Who can be a philosopher
Raw link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wby9j8bOEEc
[ Below is the text of the presentation. Note that in the video I sometimes explain statements which are not found in the text. ]
Table of Contents
- About the terms âphilosopherâ and âwisdomâ
- Everyone can be a philosopher
- The key to philosophy is patience
- Patience in interpersonal relations
- Patience and the right attitude
- Philosophy is for everyone
Hello everyone! My name is Protesilaos, also known as âProtâ. In this presentation I want to talk to you in plain terms about the broad theme of what philosophy is, who can be a philosopher, and why that is useful in practice.
What I am about to explain at length might surprise some of you. I am of the opinion that anyone can be a philosopher. I shall elaborate on this statement, so please donât think I am exaggerating or am playing games with you. I mean what I say and I donât like gimmicks, anyway.
This presentation is a continuation of my last entry in this series. I explained the significance of remaining focused in the here-and-now:
- On learning and being present: https://protesilaos.com/books/2022-06-25-knowledge-presence/
As always, the text of this presentation is available on my website. If you are watching this on the video hosting platform, there is a link in the description: https://protesilaos.com/books/2022-08-07-who-can-be-philosopher/
About the terms âphilosopherâ and âwisdomâ
Before discussing who can be a philosopher, we need to understand what the term denotes. The word is of Greek origin. It is composed of âphilosâ (ÏίλοÏ), which means âfriendâ, and âsophiaâ (ÏÎżÏία) which is âwisdomâ. A philosopher is, quite literally, a friend of wisdom. Philosophy, then, is friendship with wisdom.
In this sense, anyone can be positively inclined towards wisdom just how anyone can show openness and eagerness towards art or sport. In case you are curious, there are words for those as well, but they are not common in English: philotechnos (ÏÎčλÏÏΔÏÎœÎżÏ) and philathlos (ÏίλαΞλοÏ), respectively.
So what is wisdom, anyway? Wisdom is the quality of clear judgement. We understand the bigger picture of a situation and know how the specifics must fit in. Wisdom is what enables us to chart the right course of action, given the available evidence.
Wisdom applies to all sorts of fields of endeavour or activities. For example, an artist with an impeccable technique and a special style has profound insight into their art. A scientist who does not get fooled by statistical artefacts or shortcomings in a given method exercises wisdom by remaining true to the spirit of the scientific enterprise.
The philosopher, then, is not a professional with a given expertise. There can be specialists of this sort, such as an academic who teaches a class in philosophy. But those cases do not exhaust the possibilities of what âfriend of wisdomâ entails, as the examples of the artist and the scientist already hint at.
Philosophy is an attitude. It is the disposition of staying true in our friendship with wisdom. We always want to understand it better and apply our findings to every aspect of our life. We are committed to this friendship and are genuine about it.
Everything benefits from wisdom. The way we conduct ourselves, how we treat other people, the manner in which we coexist with animals and other species, our quality as a friend or romantic partner, and so on. When something is couched in terms of wisdom, it is done in a better way than when it lacks an understanding of the bigger picture and the specifics of the case.
We can think of it as the distinction between being mindful and being reckless. Would we ever trust a reckless surgeon over a mindful one? Would we want to be friends with someone who doesnât pay attention to our needs or would instead prefer a person who actually understands our condition?
Wisdom thus manifests as thoughtfulness. We like people who put thought into what they are doing. They are better at their art, mindful of their responsibilities, deliberate in their actions, responsible in their operations, consistent in their pursuit of correctness.
In other words, thoughtfulness enriches our life. Wisdom is as practical as it gets. It is not some vague abstraction somewhere in the sky that has nothing to do with our quotidian affairs. Wisdom can inform every facet of our existence and underpin all patterns of behaviour. It is relevant in every situation.
Everyone can be a philosopher
Wisdom appears to us as thoughtfulness and thoughtfulness applies to everything we do. We can all be more mindful of our condition by reflecting on it, contemplating its particularities, and trying to understand how we can perfect our modus operandi as well as our modus vivendi.
You may be conditioned to think of philosophy as some exclusive club reserved for academics with a penchant for discussing obscure topics. I do not blame you for this misconception, because education generally does a poor job of presenting philosophy as a practical affair. It is a lifestyle. It does not require of you to be a unidimensional philosopher and nothing else. Such is a pernicious caricature which does a disservice to all of us, as it keeps us away from wisdom.
