Where do you go for information? … internet? Where do you go for knowledge? … university? science? history?
John Vervaeke
Where do you go for wisdom?
“We long for beauty, wisdom, and purpose. We want to live for something more than just ourselves.”
Alain de Botton
WHY — is modern life so vexing?
In 2022, the WHO reported record levels of anxiety, depression, and suicide. Why is this, and who is going to help? Even if we aren’t seriously hurting – what are we doing with ourselves? Are we on a meaningful path? What does that even mean?
Modern culture succeeds wildly at taking us hostage. Keeping us busy and entertaining the soul out of us. This appeals to our having, but not our being. This cannot possibly be what life is about? How sad, if our tombstone reads: here lies someone who was anxiously distracted and confused, and owned a lot of stuff, whoever the hell they were…
We live in a world of hacks, shortcuts, and zero-sum games. There is no no cheat code for wellbeing – and wisdom is non zero-sum.
Wisdom
Why trust anyone alive, for wisdom? Why not ideas that have weathered hundreds of years? Maybe the concession is, trust those alive who celebrate hundreds of years of wisdom.
Wisdom “sources”, are collections of practices and ideas – that can exorcise unhelpful programming – and ground us in a more expansive and meaningful reality.
See psychologist, cognitive scientist, and philosopher John Vervaeke talk about this problem for two minutes, here:
A “wisdom source” is like a martial art. There are many, and each has nuances, but they ultimately converge on the same road – seeing through pain and bullshit. Exploring one closely can help tremendously. Exploring many can only expand that further.
