What is wisdom?
The age in which we live is rich in information, yet is it rich in wisdom? At first glance, I would be tempted to say no. How do you explain that? What is wisdom? How is it obtained?
Wisdom is found through a process of decantation. The raw material is information which, in order to become knowledge, must be combined with reflection. Without reflection, without recoil on the information, it remains only data stored on the hard disk that is our brain. We are unable to make sense of it if we do not apply criticism to it. It’s like big data, without an algorithm, this huge amount of data has no meaning, let alone value. To give it importance, we need to give it cohesion, organization, methodology.
Wisdom is something that is intimately linked to experience. Do you know someone who is wise but who does not have a great deal of experience? Wisdom is simply knowledge that has been associated with experience. That experience permeates the person. Knowledge becomes like second nature. If knowledge is purely theoretical, one remains at a stage of erudition, of intellectualisation. The body must face one with the mind. To do this, one must rub shoulders with the reality of the experience. Experience is like putting a product or service on the market. As long as there is no confrontation with reality, we will never know if the teachings given are correct or proven. Experience is the validation of the knowledge one has assimilated by “returning from the field”.
