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Word Gems

self-knowledge, authentic living, full humanity, continual awakening

the efficacy of

wisdom sayings

        "O My Lost! I sweep aside the rubble of our years to see you clear of their shadow." Walter Benton

As I was saying on the previous page:

There is enormous benefit, as George Spenser Brown used the phrase, "simply bearing in mind," just keeping close to, the stellar insights of history's great thinkers; subconsciously, these seeds of wisdom, in a cross-fertilization of ideas, influence and lead us, eventually germinating as new and increased vision. 

Editor’s note: When Word Gems was brand new, I offered the above reference to Spenser Brown’s "simply bearing in mind". What do I think of this more than 25 years later? Does “keeping close to” wisdom-sayings eventually make one wise?

My answer today - do wisdom sayings make us wise? - not exactly.

This thought presented itself as I've considered the works of the famous Stoic thinkers – people like Marcus Aurelius, Cicero, and Seneca.

They worked hard at mastering their emotions – the lust for anger and revenge, the cheap luxury of moodiness and unfriendliness, the endless pursuit of empty sexual pleasure.

And as I read their works I could almost feel their noble resolve, the will-power, the singleness of mind and purpose.

And with all this, one will be tempted to ask – is this not wisdom? Can I not learn from stellar example? And even – if I “keep close” to this kind of determined virtue, will not some of their valor become my own?

The answer is nuanced. We admire a sturdy intention to do the right thing. This does have benefit.

But the real question is, does will-power alone – and heroic example of fortitude – change us on the deep inside?

Did it change them, and will it change me, by “staying close”?

If heroic intentions to adopt a virtuous mind were enough to effect real change, real personal transformation, then why did they have to work so hard to control their minds?

Stoic mind control has its place, and heroic examples provide some benefit, but “trying very hard to be good” – of any by itself -- in the end, fails to change us one micron.

The underlying propensity to seek for, or drift into, evil remains well in place.

Materialists believe that the soul, the deeper inner person, needs to be remolded, reformed, remodeled.

Almost all religions and self-help philosophies see the soul as defective, in need of repair.

And even the notion that one can be made a wise person by “staying close” to wisdom-sayings is just one more technique to rebuild a wayward deeper self by some external means.

Some of the Stoics were trying to refashion or “put in strait-jacket” the raging bodily impulses via mind control.

Others, like the Neoplatonists, saw personal transformation as akin to “climbing a ladder”, leaving behind the base desires and reaching for purer higher reality.

And most religions attempt to bolster and fortify the “sinful” and defective inner person by linking oneself to a savior-god, who will infuse one with power to do what’s right.

But all this is error.

We do not need salvation, only an awakening to what we already have.

We do not need to be 'saved' or repaired or redeemed. We do not need sermons on “trying very hard to be good”. Nor will a collection of wisdom-sayings -- beyond a temporary upliftment or a "pointing of the way" -- help us very much.

We do not need to change what we are at core level.

Instead, we need to relax and bask in, to make real and actualize, the innate, factory-installed, vivifying potency of the sacred soul -- and allow its life-energies to flow.

All this is a very large subject, and it’s discussed on a thousand Word Gems pages.

But here’s the essence of the correct view:

'Light is what we are'

The most insightful thoughts on this issue, in my opinion, are found in the ancient writing, The Gospel Of Thomas -- "Light is what we are" at the level of core being.

Also vital, see the related writings on the "true self".