Murshid Hidayat Inayat-Khan
Wisdom
Wisdom might perhaps be described as being an attitude of compassion but cannot be defined in words, for there are just as many expressions of wisdom as there are seekers of wisdom. Yet, for the one who is really wise there is only one wisdom, although there are many different ways of understanding that one wisdom, and different forms of expression through which the one and only wisdom is recognized by the wise.
As soon as one attempts to define abstract concepts, one gets taken away into the labyrinth of one’s own thoughts, which break down into speculative descriptions, and one builds up one’s own dogmatic ideas which are then added to the many which one picks up through one’s experiences, together with the numerous impressions and influences which constitute our mind world. Then when one starts putting one’s beliefs and understandings into words, the words tend to deviate from the original ideas which were themselves only arbitrary concepts, and the result of all this is so often presented as being the one and only truth.
Perhaps one might discover someday what it really means to be wise, when realizing that things are just as important as is one’s attachment to them. Nothing is really important, and yet, everything is important. But that which seems so important to oneself does not always seem important to others. The wise remain free from judging others and from specifying what is good and what is bad. Good and bad are concepts that can only be determined according to one’s own conscience. Therefore, at a higher level of understanding, the only guidance to what is right or wrong for oneself is ones own conscience. When one does something inappropriate one is unhappy, even though one might try to fool oneself.
The only guide to what is right and what is wrong for oneself is one’s own conscience. When one thinks or does something inappropriate, one is unhappy. Even though one often tries to fool oneself, one always really knows what is good and what is bad on one’s path in life. One usually thinks that one’s thoughts are only inside the head, and that emotions are only within the chest, but in fact thoughts extend throughout the indefinable sphere of consciousness, and the emotions expand indefinitely, unlimited by concepts such as time, space and intellectual logic.
