What is wisdom and where does it come from? Mindfulness teacher and author Melli O’Brien shares what we misunderstand about wisdom and why we need more of it in our world today.
Q: What’s an area of mindfulness research, learning, or teaching that feels urgent to you in this moment?
A:
We’re living in a world that’s really devoid of wisdom right now. We’re deploying all kinds of emotional intelligence and intellectual intelligence skills to try and solve problems, but the lack of wisdom is really hurting us. We need to develop that capacity and be much more clear that wisdom is not just an awareness or a blank state, but that it actually has its own intelligence. We need a way of reconnecting with that intelligence, and also making sure it is integrated with the other skills we need to navigate the world.
There is an argument that the state of awareness in mindfulness is ethically neutral, a blank state. In my personal experience, awareness is not neutral. Rather, it comes with a feeling of being connected to something much larger than yourself, a higher perspective about your place in the world, and there’s a sense of belonging that comes with that feeling of oneness with life. And when we feel that sense of oneness and belonging—what I sometimes call our true self—there is also a sense of benevolence that arises toward yourself, others, and the environment.
When we feel that sense of oneness and belonging—what I sometimes call our true self—there is also a sense of benevolence that arises toward yourself, others, and the environment.
I know that a lot of people think of wisdom as life experience, something that comes from the mind, from memory. I’m saying that wisdom is the ability to connect with the strength of the true self, and then to actually live it and act on it.
