"What is my goal in life? "What am I striving for?" "What is my purpose?" These are questions which every individual asks himself at one time or another, sometimes calmly and meditatively, sometimes in agonizing uncertainty or despair. They are old, old questions which have been asked and answered in every century of history. Yet they are also questions which every individual must ask and answer for himself, in his own way."
Carl R. Rogers
"Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible." Victor Frankl
In his book On Becoming a Person psychologist Carl Rogers coined the term " The Good Life " to describe his idea of a healthy, fully functioning person, based on his experience of the progress that clients made during therapy.
After observing what qualities helped his clients move through their pain and constriction, towards openness, realness, and genuine happiness, Carl Rogers began to develop a philosophical model that described his observations. Ultimately,Rogers concluded that fluidity, openness to experience, and a basic trust in our ability to construct meaning from moment to moment were an essential part of the process of living.
Reading Rogers' works, one gets the sense of a very intelligent man, but more importantly one gets a sense of a very wise man who was open to both ambiguity and the richness of his own experience. In the end, the qualities that Rogers described as essential to the good life all boil down to the faculty of wisdom.
Usually when we say the word wisdom, we are referring to either intuition, or life experience, as opposed to intellectual learning. Though this is common usage, wisdom is something much more than an intuitive hunch or a collection of remembered events.
Wisdom is the faculty of awareness that takes all of our experiences and puts them together in a meaningful way. Wisdom is the part of us that integrates our thoughts, feelings, sensations, and life experiences, providing context and direction. Wisdom is also the faculty that connects us with the big picture, the larger existential experience of living this life here and now as a human being.
In Current Psychotherapies the authors provide an excellent definition of wisdom;
"Wisdom is deep understanding of, and practical skill in responding to, the central issues of life, especially existential issues. These issues are those crucial and universal concerns that all of us face simply because we are human. They include finding meaning and purpose in our lives, managing relationships and aloneness, acknowledging our limitations and smallness and the universe vast beyond comprehension, living in inevitable uncertainty and mystery, and dealing with sickness, suffering, and death."
Positive psychology research defines wisdom as the coordination of "knowledge and experience" and "its deliberate use to improve well being," and have attempted to measure wisdom using these critera;
- A wise person can discern the core of important problems.
- A wise person has self-knowledge
- A wise person seems sincere and direct with others.
- Others ask wise people for advice.
- A wise person's actions are consistent with his/her ethical beliefs.
These measurement criterea have shown high internal consistancy, but low test- retest relibility on the instruments that have been constructed to measure them so far. As a result, what research there is on wisdom as a psychological construct, must be taken with more than a grain of salt.
What psychological research there is on wisdom has indicated that subjects who rated high in wisdom showed greater ego integrity (healtheir personality function) self/other enhancing values and a felt sense of personal coherence. High wisdom subjects also showed less attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety and a greater capacity to see situations from multiple perspectives (called attributional complexity). Attributional complexity is a character trait that has been found to correspond with a lack of social judgemental bias.
What psychological research there is on wisdom has indicated that subjects who rated high in wisdom showed greater ego integrity (healtheir personality function) self/other enhancing values and a felt sense of personal coherence. High wisdom subjects also showed less attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety and a greater capacity to see situations from multiple perspectives (called attributional complexity). Attributional complexity is a character trait that has been found to correspond with a lack of social judgemental bias.
Translation: Wise people have a healthy sense of identity. They have values that enhance their own lives and the live of others. They are more free from concerns of self worth. Finally, given a social situation, Wise people would be more inclined to think deeply and carefully about the situation, forming a thoughtful undogmatic opinion based on observation rather than pre-judgement.
This being said, the research is very limited in scope and application. Currently we should take it as more of an interesting (mabey useful) philosophical point rather than as a piece of hard science.
Wisdom is the capacity to find meaning and richness in the human experience, and like other human capacities, it is something that some have a talent for but that all can cultivate.
Like intelligence, and self control, wisdom can be trained and developed, or as a Buddhist might say "awakened".
Cultivating wisdom, is a practice that requires openness to experience, perspective, and a dedication to looking at life in the context of the big picture. We have to ask ourselves; "What really matters?" and to be open to the answers we find in each and every situation of our lives. We have to learn to let go of our strongly held judgments, and ideas about what life is, and be prepared to ask an endless question "What is Life?" and more practically "What is my Life?". Finally we have to be deeply aware of our own experience, of thinking, feeling, sensing, and acting in the world so that we can learn and grow from that experience.
"It is through not understanding four things that we have run so erratically, wandered on so long in this round of existence, both you and I. What are the four? Goodness, concentration, wisdom, and liberation. When these four things are understood, craving for superficial existence is rooted out, and that which leads to continued return to the same conditions is ended. There is no more constant journeying.
Digha Nikaya
"For the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person's life at a given moment."
Victor Frankl
