3: Many Roads to Wisdom

Quote: “The only RIGHT road is the road you are currently on, because the road you are on contains the wisdom to ultimately help you fulfill the spiritual impulse.”

Written Version Below (relatively the same as the audio)

Welcome to day 3 of our 5-part series exploring the practical basics of spirituality. This lesson on “wisdom” is a beautiful and natural follow-up to yesterday’s lesson on “the inevitable misunderstanding.”

These explorations, where we question what we think we know and connect with something more honest, sincere, and true, are the foundation of profound transformation.

I hope you see this; and, I hope you see the simplicity in it all.

So often, as a way of unconsciously avoiding the desired transformation, because we fear some flavor of letting go of what’s familiar and comfortable, the mind has this ability to make things overly complicated.

This reminds me of moments where two people find themselves caught in a painful argument. Each person is lost in their own narratives, building infinite mental evidence about how wrong the other person is. Yet, underneath all that commotion and thinking, there is a very simple, and innocent, misunderstanding.

However… to see the simplicity, we must look past the mind’s complexity that is, actually, only looking for ways to avoid being more deeply honest, vulnerable, and willing to, maybe, be wrong.

Part 3: Many Roads to Wisdom

What is Wisdom?

Wisdom is a depth of understanding that transcends surface-level assumptions, resolves conflicts within oneself, between individuals, and harmonizes the relationship between humanity and nature.

Furthermore, real and embodied wisdom positively affects every area of your life. Wisdom is what makes the path clearer and straighter; it is a guiding force that helps you avoid future suffering and positions you to experience and connect more deeply with what your heart truly craves.

What Wisdom is Not…

• A mere accumulation of intellectual knowledge or perceived facts.
• The absence of doubt, fear, or any other natural human emotions.
• A guaranteed outcome that comes with getting older.
• Believing you are right and others are wrong.
• The memorization of spiritual platitudes.
• A destination or final endpoint.

Wisdom is learned or acquired through the examination of direct experience. Wisdom is the result of a radical depth of self-honesty that can discern and acknowledge the difference between what you think you know, and what you truly know.

In fact, if you examine your suffering, conflict, or apparent disharmony with yourself, others, or Life, what you will find is the “assumption of knowing.” You assume you know something, that, upon a deeper and more honest self-reflection, you'll realize that you don't really know.

The Road Toward Wisdom

If your spiritual impulse is to see and connect with a deeper truth about yourself and life, and you seek to heal suffering, returning to a more grounded, loving, and playful state of being, then clearly, gaining more wisdom is the obvious solution.

• Gaining more wisdom is simply seeing things as they are, rather than how you imagine them to be.

The beauty in the "road toward wisdom" is that wisdom (seeing more clearly) can be found on any road you might be on. It simply doesn't matter which road you take because every road is paved on the fabric of existence, which is designed to fulfill the spiritual impulse.

Even if you’re on a “terrible road,” that terrible road contains the learning opportunity (wisdom) to find a better road.

William Blake (English Poet 1757 - 1827), once said…

"If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise."

This is one of my favorite quotes because, at least for me, it expresses deep wisdom about the nature of wisdom.

Contained within the nature of humanity, within the design of being human, there exists a mechanism that is the natural progression toward wisdom; if one would flow with their own nature.

Your Success & Failure

Our deepest learnings in life, which help us fulfill our spiritual impulse, arise through the experience of making mistakes. The fool, in this case, becomes wise, because the fool is willing to be wrong, willing to make mistakes, and willing to explore and find out for himself or herself.

The one who is not willing to be, or is not willing to be seen as a fool, will also not engage in an exploration that leads toward more wisdom.

This is incredibly practical and grounding for me. If I look at where I've grown most in my life, the wisdom I've embodied has all come from making mistakes. And, in another practical and grounded way, we can see this playing out in the nature of "success and failure."

You simply cannot have "success" without the experience of "failure." The experience of failure is simply offering feedback to show you what works and doesn't work. The willingness to fail... (to look like a fool) is a willingness to get feedback and learn from it.

If one is not willing to fail, or sees failure as fundamentally wrong or bad, then when failure does happen, there won’t be the openness to examine the feedback and learn from it. The lack of openness essentially pushes the lesson away; we hide ourselves from the lesson because we hide from experiencing failure.

The Road You Are On

Wisdom, at its core, is about an openness to explore. If we want or desire to learn (succeed/become wise), then we absolutely must be open to making mistakes (fail/be a fool).

This applies to… every road you take in life. Whether it's in your relationships, in your health, in your work or service, in your particular struggles and difficulties, or in a path that follows a spiritual tradition, the same WISDOM can be found in them all.

The only "RIGHT" road is the road you are currently on, because this road contains the wisdom or learning opportunity to ultimately help you fulfill the spiritual impulse. Even if (and when) you find a new road, the journey towards the new road starts where your feet are currently planted.

Your 3-minute Exercise:

1. Reflect on a Recent Mistake or Failure: Spend a minute reflecting on a recent mistake or "failure" in your life. Instead of judging yourself for this mistake, consider what wisdom or learning opportunity was present in the experience.

   "What did I initially believe to be true, which later turned out to be a false assumption, and how did this believed assumption only lead to conflict or disharmony?"

2. Openness Exercise: Close your eyes for about a minute, and take a few deep breaths. Visualize the mistake or "failure" in your life. Instead of judging or criticizing yourself for this mistake, imagine yourself opening up to the experience as if it contained a huge gift - even if you can’t see the gift yet, be willing to receive the gift.

3. Self Reminder Practice: Spend the last minute, with your eyes closed and breathing deeply, yet softly, repeating this simple phrase to yourself:

   "I am open to receiving wisdom in all forms, and I am willing to be okay with not knowing what I don’t really know.”

Up Next…

1. Ancient Invitation
2. Inevitable Misunderstanding
3. Many Roads to Wisdom
4. 👉 Only ONE Prize to Find (Tomorrow)
5. It’s Okay… to Be Human

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