Words of Wisdom

There's bucket loads of words of wisdom sloshing about. Just think of all the good advice given by traditional English proverbs with their silver clouds, sow's ears, long roads, cups, lips, cooks, pigs, cows, foxes, kings.. there's enough there to keep you going for the rest of your life. Then there's the religious texts: the Book of Proverbs, the Sayings of the Prophet, the Analects of Confucius, the Koans of Zen and so on. More recently there have been the modern mystics like Eckhart Tolle and Paul Coelho, Californian gurus, Shamans, neurologists, agony aunts, TV pundits, Jeremy Clarkson [sorry], management consultants, psychologists, NLP practitioners, complimentary therapists all deluging us with words of wisdom.

And there's me in my kitchen after  glass or two of wine pontificating. Fortunately what I say in such circumstances is not recorded by eager pupils of my wisdom. [ A nice little volume lost there: 'Harry Ashcroft's Table Talk'.] I'm no exception, of course, we all have this desire to pass on what we think of as wisdom. It's some kind innate urge: the oracular urge that adds yet more words to The Ocean of Wisdom.

What are we to do with all this stuff? How do we use it in real life?

If  I am in my hospital bed after an accident do I mutter to myself  through broken teeth, Every cloud has a silver lining? Do I put my trust in the Lord? Do I reflect on the 'lesson' that my suffering has granted? Do I say to myself Ah! The Buddha's First Nobel Truth! Suffering. Dukkha.  What do I do? How do I use this vast body of wisdom that's out there?

It seems to me that wisdom is cheap but life is hard.

And wisdom is much abused. It is used as a weapon by devious politicians, religious bigots, bogus gurus, oppressive parents, bullying bosses, sadistic teachers and such like.

Yet, undoubtably,  there is much that is good and true amongst all this material. How do we distinguish the sound from the spurious?

Incidentally I would like to point out that I am not asking these questions rhetorically. I am asking them in an open ended way hoping for some illumination. Hopefully not more words of wisdom but some real answers.

One issue is that words of wisdom are offered as self evident truths and are backed by authority, usually in the form of powerful partriarchs, or 'tradition'. This makes their examination problematic. Questioning them can thus stir up anxieties and make us feel vulnerable as we might enter unknown territory and, at most places and times, stir up accusations of heresy, political incorrectness, antisocial attitudes with all the consequences that  a real struggle to find some real wisdom might bring.

And are the words I've written themselves 'words of wisdom' just adding more confusion to the difficult business of being human?

There's the question of how things are said here. Are they said in a way that is pompous and pious or human and generous?

If I'm lying on my hospital bed and the Priest, or other important religious person, sits at my bedside and talks to me about  the need for patience how does that make me feel?  Patience is certainly something I'm going to be in need of but how is he [it's almost certainly a 'he'], the religious figure going to make me feel when he exhorts me to be patient?

So lots of questions. Any answers would be welcome. I'll be parking some of my own speculations on this blog over the next few weeks.