I was moved by three things. First, the community aspect. I grew up in a family of nine, so living with other personalities was pretty organic for me. But I liked that part of it. Second, I liked the intellectual part, the studying. And then the third thing, which I wasn't expecting, was they were chanting the Office every day. And we who were on retreat would go and just listen. I love that it was very aesthetically moving to me to hear these men chanting the sounds which of course are wisdom literature, poetry from Israel. And we now know that historical Jesus came from that wisdom tradition. So all those three things really moved me, and I said, "Well, I'm going to giv... posted on Sep 8 2022 (3,019 reads)

I asked you to judge how smart someone is, you’d know where to start. But if you were going to assess how wise that person is, what qualities would you consider? Wisdom is the ability to make sound judgments and choices based on experience. It’s a virtue according to every great philosophical and religious tradition, from Aristotle to Confucius and Christianity to Judaism, Islam to Buddhism, and Taoism to Hinduism. According to the book From Smart to Wise, wisdom distinguishes great leaders from the rest of the pack. So what does it take to cultivate wisdom? In an enlightening study led by psychologists Paul Baltes and Ursula Staudinger, a group of leading journalist... posted on Nov 20 2013 (57,445 reads)

like courage, compassion, loyalty, fairness, generosity, and empathy, inspired by the timeless teachings of Aristotle’s philosophy yet grounded in invaluable insights from contemporary psychology. Schwartz and Sharpe write: [Aristotle] thought that our fundamental social practices constantly demanded choices — like when to be loyal to a friend, or how to be fair, or how to confront risk, or when and how to be angry—and that making the right choices demanded wisdom. To take the example of anger, the central question for Aristotle was not whether anger was good or bad, or the abstract question about what the nature of the “good” in fact was. It... posted on Jun 13 2014 (17,771 reads)

we grope our way about. "Every living being is connected intimately, and from this intimacy follows the capacity of identification and as its natural consequences, practice of non-violence… Now is the time to share with all life on our maltreated Earth through the deepening identification with life forms and the greater units, the ecosystems, and Gaia, the fabulous, old planet of ours." ~Arne Naess Much more than a simple ecology, ecosophy is a wisdom-spirituality of the earth. ‘The new balance’ is not so much between man and Earth, but between matter and spirit, between spatio-temporality and consciousness. Ecosophy is not simpl... posted on Feb 26 2015 (22,254 reads)

practices or for challenging and acting against strongly held societal prejudice against other religions, caste or class. I see courageous, results-oriented, passionate engagement for a thriving and just world—I see new leaders creating a new narrative for large scale change. What are the action elements of this transformative narrative that is emerging worldwide?   1. GENERATE ACTION FROM THE GROUND OF BEING.  WHO AM I?   Know the power of one’s wisdom  for action.   It is not just a vague feeling or intuition. It is concrete and grounding. Sheikh A, an influential Imam from Syria, says “I know who I am, my essence and... posted on Jul 20 2012 (17,403 reads)

such as democratic participation, equality, and respect for marginalized communities. What follows is an edited version of an Awakin Call interview with Charles Halpern, moderated by Alyssa Martin. You can read or listen to the full interview here.   Alyssa: Thank you so much, Birju, and thank you for allowing me the opportunity to have this conversation with our guest, Charlie Halpern, today. I'm honored to be here. As Birju mentioned, our theme today is cultivating wisdom, or developing the inner resources for justice and social transformation. Our guest today exemplifies this theme as his contributions to education, law, and social movements have ultimately bee... posted on Jul 13 2017 (6,457 reads)

