“Every mind must know the whole lesson
for itself—must go over the whole ground. What it does not see, what it does
not live, it will not know.”
–Ralph Waldo Emerson
I have often
times been told that it is not necessary to go through a particular experience
in order to benefit from its lessons, or to glean the salient wisdom therein. Perhaps
this is true in some instances, but, generally, my own experience in the world
has suggested otherwise.
I do not believe
it is possible to appropriate real
knowledge. When I have, on occasion, found myself doing something in this vein,
I only end up parroting—the words seeming sensible enough, but lacking
credibility at the same time.
True knowledge,
therefore, is lived knowledge. And lived knowledge is the only sort that invites wisdom—something which arises only when we live in active, awake relationship to life.
This is
important because we seem to live in an age where it is believed that we can
become wise merely by consuming
knowledge via information in books, blog posts, and on-line courses and
workshops.
Not so. Though this
information can be enormously helpful to us in processing our experiences, it
isn’t a substitute for actual life experience.
And I love how I
feel when I know something is true in my
bones—in a word, confident. There have been experiences in my life that I
would gladly have avoided (brain tumours, and all the medical outfall, while
managing the rigors of being a single parent, for example) but I have to
confess to myself that if wisdom lives in me at all, it is because I chose to
summon the courage to face these experiences—to live them.
Not all my life
lessons have been harsh ones, but they have all required me to make the choice
of being present to them, facing what, at times, has seemed like an endless
variety of colourful and terrifying fears. And, let me tell you, it has been well
worth the investment of time and energy spent.
I’m happier
because of this. I am able to process mental and emotional material more
efficiently and effectively, come back to heart-center without such big detours
and am available to others in a way that isn’t possible if I am drowning in my
own stuff (though that too still happens from time to time).
Learning from
experience, from living in relationship to life (dynamic process), is the beginning of all true knowledge and wisdom,
and, I believe, imperative for a life filled with some basic sense of self-reliance,
contentment and joy.
Let’s learn our
lessons, and learn them well.
