Thinking about things
I have a friend who talks about wisdom and I think about what wisdom is. To me the cultivation of wisdom is a yearning for God, whatever God may be. I think wisdom comes from recognizing and admitting ignorance and error. Humans err. Recognizing it in oneself dispels ignorance. Recognizing your ignorance equips you to avoid error. Wisdom grows. Imagine a tree, nourished by its own decay.
If wisdom is a yearning for God, understanding is knowledge of God, the fulfillment of the yearning. A seed in the darkness, drawn first to warmth then unfurling leaves to feed on light. Wisdom and understanding give rise to compassion and judgment, branches on the trunk that now both supports and brings moisture from the darkness below.
The culmination of the four--wisdom, understanding, compassion and judgment--enlightened by the contemplation of God, is the apprehension of beauty, an expansive canopy, triumphant and splendid, it brings forth fruit, the conception and realization of the will that orders existence.
If wisdom is a yearning for God, understanding is knowledge of God, the fulfillment of the yearning. A seed in the darkness, drawn first to warmth then unfurling leaves to feed on light. Wisdom and understanding give rise to compassion and judgment, branches on the trunk that now both supports and brings moisture from the darkness below.
The culmination of the four--wisdom, understanding, compassion and judgment--enlightened by the contemplation of God, is the apprehension of beauty, an expansive canopy, triumphant and splendid, it brings forth fruit, the conception and realization of the will that orders existence.