#644 The Word We Fear the Most!

     I frequently email over a hundred people who've previously taken courses in, or have otherwise shown interest in Mindfulness. I point them to a blog I've just posted that I feel is particularly worth reading. Over the next few days, such a highlighted blog gets 60-400+ hits.
     Folks on this list are probably far more interested in deep, substantial topics than the average person. Nevertheless, whenever I include one, specific word, the blog gets the absolute lowest number of hits. And what is this most dreaded of all words? Wisdom!
     Why, even among this select, self-reflective group of people, is "wisdom" such a powerful buzz kill? I'm guessing that non-readers assume that:
          • they themselves lack wisdom, 
          • can't do anything to gain any, 
          • certainly can't ever "become wise". 

     Then there's the long history of corrupt religious authority figures who speak of wisdom, yet do so strictly for personal gain. They insist that human beings are inherently evil, doomed to burn in hell. Our only hope is to buy our way into heaven via the clergy. Corrupt clergy strongly oppose meditation, mysticism, gnosticism etc because these empower people spiritually, eliminating corrupt clergy's power, influence & wealth. Legitimate clergy embody wisdom, inviting & inspiring all to share this most magnificant journey.
     For valid reasons, a large segment of society has lost faith in organized religions, yet the old nonsense about humans being inherently evil remains buried in our collective subconscious, and bubbles forth as our current epidemic of cynicism. Most of us have low spiritual self-esteem, and incorrectly assume that there's nothing we can do about it.
     There is transformative wisdom in the world's wisdom traditions, and more than ever, each of us has ready access to these. Mindfulness provides today's educated, intelligent people easy access to access, cultivate & embody our own inherent clarity & wisdom - where all wisdom traditions meet.

Yeah, darlin'
Gonna make it happen
Take the world in a love embrace
Fire all of your guns at once
And explode into space

Like a true nature's child
We were born
Born to be WISE

Steppenwolf - Born To Be Wild (lyrics slightly modified)

     Wisdom: http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/2015/01/620-what-is-wisdom.html
     and: http://www.johnlovas.com/2012/04/psychospiritual-technologies.html

#618 Education Without Wisdom is Hollow, Irrelevant

     Quietly, diligently, skillfully working over a lifetime, for the love of one's profession, craft or trade and the overall benefit of humanity, without interest in glory, riches or other material payoff, is prosocial, civilized, and a sign of wisdom. It nurtures a life of deep meaning and value - it is how one cultivates one's own character, as a sculptor creates a sculpture. Such a refined quality of life could, and should be accessible to all human beings.
     However, too often, too many of us are in such a frenzied, egocentric hurry to achieve goals, that we fail to consider the actual value of the goals, or the consequences. Quick results are hyped in our shallow, materialist culture as sexy, and are richly rewarded with cash and glory. Far too many of us live naively spellbound by "lifestyles of the rich & famous". Shortcuts trample other people and the environment, and sooner than later, even the "perps" suffer. We ignorantly keep adding to humanity's heavy burden of needless suffering.

                Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
                Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, 
                The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
                The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
                The best lack all conviction, while the worst
                Are full of passionate intensity.
                                                                                                                   William Butler Yeats

     All intelligent, decent human beings are surely fed up with the escalating global deluge of uncivilized, antisocial, foolish, unwise behavior. 
     Human foolishness is literally tearing our world apart. Philosophers and psychologists have long advocated the urgent necessity of teaching wisdom (not only knowledge) in our universities: 
               http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2014/01/teaching-for-wisdom-urgently-needed-now.html
and 
               http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/16142/#sthash.hYxQPbDk.dpuf

     Why is wisdom completely absent from our educational system when humanity so desperately needs it? Progressive, relevant universities will surely offer not just courses, but undergraduate and graduate degrees in wisdom studies.  

     Universities, what are you waiting for?