by Lesley Mason

Created on: November 06, 2008   Last Updated: May 14, 2012

As with many abstract concepts, understanding what wisdom is commences with an understanding of what it is not.

It is not *knowledge*

That is merely an accumulation of facts, a store of data which could equally well be held by printed pages or on an electronic chip, as in the mind of a sentient being.

It is not *experience*

That is merely the sum of everything which has happened to us. We cannot fail to gain experience. Things happen to us, either as a result of our own action or inaction, or through the action or inaction of others, or merely by dint of the chemical and biological and physical processes that carry on inside our bodies and in the wider universe in which we live. We cannot help but become experienced; it will not necessarily make us wise. As the old adage has it: wisdom comes with age, but sometimes age shows up all by itself.

It is not *intellect*

The capacity to master the electronic signals within our brain in such a way as to be capable of abstract thought is an inbred function of that brain itself. To make connections beyond those needed to stay warm and fed and safe, to be capable of creativity and imagination, does not necessarily indicate that any of the outcomes of those activities will be in any way wise. They may be harmful in a larger or lesser degree. They may simply be foolish but none the less intellectual for all that.

Nor is it even the ability to master all of those attributes and use them to produce beneficial results. That is merely training the acquisition of a learned response: more intricate no doubt that Pavlov's salivating dog, but in essence no more nor less wise. We learn from our mistakes and do different next time. We learn from other people's mistakes and do different ourselves. Action and reaction, repeated. The bad and the good accordingly rewarded with pain and pleasure. We learn.

Wisdom embraces all of these characteristics but goes beyond them. It is insight. The ability to see beyond, to capture the essence of what matters and what does not, to recognise the (in)significance of everything. Wisdom does not judge. It walks cloaked in compassion and understands even that with which it does not agree. Wisdom is the knowledge of how little is truly known. Wisdom is the healer, seeking always to do good, but aware that sometimes the doing of good causes harm.

Wisdom is the whispered promise of our better selves. It is the unreachable grail.

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