How to be Wise in the New Year
I have had this life-long desire to find someone who is wise, who, with his or her wisdom, will provide instructions for me so that I might blithely traverse this “vale of tears” (as Shakespeare refers to human existence).
Ever feel this way? Ever seek someone who can be the mapmaker for your particular soul? Your spirit guide?
But why should you and I care about this need to have the wise one to always be there for us?
Because it is about survival. In truth, we think we need a wise person we can depend upon to guide us through this labyrinth of life. A survival that proclaims we are more than just creatures fulfilling our sensual needs. A survival that trumpets the nobility of the human mind and heart.
But how might we discover that wise person who can provide the way toward this enlightened state of being?
At the outset, we must realize that we make a big mistake in evaluating whether or not someone is wise. This occurs when we believe that because an individual knows something or even a lot of somethings, the person is wise. Not so.
Such a person is not necessarily wise because many people, having attained facts about something, make up their minds that these facts are all there is to reality or truth. So, their minds close down.
So, can we actually find a wise person?
Here is a Sufi story to help us, one that I have greatly rewritten from its original telling:
Once there was a stupid monarch who happened to be an idol worshipper. He also happened to be male. Now, although personally I do not believe in worshipping idols, the monarch’s worshipping of a particular idol would not in itself constitute a reason for my referring to him as “stupid.” For me, he is stupid because of what he expected all others in his kingdom to do: to worship his particular idol.
So, one day when he had nothing better to do than fight people he believed to be the infidels, he had his army capture three random people who just happened to be passing by his castle.
One was a male scholar; one a holy man; and one a female lawyer–astrophysicist-murder mystery writer-Nobel peace prize winner-Olympic Gold Medalist-US Astronaut-multi-billionaire.
The three were forced to be in the same room with this stupid king, his guards, and the idol.
“Kneel and worship my idol!”demanded the monarch to the scholar.
The scholar replied: “This situation undoubtedly comes within the doctrine of majority rules – at least in this room. There are numerous precedents allowing anyone to appear to conform to custom if compelled, without real legal or moral culpability being in any way involved.”
So, the scholarly fellow convinced himself that he should bow before the idol – in essence, faking his adoration of such.
Then the king said to the holy man: “Kneel and worship my idol!” The fellow replied: “As an especially protected person, having in my veins the blood of the Holy Ghost, my actions themselves purify anything which is done, and therefore there is no bar to my acting as you demand.”
So, the holy man convinced himself that he should bow before the idol – in essence, faking his adoration of such.
Then the king said to the woman: “Kneel and worship my idol!”
The woman replied…and most fervently: “No way!”
Well! The mad king’s malady was immediately lifted by this remark! As if by magic he saw the deceit of the two male worshippers of the image. So, he banished the scholar and the holy man to Washington, D. C. to serve life sentences as United States Congressmen, and he set the woman free to continue her own journey.
(From Idries Shah, greatly adapted)
Now here is an example of a wise person: the woman who refuses to worship someone else’s idol!
She is wise because she follows her own conscience. She does not bow before an authority of which she does not approve. Such an act for her would be one that denies her inner authority. She sees beyond the superficial rules and regulations of this or any monarch, of any creed or custom. Such things are divisive for her because they refuse to accept the multiplicity of the human experience. Instead, they are mono-dimensional and coercive.
But how can we find a wise person? It is simple: we must stop looking! We must stop expecting to find any person or any experience to show us the way to wisdom. And in knowing this, we learn that we ourselves are wise.
So, look no further for that “wise” person. That person is within you. Indeed, within each of us.
NOTE: Don Beaudreau was our magazine’s “Lakeside Living” editor and is a member of the Ajijic Writers’ Group. He is a published author of ten books, with two more in process, including a novel set in Cape Cod, MA.
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