Simon: You’re listening to “Insights at the Edge.” Today my guest is Angeles Arrien. Angeles is a teacher, author, and cultural anthropologist, and somebody I am so pleased to be able to call a friend. Her teachings, which connect the disciplines of anthropology, psychology, and comparative religion, focus on humanity’s shared beliefs and values, along with ways to incorporate this wisdom into our modern lives. With Sounds True, Angeles Arrien has created the programs The Second Half of Life: Opening the Eight Gates of Wisdom, which is both a book and audio series; an audio program called Gathering Medicine: Stories, Songs, and Methods for Soul Ret... posted on Sep 17 2012 (29,921 reads)

are also old truths that we’ve forgotten. And that’s one of them, because it sounds so self-evident, but we go through life pushing everyone aside as if we never knew it. And it seems like this book, maybe even more than any of the others, is about taking your ideas and putting them into practice, bringing them to the streets. Would you say you’re ever more interested in that? MS. TIPPETT: Yes. And people have been asking me these last few days, like, how do I define wisdom because even though I wrote a book with the word “wise” in the title, I don’t ever say, this is wisdom. But there are many breeding grounds of wisdom. There are many qualities... posted on Jul 10 2016 (14,002 reads)

to us through all of connection. The third one is the truth that all human beings have a deep desire to be in a good relationship. That is a part of human nature. The fourth is that all humans have gifts. Everyone is needed for what they bring. That we are all needed and not just humans, but every other aspect of the universe brings its gift. Everything has a purpose and a role. Fifth assumption—everything we need to make positive change is already here. We have it. We have the wisdom ourselves. We have the knowledge. We can find ways to access that together. Sixth, Human beings are holistic. You just cannot work with the mind, or just with the body. Human beings have the... posted on May 17 2017 (21,192 reads)

on that baton to me. I never wanted that baton. It was not my race. It was never part of who I am. I wanted to be me. To be Tererai, to define my own pathway. But when my grandmother talks about this baton, and my mother, they say, “You are not a victim, I don’t want you to think that you’re a victim because you’re finding yourself in a situation where you never defined.” In that passing on of that baton, I was made to believe there was also the passing on of the wisdom. My great-grandmother, when she was running, she passed on her own wisdom to my grandmother, who passed it on to my mother, my mother passed it on to me. I could have decided in my early lif... posted on May 24 2023 (2,781 reads)

to each other. We have riches of knowledge and insight, of tools both tangible and spiritual, to rise to this calling. We watch our technologies becoming more intelligent, and speculate imaginatively about their potential to become conscious. All the while, we have it in us to become wise. Wisdom leavens intelligence, and ennobled consciousness, and advances evolution itself. We talked with Tippett about her book and how scientific research can help us all understand the ancient roots of wisdom in an age of information. Jenara Nerenberg: There are clearly boundaries and things scientists can’t always touch. But do you see progress in the scientific understanding of wisdom? ... posted on Aug 15 2016 (11,886 reads)

on navigating the open sea of knowledge. For my part in the 2014 Future of Storytelling Summit, I had the pleasure of collaborating with animator Drew Christie — the talent behind that wonderful short film about Mark Twain and the myth of originality — on an animated essay that I wrote and narrated, exploring a subject close to my heart and mind: the question of how we can cultivate true wisdom in the age of information and why great storytellers matter more than ever in helping us make sense of an increasingly complex world. It comes as an organic extension of the seven most important life-learnings from the first seven years of Brain Pickings... posted on Nov 9 2014 (20,040 reads)

on these young geniuses, or instead, turn the judgment into curiosity and actually see if I could match my wise eyes with their fresh eyes. I fancied myself a modern Margaret Mead amongst the millennials, and I quickly learned that I had as much to offer them as they did to me.  The more I've seen and learned about our respective generations, the more I realize that we often don't trust each other enough to actually share our respective wisdom. We may share a border, but we don't necessarily trust each other enough to share that respective wisdom. I believe, looking at the modern workplace, that the trade... posted on Feb 27 2020 (6,887 reads)

fierceness, and power. Here’s my conversation with someone I really respect, Lynne Twist.  I wanted to begin, Lynne, by sharing how it was a couple of years ago that I was at the Wisdom 2.0 event and you and I ran into each other. You said, very nonchalant, “What’s new, Tami? What are you working on?” I said, “Well, we’re partnering with Wisdom 2.0 and LinkedIn to produce a new program called the Inner MBA. It’s an online training on the wisdom skills needed in business today.” You just looked at me and you said, “Count me in. Whatever I can do to help, whatever I can do to support, I’m in.” I thought, first... posted on Mar 12 2022 (2,948 reads)

