What it means to 'be wise':


The Great Teacher, The Lady of Noble Repute, said to her
devotees, “He who thinks himself wise, proves he is not.
She, who knows herself, is.” A student spoke up. “Teacher,
do you mean to say Man is not wise, or at the very least, not
as wise as Woman?”
The Teacher smiled. “Surely you know I would say no
such thing.” She continued. “Is it wise to think myself wise?
If I know I am wise, I am. Do you now know of what I
speak?”The student replied, “Has it to do with thinking and
knowing?”“Yes. But is that all of which I speak?”
Another spoke, “Perhaps you speak of knowing yourself.”
“Ah. Yes. But what must you know of yourself in order to
be considered wise?”The students looked wide-eyed and
unsure. She took a deep breath. “How long will you not
obtain understanding? To think myself wise is pride and folly.
To know this is wisdom.”“Teacher,” the student interjected,
“If someone is wise, he knows it. But as soon as he knows it,
does he not also think it and then become unwise?” “Again,
to think I am wise is folly. I am wise when I know enough to
know I am not all-wise. Therefore, I am most wise when
I admit I know nothing.”
“How then does one know when he is wise, Great One?”
Another added, “And would the most ignorant among us
then be the wisest?”“Have I come to you proclaiming my
wisdom? Had I proclaimed it, would you have sought me
out to learn of me?”There was silence.
“If I proclaim my wisdom or my goodness, where is my
humility? If I walk in the world showing forth what I know
by my deeds and not my words, am I not wise?
Will others not see and seek such things for themselves?
To think myself wise is to strut like a peacock. To know I
am wise is to ‘be’. Such knowledge will flow from me like
water from a spring. A spring does not think to bubble forth
its essence. It just does. Is that not wise?”
The devotees nodded, smiling.
“Thought is transient; a wisp; imagination. It has no
substance. Knowledge is transcendent; it is power and light
and more a state of ‘be’-ing than a fleeting thought. My
knowing does not require a thought. If I am wise, I am.
What I know makes me wise - but only as far as what I
know. To think I know all, to think I know more than I
know, how is this wise?”
She looked about the room. “Wisdom is intimacy.
Be intimate with what you know as a man is intimate with the
woman he loves. Herein lies knowledge. Herein is wisdom.”
May we all be-come wise.

Much love,
Wind Sister, aka Teresa Crane