The gaining of wisdom, experience and intelligence.

How do you define wisdom?

Wisdom comes from the understanding of the bigger game - the spiritual game.
A viewpoint that lacks wisdom is one that views life on an immediate level, with no consideration for ways in which the consequences of that decision may affect the long-term future. An unwise decision may solve an immediate situation whilst creating an even bigger problem in the future. There is no wisdom in this.

A wise decision is one made by the inclusion of the human viewpoint, and by viewing a condition of existence through time, and making sure that whatever decision is made to handle immediate problems, also contributes to solutions that prevent those problems recurring in the future. 

So wisdom is the ability of a spirit rather than a mind to view a situation through time without being restricted by a fixed position in time.

When you develop wisdom, your reality begins to encompass more time, therefore your actions and decisions are longer-reaching, beneficial to more people. Many wise decisions made hundreds of years ago still benefit us today and many wise sayings from the past are as relevant today as when they were first spoken. Wisdom is achieved by viewing physical problems from the spiritual viewpoint. From this viewpoint, the concept of time is completely different.

If people's attention is tied up solving immediate problems, what can they do to develop this long-term view you are talking about?

There is an old saying 'You've got a feed a man's belly before you can feed his mind'. So naturally if a person is in a corner and they have a problem, which is keeping them down, they have to solve that problem before they can move on. The lower/basic problem levels contain more mass: Making enough money for shelter and food, trying to have your communication understood, and to understand others. 

Above that are the lighter levels. How much joy and love can I experience in my life, how can I be a better friend and help others? The question is how long will it take someone to get up to these higher levels? Some people stay in the lower levels for a lifetime, others move through more quickly. This is what we use meditation for: To detach from the energy of significance that forms the considerations that stick us in those realities. It is a tool for evolvement – Energy Conversion is a very effective technique for this.

In terms of wisdom, it is also the ability to anticipate problems that will occur in the future if we do not change. When we develop the skill of looking at why a particular problem exists, we ask ourselves why did it become a problem? What could I have done to prevent this situation from happening? This level of personal responsibility is where wisdom is born; in making decisions that eliminate problems in the future.

If we don't pose problems for ourselves, life will pose them for us. It is as simple as that. The application of intelligence is posing and solving problems that interest us. But to include wisdom with the intelligence it is necessary to be aware of the human viewpoint.

So if people get on top of present time problems, they will have taken the first step towards a viewpoint with more wisdom?

Exactly. First, solve the basic local problems that are taking your attention, then you will be afforded the luxury of extending your awareness over more time and space.

Another thing that wisdom contributes to is a reduction in effort. Every time you have to solve a recurring problem, your attention is taken away from the big picture. You are reducing your attention to focus in on something small. It is good to know that a problem only exists because of our resistance to its solution. Every problem has a solution, take away the conflict and the problem vanishes. When you get on top of these small problems, you can start to address the more interesting issues in life.

How do you get wisdom?

You get wisdom by listening to life, listening to people and understanding the pain that causes their problems. Not listening with your body's ears – they hear only the sounds of the physical world. Rather, listening with your perception. If you do this, your understanding will increase. Wisdom is the reward you get when you listen instead of just talk. When you opt to understand rather than think, to experience rather than judge. The most wise person is the one who is able to experience the greatest number of realities; able to view things as they are, not compulsively judge something, or change it to fit into their existing reality.

A lot of people might think that wisdom is the domain of philosophers or great leaders of the past. Can it be a practical tool for today?

Yes it can. If you look at the people in the past whose deeds have offered us inspiration, they assumed viewpoints that were above the immediate problems of the day. Legends of those people are very handy to us because they are a reminder of the basic stable spiritual information that governs all physical life.

A brilliant mind is not enough. All through history, lasting positive effects have been caused by people who have strong spiritual and human understanding, above the limitations of the mind, their viewpoints have remained valuable through time. They have lasted because they still offer people a chance to detach from the traps in life.

Why do some individuals like Einstein or Socrates somehow rise above the normal level of thinking? Why do they, as opposed to someone else, rise up? What makes them special?

If you have a look at life from the viewpoint of lifetimes, instead of the life of your body, you will understand. The problem is that we base our decisions on such a small timescale.

