wisdom 
A white-haired couple sits on the park
bench,
Reading
the paper, discussing the day’s news.
He
repeats a poem, learned in his youth;
She
finishes the stanza as he nods in pleasure.
At
twilight, the air seems clearer than noon.
In past times, educators emphasized memorization. You can still meet
older people who can recite certain poems, passages from classics and
religious texts, or mathematical formulae. In fact, some people assert
that those who remember more are wiser.
Young people often have a mania for more and more information. But mere
accumulation is not enough. The more you take in, the more that data
needs to be managed. Without that, you have encyclopedic knowledge and
minuscule wisdom. True wisdom is a qualitative value built on a
quantitative foundation. The vital elderly did not become venerable
through good memory alone. They also learned to manipulate those facts.
They mixed their knowledge with a healthy dose of experience,
experimentation, and contemplation. It takes time to intuit special
connections between facts.
One might say that wisdom is not simply a mental process but the sum
total of a human being.
prowess
365 Tao
daily meditations
Deng Ming-Dao (author)
ISBN 0-06-250223-9
.
Spring
breeze blow countless twig of willow 1964
by Fu Bao Shi
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*Suggested
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