The reason education does not present philosophy properly is because it is pedantic about trivia. We have someone who has put zero thought into it asking us to write what a specific passage from some ancient text means. I remember, for example, how the Greek education system had a course where students where expected to memorise and recall what some interpreter had to comment on Platoâs Protagoras. Instead of studying Platoâs general points, they were wasting time with secondary commentary. I also remember at college when I took an introductory course to Ethics. Donât ask me what I learnt, because I had mentally checked out. The most boring class ever. Screw that!
I want you to stop being intimidated by formal education. Do not let anyone bilittle you into thinking that you cannot be friends with wisdom. You can. Those who think otherwise lack perspective or have ulterior motives.
âButâ, I hear you saying, âI am not a geniusâŠâ This too is another harmful stereotype which only excludes people and segregates them. It creates an elitist club whose arrogant members pretend to be better than everybody else. Screw them too! Arrogance, exclusive groups, and the concomitant pretentiousness have nothing to do with wisdom.
To befriend wisdom we only need to be friendly towards it. In practice, we are open to the idea of thinking about our condition. We want to be more contemplative, more deliberate, more carefulâand we commit to the cause. This has nothing to do with how smart or creative we are. Perhaps those can help us be more effective, but they are irrelevant to the disposition of friendliness per se.
I repeat, do not internalise all those narratives and excuses which keep you away from wisdom. They disempower you. They deny you of the opportunity to have more profound experiences and insights. They hold you captive in a state of superficialities where you are just âfaking itâ without ever committing yourself to anything in earnest.
I am not saying this because I am some âself-help guruâ who is here to flatter you and show you how great you are. Not at all! I live philosophy everyday and have been doing so for years. I am telling you this because it is what I have experienced and genuinely believe. I donât care about boosting your ego and will not congratulate you for nothing. On the contrary, I would argue that you are not good enough in whatever it is you are doing if you are not philosophical in your disposition.
As for the ego, it is something you will learn to overcome. More on this a bit later.
The key to philosophy is patience
It is not peerless smartness or ingenuity that is a prerequisite to becoming a philosopher. They are nice to have, but not absolutely necessary. There is only one quality we need to start befriending wisdom: patience. Patience is the foundation of a lifelong commitment to philosophy. It is at the root of everything we would consider as âphilosophicalâ.
Letâs examine this in practical terms. We want to be thoughtful. To do so, we need to pay attention to what is happening. To actually focus on the events, we must take the time to discern and decode them. To be able to interpret the data, we require time and effort. To go through all this, we have to be patient.
We cannot be thoughtful without patience. We cannot pay close attention to things if we are in a hurry. We cannot discern patterns, let alone decode them, if we cannot stop to put in the requisite work. We cannot interpret any datum if we have no time for it. In other words, we simply cannot achieve anything sophisticated with impatience.
Without patience we remain limited to superficialities. We do stuff at the surface-level. We have no depth, no profundity, no solid grasp of the subject matter. We are not as good as we could have been. We do not give the issue the attention it requires.
To connect to the theme of my last presentation, impatience means that we lack presence. We are not giving the here-and-now our undivided attention. Our mind wonders away into other worlds and is âpulling usâ, so to speak, in that direction. We thus feel unsettled: we do stuff clumsily, awkwardly, incompetently.
Patience slows things down and puts us in control. We have to imagine it like driving a car through the countryside. If we go at breakneck speed, we miss out on all the sites. We donât see the flowers. We donât appreciate the trees. We donât take a moment to breath some fresh air. We donât even notice the sun as it sets on the horizon. We are just driving like crazy.
By slowing things down, we gain a whole new perspective. Suddenly this trip to the countryside has so much more to show us. It is a rewarding experience. Now we spot the flowers. We can see them blossoming. We also observe the playfulness of the bees, the birds, and everything. There is the majestic forest and the colourful sunset. They take our breath away. The whole scene is brimming with life. Wow! None of this could register before. It was always âthereâ, but we did not have the right attitude towards it. We were impatient.