You will find that some people are more ready to take action in a spiritual way in this lifetime than others, depending on where they left it in the last lifetime. And so that's why some people are obtuse and never ask the question why? They are not ready to know. They do not want to remember that they are a spirit. However, it may take some time, but there will come a point in this life or the next, or some time in the future when they will be ready to remember.

Are you saying that this level of wisdom is open to anyone who can have it?

Yes anyone is capable of wisdom, anyone at all. Wisdom is there for anyone who can have it. But you can't rote-learn wisdom. It must be attained. You just have to start asking the important questions, 'Who am I?', 'What am I not?' and 'Why am I here?'

The search for these answers creates a path to the gaining of wisdom.

There is a saying that age is a high price to pay for wisdom, do you agree with this saying?

I don't think when you evolve is important, what is important is that you do evolve. If you are looking at evolvement from a physical lifetime then it would be a high price to pay, but a spirit doesn't look at it from that point of view. Spiritual life has been going on for much longer. Clear memories from a previous life are common. It depends on the reality of the person whether life means the life of the body or the lifetime of the spirit.

Of course it doesn't really matter when they achieve wisdom because they are going to keep achieving it all of their physical life and after that too. How do we know what kind of games we are going to be playing after this physical life? There is no guarantee that there is not another university to go after this one if you are evolved enough to get out of the loop of repeating the same thing over again – which we call karma.

What is the difference between intelligence and wisdom?

Intelligence is thinking based and requires an ordered and clear mind. The mind is like a computer. It stores information. If your mind is in good order, you can solve immediate physical problems, find information easily and use intelligence. If your mind is in disorder, then it is difficult to access the information and intelligence reduces.

Thinking is based on the application of that knowledge to physical problems. Thinking is also very useful to translate something you inherently know as a spirit into a form that can be communicated. Thinking satisfies the minds as well.  'You can tell an intelligent man by the way he answers a question, and you can tell a wise man by the questions he asks'. I think that's a pretty good definition.

Can a person be wise and intelligent at the same time?

Of course they can and hopefully they are. The two are complimentary.

Which would you say is more important?

Well they're both are important because wisdom looks at life through time and intelligence looks at life in the immediate situation. So you balance your intelligence with wisdom. A lot of people are intelligent with no wisdom so they just create a series of ongoing present time problems because they are bored. That makes life very exhausting. Intelligent people without wisdom can also be a menace, because they are capable of causing big effects, but do not have the wisdom to be responsible with those effects.

Does being wiser mean you will have to experience more pain?

Pain is a part of physical life. There is no way to avoid it. Every life will, in the end, have a death of the body, and there will be pain at some point. So we would be advised to get good at experiencing pain.  If people want to use a mental not-know* to block out pain and find a state of peace they can, and many people do, but that does not make the pain go away. It just makes the energy of pain go solid and this blocks up the energy field. Then you can't experience joy either. To me it's not a good trade. You can't avoid pain, because experiencing it is a part of life. But you can develop a tolerance of pain.

All growth requires experiencing pain of some kind. But pain is a flash point, experience it quickly and it is gone. Avoid experiencing it and it can last a lifetime.

Whilst there is resistance to change you will have pain. To the degree there is less resistance to change, there will be less pain. A wise person is capable of experiencing great pain, That is the reason their viewpoint is so expansive and consequently they are able to both experience and understand the pain and joy in others.

Is a person ever wise by chance?

No, wisdom is not obtained by chance. It is the reward we get for moving through life's traps, because we have learned the lessons that life has presented us. Then we don't feel the need to experience them again. This is also how we can reduce our Karma – by learning that the viewpoints we hold onto are not valuable. Let them go and search for lighter, more expansive and operative viewpoints. Don't hold onto realities that are causing you pain, let them go, just release the energy or the emotion and move on. We are not our viewpoints, they are not precious, and they are often implanted viewpoints from earlier times.

We are here to evolve. It is really about the gaining of experience and being willing to let go of the viewpoints that limit us.

Ken, thank you very much.

Thank you.

Definitions
Not-know – The decision to not confront a situation that may cause pain. A not-know is usually initially conscious but later may become unconscious.
Present time – The point in time where consciousness of the physical body and the physical environment is being located.