Seeking Intelligence and Wisdom

If I were able to give another human advice, I would advise them to seek wisdom. Wisdom likely may not make us rich or popular, since it is an internal thing of our minds and how we think. It's benefits I believe are massive. It opens up a whole new world. And that whole new world is that same one that you thought you were living in, but now you see in it a very different light.

How to get to Wisdom? It takes desire and practice. The first thing to do is to ensure that there is nothing that stops us from learning. Culture, ideology and any pre-existing boundaries can stop thinking before it even begins. Does that mean that one cannot be a member of a political party or a religion? Actually, no. It is how a person views those things. Do those items control you, or do you control how you view them? For example, as a person with a Science Degree, yes I believe that there is a God. However, religions are taught by humans who can be in error. I belong to a religion that I believe helps others a lot, but also would not partake if I saw humans in it doing wrong or harming others. Also, I belong to no political party. And that wording itself is perhaps the point. If I belong to a political party, then they own me, and I wish to be a free thinker, so no thanks. But the very first step of gaining wisdom is to remove the constraining barriers of ideology and culture. It does not mean that those items are wrong. But humans interpret those items for us, and humans are sometimes wrong, yes. There is no substitute for thinking.

And so, the second step is to have an Open Mind. Now, it seems to me that almost everyone claims to have an open mind, but I have a hard time even finding a few humans who come close to that objective. I believe that I only have an open mind because I force myself. If I find myself not being open and having some bias, I internally correct myself. I do that since I believe the idea of having an open mind is paramount to seeking wisdom and actually the real door to learning.

As one manages to get an open mind, they can then let world information pour in, not stopped by an ideology or other barrier. Once inside our brains we can use logic and morality to decide which items are right and fit with other pieces in the real world, and which do not. Learning how to sort good things from bad things does take a while to be good at it, but logic can be a good help. If something seems too good to be true, it often is not. If someone claims another person or group is bad they are often going too far or are biased.

The last part leads to a step three discovery. As soon as one views the world through this new lens of open mind and logic and morality, it will look differently. Basically the world will now seem far more complex than what the media tells us that it is. There are no groups or races that are all good or bad. There are not even individuals who are all good or bad. But yes, there can be bad ideas. Yes, there can be bias or greed or even mentally ill people. And in this part three we see a far more complex world, but one that we will instantly recognize, hopefully, that makes far more sense. After all, who are we as individuals? We have had our good days and our bad days. We are a mixture. So are all humans. The extremes we hear are seldom correct.

The fourth thing we may discover is that many disagreements are about nothing important. I have noted that some people will argue about most anything. And why? Is being right about some tiny detail that does not matter worth the stress and ill feelings that it can cause? Of course not. Over time you might even notice cases where both sides of an argument are essentially saying the same thing, but with different words. What a waste of time.

This fourth item leads to something a number of philosopher have noticed. They have noticed that hate never leads to anything good. And that often hate in fact harms the person hating more than the person that they hate. Hate is a waste of a perfectly good life. And so, arguments that lead to hate are also something that is often to be avoided, except in some extreme cases.

And so, with practice, where does this lead. This to me seems to lead to a whole new world. Instead of leaping to conclusions as many humans do, those who seek wisdom realize the complexities of the world and do far deeper thinking. Those who seek wisdom are more likely to be hard on themselves rather than on others. After all, a person can spend their time criticizing others and not progress at all as a human being. Or a human can worry mostly about how good they themselves are, and become a student for life, and reach higher and higher heights of thinking. Then, each day they learn more than they had learned the day before, and they are happy with that knowledge.