Through the ages the mantle of wisdom has been placed like a hidden identity on spiritual leaders. It has glorified age, because of its accumulated view points. Likewise, it has revered the cumbersome weight of ancestral wisdom and given a false sense of authority to those who are wise in a specific field – a field of predictable outcomes.
Wisdom is the antithesis of the unknown; the place where growth lies. For growth can be described as turning the unknown into the known through experience. It purports to be the companion of awareness, but it constricts it. Wisdom, by holding on to the truths of yesterday, pulls us back into the past; keeping us on the treadmill of perpetuating the past in the future.
Wisdom has to defend its position – it has everything to prove and nothing to learn. It keeps us in the cage of conformity – the place of no growth.
Wisdom is static; a pat formula for ascension and it provides us with a false sense of discovery. It masquerades as a pearl of great price, but it is nothing more than the crutch we use when we are confronted with the unknown vastness of our being. It can be called the addiction of mastery, born of the fear of surrendering to our own expansion; pulling us back into constriction’s safety.
Innocence births truth and confounds wisdom. Unlike illusion, it is not addicted to knowing. Having nothing to prove and everything to learn, it enjoys the journey of discovery. Unencumbered by the weight of self-reflections, it holds on lightly to the moment’s truth. Innocence knows that truth is fluid and that if held onto tightly, today’s truth can become the prison bars of tomorrow’s wisdom.
The moment’s truth reveals itself in the silence of the mind, through the unfolding guidance of the heart. Wisdom speaks of inner poise but instead promotes activity by implying that we have to search for it. The cost we have to pay in our search is nothing less than innocence. Innocence, the revealer of truth, can be found only in the moment whereas wisdom seeks to control our future and make us victims of the past.