What is the difference between true wisdom and what you think you know to be true? This is a topic I find hard to digest because our truth is just that “our truth.” Sure we can all regurgitate information we’ve heard from someone else but in this case we must look to the hive to find some answers.
The hive is where the bees go to puke up what they’ve ingested, in their case it’s honey, in ours it’s information. Once this info comes back to the hive, the brain, the heart, the body, it needs to be broken down, studied from many views, turned upside down, proven with practice and so on. When info is just spit back out into the world it’s efficacy and power is lost. In order for each of us to come to any sort of truth, time must be spend unravelling the info and finding out what deeply resonates as truth within us.
Although, I was armed with that knowledge I often found myself taking in what “authorities” or “experts” would say and instead of taking it in, breaking it down and looking at it closely I often found it easier to just spit back out. If anyone ever came to my class after I had been to a workshop, this is what was usually happening. Why it was happening, well was often because the info landed on my ears, eyes, heart, skin and it often resonated with a deep truth, that I genuinely felt and I got super excited to share it. I’ve come to understand that, that might not be enough, that a deeper inquiry is not sometimes needed but always needed.
When you stop questioning you give up your ability to discern between your truth and someone else’s truth. When you use Satya, one the niyamas, mentioned by Patanjali, which means truthfulness or speaking the truth, something very powerful shifts in you. In the past I think I just found it easier to lie, but now lying makes me want to crawl out of my skin for the most part since it’s in direct conflict with my personal experience, which has become my truth. Why do you think lie detectors can detect lies, because the body’s psyche has an actual response when we lie, heart rate increase, temperature increase, rate of respiration increase. Lying disturbs the peace and quiet of the mind and body.
True wisdom, therefore is your personal experience, possibly backed with fact or science, that you have ingested, digested, purified, refined and puked back onto the world. True wisdom is the very remedy for ignorance and for many ignorance is at the root of suffering. If you are willing to take information in as opposed to believing that you are always right, even though you might not be, then from there true wisdom can be born and expanded upon.