Being Wise, Being Foolish

I wonder if you, like me, recognize the crucial importance of wisdom at this point in your life and in our life together on earth. Not having been alive for either of the world’s two great wars, I get a small sense of what it might have been like in the years just before these world wars as I watch things spiralling out of control in Israel’s current war with Hamas. What is the path of wisdom in a long-standing conflict that has involved so much injustice and hatred for more than a half-century? Or, what is the path of wisdom in response to climate change that has moved so quickly from being a disputed theory to an overwhelming global reality? Or, what is the path of wisdom in relation to the burgeoning global refugee crisis where more than 110 million people have been forcibly displaced or are stateless in 2023?

A few years ago, more than 15,000 scientists from 184 countries signed what they called “A Warning to Humanity” that was published in the Oxford University Press journal, Bioscience 1. It focused on the global crisis we are facing related to such things as freshwater availability, marine life depletion, ocean dead zones, forest loss, biodiversity destruction, climate change, and the implications of these things for the sustainability of life on earth. What they told us is that life as we are living it is simply not sustainable and nothing we are doing to address the problems are working. The call for living wisdom could not be more clear or urgent. 

Wisdom is often best seen in contrast to its foil – foolishness. The difference between the wise and foolish person is so obvious that the wisdom literature of the world makes extensive use of stories of fools to illustrate the distinctives of wisdom. Think of Jesus’ story of the fool building his house on sand while the wise person builds on rock. The difference is easily recognized. Or think of his parable about one blind man leading someone who is also blind, and the danger they both face of falling into a pit. Foolishness is often best recognized by the absence of wisdom and wisdom by the absence of foolishness. 

The Dalai Lama was once asked what most surprised him about humans. As the story goes, he answered that humans sacrifice their health in order to make money. Then they sacrifice money to recuperate their health. Then they are so anxious about their future that they do not enjoy or truly live in the present. Then they live as if they are never going to die, and die having never really lived. 

Although the Dalai Lama never mentions wisdom, his description of foolishness clearly identifies at least part of what wisdom involves.

Wise Fools and Crazy Wisdom

But the danger of seeing wisdom and foolishness as opposites is that we easily tend to miss the fact that the wisest person will still often do incredibly foolish things and fools can, at times, show moments of stunning wisdom. 

Think of contemporary people in positions of leadership and influence who do really stupid things. It shouldn’t be hard for you to quickly think of a number of religious leaders, politicians and other public figures who fit the bill. And perhaps you can also find examples in your family or circle of friends. 

But it is much more helpful to think of the incredibly stupid things you have done yourself – things you have never wanted anyone to know about, that you still may have trouble acknowledging. Now it’s suddenly clear why we are so much more comfortable thinking of others as foolish and ourselves as – if not wise, at least generally displaying common sense. It is hard to admit that we also are sometimes incredibly foolish. But until we do, we fail to recognize that wisdom and foolishness are twins that live together in the human soul. 

C. G. Jung described our inner fool as expressing a kind of crazy wisdom that, by challenging conventional wisdom, points us toward true wisdom 2. Looking back on his life at age 85 he said that since human nature is temperamentally set against wisdom he had often found it necessary to pay the price of being foolish in order to access true wisdom. Just as we cannot recognize silence apart from having known noise, or light apart from knowing shadow, so too, it seems, wisdom is only recognizable in relation to foolishness. 

Jesus offers us a classic example of the apparent craziness of wisdom. Think of the seemingly foolish things he taught and lived:

• To find your life you must first lose it

• The last will be first and the first will be last

• The meek and poor in spirit will inherit the earth, not the powerful

• Labouring is real rest

• Giving is the way to receive

• Yielding is the way to conquer, and

• Dying is the way to truly live

Is it any wonder the official religious wisdom figures had to kill him? Yet, seen through the eyes of faith and across the distance of time, clearly what Jesus was offering qualifies as hidden wisdom – seemingly crazy but profoundly true and wise. 

Wisdom often needs to be cloaked. The court jester always hides behind humor to deliver his message. And, as Jung noted, sometimes it may be necessary to pay the price of being (or at least appearing to be) foolish in order to access true wisdom. Most people are fools who think they are wise. And those who actually are wise will often appear to be fools.

