CHAPTER 15: Wisdom
To recognize Ultimate Reality requires knowledge--not conceptual
knowledge, but knowledge to be practiced in life, to be understood by the
heart, and to be realized in spirit. It is divine knowledge, as revealed
in scripture or imparted through the teachings of people who have realized
truth. This chapter deals with this intellectual aspect of the life of
faith.
Passages on the search for knowledge in general are followed by a
section on scripture and tradition as the most reliable repositories of
truth, whose study and practice is efficacious for gaining knowledge. The
limitations of conceptual learning and the accumulation of facts, which
fill libraries but may be of little value for spiritual advancement, is
the topic of the third section. Indeed, the most essential knowledge is
not confined to words, but must be apprehended directly by experience and
tion. The following section concerns limitations of scripture itself:
cast in parables and limited by words, it is often clouded by
interpretation; and as a finite vessel, it cannot encompass the infinity
of Ultimate Reality. The fifth section deals with the requirement that
knowledge, if it is to be of any value, must be practiced. Another
section has texts on the way of gaining wisdom through the discipline of
discipleship. Some traditions advise the seeker to become the student of
a living teacher; o thers call one to follow the example of founders and
spiritual giants of the past. The chapter concludes with a section
entitled New Wine and Old Wineskins, on the wisdom of the aged and the
need to devote oneself to learning in one's youth.
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