances and issues involved.
Knock and it shall be opened to you. As new questions are answered, knowledge deepens and broadens. The more questions, the more answers -- and greater wisdom results. For this, the questions we need are found in the practical realm. Testing and refining understanding. In the school of experience, there are tests around every corner -- and that's a GOOD thing. These "pop quizzes" show us where we're at. They help us assess the adequacy of our knowledge and discover misunderstandings about ourselves, life, and the path of spiritual evolution. In practical living, tests give us opportunities to question, correct, confirm, and refine our spiritual understanding. Book learning is not soul-satisfying We're just not satisfied with reading a movie review or a recipe -- we want to see the show, and taste the dish ourselves! By the same token, we can't be ultimately content with contacting lofty truths through spiritual books and lectures. We need to experience them and apply them to really "own" those ideas.
It's not whether you win or lose, but WHETHER you played the game It is said, "It's not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game." Here, we can simplify that further: "It's not whether you win or lose, but WHETHER you played the game." Undeniably, HOW we walk is important. And so, obviously, is the DIRECTION we walk in. But in the long run, WHETHER we walk or not may be most important. Even if, at times, we walk in the wrong direction and reach a dead end from time to time, we can always turn right around and walk somewhere else -- as long as we're mobile. Mobility provides the practical experience from which we learn. All of our attempts at spiritual implementation can contribute to wisdom, no matter how successful or flawed they may be, and no matter what their apparent results. Of course, SUCCESSFUL efforts reinforce knowledge -- "Yes, that's TRUE. Wow, that really WORKS!" FLAWED efforts contribute, too, by raising important spiritual questions which, if asked, will be answered. Directions proven to be wrong turn us around and head us where we should have been going.
Win or lose, as long as we take action, we stand to gain. So let's walk the walk. Live and learn Study is one virtue where MORE isn't necessarily BETTER. When we study too much, while doing too little, we suffer from "spiritual indigestion." The best way to avoid stagnation is through living implementation. For true spiritual assimilation, nothing beats LIVING -- sincere, dynamic engagement in life. Action requires a degree of courage that thinking does not, but the rewards make the risks worthwhile. Clearly, a spiritual life LIVED is more profoundly educational -- and spiritual -- than a spiritual life merely STUDIED, CONSIDERED, or PONDERED. We have seen this principle in action many times.
The more spiritual life is LIVED, the more it fills with significance and meaning. That is one of the great gifts of the practical sphere of spiritual life. In "the school of experience," class is always in session! So, LIVE -- and learn! |