Pearls of Wisdom.

I’m currently vexed by the many pearls of wisdom drifting round FaceBook like wind-blown glossy magazine pages trying their best to wallpaper bushes. After prostitution scribing the pith of enlightenment is probably the second oldest profession. The problem is they make you feel good. There’s a sort of pleasure in the brain from reading something that appears to reflect one’s own comfortable astuteness. Like, “Life begins outside your comfort zone”, can be sagely nodded and agreed to whilst strapping on your slippers and drinking hot chocolate by the fire. It kind of completes the picture. It would feel somehow redundant to court discomfort when one already knows one would en-comfort it if one wished to, and anyway this mild area of irritation is uncomfortable enough to be going on with. ‘Another hot chocolate when you can manage it.’ It seems when all these piths are implanted as words on the brain the imperative to enact what they viscerally mean ceases to enthral; one simply points to one owning the T-shirt. Like (be) ‘Awake, alert and aware.’ The alliteration sends one’s brain off at a gallop with “yep yep got that, sounds great” but what does it mean? Awake is pretty simple but when we asked a hypnosis expert what a trance state was his reply, “Most people are in a trance state most of the time”, suggests alert and aware are not as easily come by. Both words reach deep into our experience, knowledge, our readiness to learn, the state of tune of our senses and the ability to minimise our conscious (trance state) processing. They require the extreme skill of a Zen Master or a sportsman ‘in the zone.’ Being offered the phrase as means to enlightenment is like suggesting to someone, “Today you can be a brain surgeon.” It’s as reckless to tell it as it is to believe one knows what it means simply by being told. Those who offer pearls of packaged wisdom are in it purely for the kudos of being the source of it. In the wonderful book, “Zen and the Art of Archery” no wisdom was told, just to do many hours of physical practice, and as a result much wisdom was gained. My conclusions; if you find someone keen to teach you wisdom ask them to pay you for their pleasure of being listened to. That should shut them up.