The route to wisdom is through life – through all its absurdity, foolishness, missteps and their consequences. And, despite what we want to believe, that path has no short-cuts.

Wisdom and Knowledge

While knowledge comes from learning, wisdom comes from living. No one becomes wise merely by either the accumulation of information or the passage of time. However, while many people fail to become wise as they age, no one actually becomes wise unless they age. 

Information leads to knowledge, but knowledge does not automatically translate into wisdom. Wisdom comes from living that is guided by seeing through eyes of an awakened heart and transformed consciousness. 

In Buddhism this is called enlightenment. In Christianity it is usually described as acquiring the mind of Christ or Christ consciousness. Some refer to it as accessing cosmic consciousness. However, regardless of the language we use to describe it the important thing to note is that it involves something much more profound than acquiring information. What it involves is a quantum shift in our inner world. It involves nothing less than a fundamentally new way of seeing and relating to everything in existence – to one’s self, to others, to God and to the world.   

The  Spirit of Wisdom inhabits all of creation and is our truest and deepest self. This means that wisdom comes from living in alignment with the Transcendent One I call the Spirit of Wisdom. It also means that since the Spirit of Wisdom inhabits all of creation and is our deepest and truest self we are already deeply connected to what we seek. This is why accessing wisdom has less to do with acquiring knowledge than learning to see through what I describe as the eyes of Christ. 

The portal to wisdom is the awakening and transformation of our hearts and minds. Walking through this doorway does not lead us to a pool of knowledge but to a way of knowing, something I call wisdom knowing. 

Wisdom knowing can never be reduced to knowledge or beliefs. It is knowing that emerges from hearts and minds that are awakened, integrated and transformed. It is knowing that emerges from living with the enlightenment of Christ consciousness. This is the wisdom that we need to face and constructively respond to the global crises that threaten our survival.

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1. “World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice” William J. Ripple, et. al., BioScience, (Volume 67, Issue 12) December 2017, 1026–1028. 
2. C. G. Jung, Letters, Vol. 2: 1951-1961, Gerhard Adler, ed. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1976), pp. 579-580.

2023 © Dr. David G. Benner

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For more on the importance, understanding and living of wisdom, see two of Dr. Benner’s book recent books — This AND That (2023), and, Living Wisdom (2019). 

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This AND That: Pondering Polarities as a Doorway to Hidden Wisdom

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“Everything in existence has both a ‘this’ and a ‘that.’ Wholeness and wisdom require ‘this and that’ perception—not either/or but both/and.”

David's newest book of ponderings provides a profound demonstration of the fact that how we see determines what we see. In his trademark style of thoughtful but accessible engagement with issues at the intersection of spirituality, psychology and science, This AND That offers the author’s ponderings on the seeming opposition of categories of human experience such as separateness and oneness, truth and untruth, and life and death, while focusing on the wisdom that is hidden at the heart of each polarity.

Binary classifications and dualistic thinking give us a sense of certainty and security in the face of the shades of grey that dominate the canvas of life. The problem, however, is that the maps of reality that arise from dualistic thinking massively simplify and distort what truly is.

This book explores these matters, not in a philosophical or theological manner, but by gently pondering the tension of the middle ground out of which synthesis emerges. Drawing together insights from the perennial wisdom tradition, depth psychology; and science, the focus is on the spiritual implications of how we respond to the polarities of life. The goal is not to enlarge understanding but to shift how we look at our lives and the world. “Both/and” perception is the wisdom way of knowing and living.

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Living Wisdom

CA$36.00

Much more than knowledge or even understanding, wisdom is seeing life through the eyes of an awakened heart and transformed consciousness. Rather than being the result of the accumulation of information, wisdom comes from acquiring a new mind. Buddhists speak of this new mind as enlightenment. The Christian name for it is the mind and heart of Christ. This is the basis of wisdom.

Wisdom is grounded in a deep awareness of the sacredness and interconnectedness of everything in existence. It is living in alignment with the creative Spirit of Wisdom who inhabits all of creation and is our truest and deepest self. It is learning to participate in God’s transformational agenda of cosmic whole-making, this being the way in which everything that exists becomes whole in Christ.

This book does not offer gems of wisdom. Instead, it seeks to facilitate the awakening of your heart and transformation of your consciousness that will allow wisdom to flow your from depths.

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