Simon is the founder and CEO of Sounds True, a multimedia publishing company that Tami founded in 1985 at the age of 22 with the mission of disseminating spiritual wisdom. Today, still faithful to its original mission, Sounds True has grown to have nearly 110 employees and a library of close to 2000 titles featuring some of the leading teachers and visionaries of our time.  Sounds True is a pioneer in the conscious business movement, and Tami leads in a way that values their multiple bottom lines, which include relationship and mission as well as profit.  Tami also hosts Insights at the Edge, a popular weekly podcast where she has interviewed many of today’s... posted on Nov 24 2018 (6,191 reads)

does it mean to live wisely and well and what does it take? How can we cultivate qualities such as love, wisdom, kindness, and compassion?”  Our guest today, Dr. Roger Walsh, addresses these questions. A man with an eclectic past, Roger has explored contemplative life as a professor, physician, therapist, celebrated author, spouse, spiritual practitioner, and inquisitive human being.   He is a former circus acrobat, as well as a record holder in the fields of high diving and trampolining. Roger claims to have no final answers about life and meaning; yet through a combination of spiritual wisdom and practical tools, he offers hope and healing for us all, individually... posted on Jan 17 2019 (6,157 reads)

many dear friends who are part of the extended community here and have been shining lights for me for more than a decade now. Above all, warmest Congratulations to all of you in the Class of 2023. And to the families, friends, ancestors, and loved ones – near and far – who have set in motion and nurtured the ripples that allow us to be here today. It’s customary, I realize, for the person standing here to pretend or at least attempt to share with you stories of wisdom gleaned from a lifetime of experience. It is true that I have both toiled and found tremendous joy and reward in various material realms of our society – from public service, to the globa... posted on May 30 2023 (2,646 reads)

to take, but what's more important is that you should want to learn. What's more important is for you to know how to find that information if you need it. What's more important is for you to learn how to problem solve and use that information. But I agree that education needs to change. But the way your question started, which is move beyond the Industrial Age, suggested that we move forward, and a lot of what I see is that we need to look back because I think there was a lot of wisdom of previous generations of the evolutionary past of our species that we're ignoring because we tend to think that we're going to be modern and we can do better than our parents and gran... posted on Dec 6 2014 (26,319 reads)

if your job didn’t control your life? Brazilian CEO Ricardo Semler practices a radical form of corporate democracy, rethinking everything from board meetings to how workers report their vacation days (they don’t have to). It’s a vision that rewards the wisdom of workers, promotes work-life balance — and leads to some deep insight on what work, and life, is really all about. Bonus question: What if schools were like this too? On Mondays and Thursdays, I learn how to die. I call them my terminal days. My wife Fernanda doesn't like the term, but a lot of people in my family died of melanoma cancer and my parents and grandparents had it. And I kept thinking, o... posted on Apr 15 2015 (29,670 reads)

Universe do we live in? Where are we going? Because we are confronting the limits of the Earth’s ecosystem to carry the burden of humanity, we are also confronting our assumptions about the nature of the Universe and our evolutionary journey. Do we continue our rapid march into materialism, grounded in the assumption that we live in a Universe that is indifferent to humanity and comprised mostly of dead matter and empty space? Or do we open to a transforming insight from the combined wisdom of science and the world’s spiritual traditions: The Universe is not dead at its foundations but is profoundly alive and we humans are an integral part of that larger aliveness? In the wo... posted on Apr 30 2018 (15,009 reads)