Wisdom - the quality of being Wise

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Wisdom is an understanding of what is important and this understanding reflects beholders thought and actions. It encompasses a wide range of activities, we are able to recognize when we encounter it. However it can be challenging to articulate the exact characteristics that make an individual wise. In recent time two studies were conducted in US and Canada Universities that co relates the three prototypes of wisdom based on historical facts and findings are

• Practical Wisdom
• Philosophic Wisdom
• Benevolent Wisdom

The second study constitutes of wise reasoning that identifies some qualities which deal everyday activities such as

• Intellectual Humility
• Self Transcendence
• Consideration of others perspective and looking for compromise

Practical Wisdom 

Practical Wisdom is stated as master virtue. In ancient Greek civilization , the philosophers Socrates, Aristotle, Pluto had worked and spent lot of time to know and to explain the nature of things and especially the nature of virtue.
It can be stated in simple words as a Doctor may be trying to figure out the best treatment for his patient, a teacher is thinking hard to reach out her student, or a father doing his best for his daughter. All our day-to-day deliberations require practical wisdom as we seek to choose best possible course of action.
There are many ways to develop our own practical wisdom in order to get best possible outcome. Such as ,

• learning critical thinking skills, 
• realignment of resources, refining targets and core values, 
• expanding our intellect and 
• right judgement of a situation or a circumstance prior to decision.

Philosophic Wisdom

Philosophic Wisdom is scientific knowledge, combined with intuitive reason, of the things that are highest by nature. Philosophic wisdom is ignorant on its own advantage, it is vast and wise. As Aristotle describes a person with philosophic wisdom as 

-- we think that some people are wise in general, not in particular field or in any other limited respect--

Nicomachean Ethics , Book 6 , 1141a

It is knowledge of mundane over narrow expertise.

Benevolent Wisdom 

The word benevolent meaning is 'well meaning and kindly' as per Oxford Dictionary.
Its attribute is charitable.

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 The Bible states

For the spirit of wisdom is benevolent and will not acquit the evil speaker from his lips: for God is witness of his reins and he is true searcher of his heart and a hearer of his tongue

Wisdom 1: 6

      

Intellectual Humility

Intellectual Humility is knowing ourselves, understanding the limit of our own knowledge. It is a state of willingness to learn , openness to knew ideas. In the rapid changing world this trait said to be most effective phenomenon. In an opposing situation intellectually humble person is more likely to learn from disagreement. Psychologist Tenelle Porter argues,

When we're more engaged and listening to other side, the disagreements tend to be constructive.
Willingness to expose ourselves into opposing perspective is essential to experience the gain in knowledge. Listening to friends and family with radically different views are beneficial to our long-term intellectual progress.

The researcher Ethan Kross and Igor Grossmann found a correlation between Intellectual Humility and Wisdom in their study in 2012 published in Journal of Experimental Psychology

Three important dimensions of wisdom involve recognizing that the world is in flux and the future is likely to change , recognizing that there are limits associated with one's own knowledge and possessing a pro-social orientation that promotes the 'common good'  

They had also cautioned that even when people strive for wisdom, they often fail to apply it to situations that have profound personal implications.

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In his book Laszlo Bock emphasizes Intellectual Humility is the most important factor for a promising candidate for any organization.
In an article published The Value of Intellectual Humility by Usha Raman in the news daily 'The Hindu' argues to develop this quality in the classrooms to be best placed in addition to Workplace, where it is appreciated most valuable quality. She refers the suggestion of  Dr Richard Paul  that

there are two things that make up intellectual humility : first is the acceptance of limits of one's knowledge and the second is awareness of one's own biases, prejudices and mental habits. Those who have the trait will be more likely to accept mistakes and learn from them.

Paul again concludes that it is about holding on to a belief or an idea with

as much firmness as the thing demands

Raman further states that there are certain things that we can be very farm about- such as our name. But there are other things for which knowledge is constantly evolving through a process of questioning, answering, examining the answer and then questioning again. And there are others where perspective or viewpoint makes all the difference - someone who has experienced something would have insights that another person may not.
   

 Self Transcendence

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Self Transcendence is a distinguishing quality of a person in relation with understanding and experiencing spiritual thought or idea that the person thinks that she/he is an integral part of the universe. The concept can be stated as making personal progress in the field of physical, mental as well as spiritual space. It is our nature that we seek to exceed our previous achievements and extend our capacities.

The renowned Psychologist Abraham Maslow best known for creating a theory of psychological health called as Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Near the end of his life he had amended his previous thought and included the idea of experiencing highest level of development, what he called Self-Transcendence, focusing on higher goal outside ourselves - such as altruism, spiritual awakening or liberation from egocentric thoughts. In his book The Farther Reaches of Human Nature :,  he states

Transcendence refers to the very highest and most inclusive or holistic levels of human consciousness, behaving and relating, as ends rather than means, to oneself, to significant others, to human beings in general, to other species, to nature and to the cosmos.

Considering Self-Transcendence, above all self-actualization results, we observe a radically different model. While self-actualization refers fulfilling our own potential, putting aside our needs Self-Transcendence serves something greater than ourselves. Moments of highest happiness and fulfillment thus can be achieved in the form of  Peak Experience. Maslow describes it as

rare, exciting, oceanic, deeply moving, exhilarating, elevating experiences that generate an advanced form of perceiving reality and even mystic and magical in their effect upon their experimenter.

Sri Chinmoy  has mentioned that Self-Transcendence can be measured by improving physical achievements . When a sportsman tries to break previous records, he practices by observing  time, speed, quality etc. Similarly Self-Transcendence is that it can be practiced by anyone; we need not compete with others, we can just compete with ourselves. By doing this we can get great joy by surpassing our previous best performance. The practice is ongoing and dynamic in nature and guarantees continual improvement.

Self-Transcendence gives us joy in boundless measure. When we transcend ourselves, we do not compete with others. We do not compete with the rest of the world, but at every moment we compete with ourselves.

Consideration of others perspective and looking for compromise

Perspective is a quality of True understanding of the relative importance of things; a sense of proportion . A true relationship lies on the ability to take the perspective of each other. It is a representation of three dimensional object in two dimensional surface.Consideration of perspective is taking its all important points of others than our own with mindfulness of compassion and empathy, which certainly confirms mutual respect, success and moving forward to the ongoing relationship.

     
            


In an interview Abdulla M Abdulhalim to Huffingtonpost emphasizes to be part of being civil. He told
We like simple definitions. Civility really is a more broad term compared to being considerate. Civility is simply just being nice and it's not only an attitude of benevolence, thoughtfulness, and relating to other individuals. It also entails a real, active interest in the well-being of communities and even concern for the health of the planet. You have to really take an effort in order to be civil. And being considerate is part of being civil.

Emotional regulation and empathy is very vital in the practice of perspective. In  successful interactions, our empathic accuracy and emotional control play important role.

A Compromise is a way of settling differences of the concern people making concessions. Not necessarily it always harms the quality of decision but it comes from out-of-box thinking. In the above video Denzel Washington demonstrates it beautifully.

Final Thought

Wisdom is the seeker's admission of her/his sense of limitation and her/his heartfelt cry for assistance in transcendence. It is not a prayer for things of the world. It is not a pray for food, shelter, health, partnerships, riches, success, glory, or even for heaven. One who cultivate wisdom has realized that such things are full of holes, soaked in pain and even in abundance, will for ever leave her/him wanting. It is in full understanding that one turns to wisdom. The essence of wisdom is

     

                 
       
           

O Almighty, help me free myself from my sundry misunderstandings regarding myself, the Universe and God and bless me with true knowledge.