Thursday, March 14, 2013

How to gain more wisdom

This is an excerpt from A beginner's guide to changing the world: for Tibet, with love by Isabel Losada.
Isabel finally meets the Dalai Lama, and asks him (pp 354-5, 2004 edition):
But for the average person...If we assume that we are using wisdom for good things, then how do you gain more of it?
The Dalai Lama replies:
 It's a kind of intelligence or awareness. It's thinking longer. Wider perspective. We also need something happiness, something good today. Animals only thinking immediate, not next year or next generation but we human beings can think long term and sometimes even we have the courage to sacrifice immediate things for long term and next generation. More spiritual sight, awareness, more inner values and thinking about mind and about consciousness and how it works. Understanding emotions. Inner wisdom. So wisdom, you identify wisdom as a spirituality or something good.
'Simple kindness' are his final words. This seems like a good summary of a way to live your life. The longer version is contained in books and teachings of great masters (in my opinion). Meditation, devotion and compassion.