Patience puts us in control because it removes the bias we have for doing things quickly. It is a clichĂ© nowadays that people have no time. Unless they are physically trapped in some sweatshop for all their waking hours, unless they are victims of tyranny, they do have time. They just assume they donât have time because everything is incessantly calling for their attention. They simply cannot focus on anything. They are drowning in overstimulation and have ceded control.
If we want to do a million things, then of course we will not manage to fit everything into our routine. We try to do a bit of everything but as we are running out of time, we do not go in-depth. We can only give each item a quick look and move on to the next one. This is a vicious cycle. It makes us think we cannot manage our life as we are always short on time. We are driving at breakneck speed without realising it.
Patience gives us control because it reminds us that our time is finite. We must not allow ourselves to be compelled into action by every stimulus out there. Advertisements, social media, constant notifications on all our âsmartâ devices with a sound that is optimised to keep us hooked to them, apps that track all the minutia and keep nagging us to do this or the other, et cetera. With patience, we become more eclectic. We learn to pick and choose what we truly like. We find the signal and seek ways to blot out the distractions. All the noise means nothing to us.
Suppose we find ourselves in a crowd. Everybody wants to talk to us. But there is one person among them we want to spend some quality time with. If we are in the mindset of answering every call to action, then we will accommodate everyone in the crowd and necessarily miss the opportunity to dedicate ourselves to this special someone. Whereas if we are patient, we will tell others to wait just like we do. First we offer our undivided attention to this one person and then we move on to the next task, again giving it the time it requires.
By being selective, we stop being accommodative. We cannot please everyone and we cannot be physically present everywhere. There are inescapable trade-offs. By recognising this insight, we are empowered to act. We no longer have a false sense of duty to respond to whatever is out there. It is impossible to do that. We have to impose some structure and set priorities. In other words, we must assume the initiative. We become active as we stop living life from the sidelines. We stop being merely reflexive. We assume agency. We become who we want to be and we slowly work towards that eventuality.
This all starts with patience and is sustained by patience.
Patience in interpersonal relations
Patience engenders thoughtfulness. It is the key to everything. This also applies to human relations. Now, you may still have some leftover biases and are thinking what does philosophy have to do with actual people. âIsnât it all about concepts and abstractions?â I hear you saying. No, it is not. I already explained that we want to be friends with wisdom and that wisdom applies to everything we do. Letâs think about it with practical examples.
Someone is talking to us. If we are impatient, we will interrupt them. So we will not actually listen to what they are saying. We will make assumptions and jump to early conclusions. But we are not offering them the chance to elaborate. Or, we may be compelled by contract or some institutional arrangement to remain silent, in which case our impatience pushes our mind to lose focus and think about other things. Whatever the specifics, we are not really âthereâ.
Perhaps you think this is a forced example. I ask you then how good of a listener are you? Can you actually let someone talk and then respond to their points? Do you have the empathy to recognise that the other person needs to express themselves? By the same token, if you are the kind of person who talks all the time, do you have the capacity to slow things down and allow others some space to show their individuality?
Being an attentive listener or considerate speaker is the same as being a keen observer. Remember the example with the trip to the countryside. By taking it slow, we pay attention to the little things which together contribute to a whole new understanding of what is âthereâ. When we listen, when we speak and see, we do it with patience and we learn from it. Else we let important information slip away.
If two people in a conversation are patient, then we have a wonderful coincidence of attitudes. They both take the time to listen to what the other fellow has to say and they both treat each other with respect. Whatever the topic of the discussion, it is more profound and rewarding than if they were effectively competing with each other over who gets the most time âon stageâ; who attracts most of the attention.
Patience makes us respect our own time and, by extension, helps us develop empathy so that we respect others as well. In turn, patience puts us in the right frame of mind, as we no longer seek the fake token of attention: we want to go further and understand things at a greater depth. What the topic of our inquiry is does not matter. It can be art, sport, science, a craft, or another being that we care about.
When we understand something better, we begin to realise that our self is not the only one who is important. For example, when we acknowledge that other people need time to speak as well, we see in them the same need for individuality that we find in us. We are compassionate and, thus, considerate. As this insight develops further, we recognise that our ego is not important. It is a false god that we worship only in our ignorance; only when our impatience prevents us from experiencing in earnest all those wonderful presences âout thereâ.
Patience broadens the scope of our perception. We let go of the private cult of personality we have. We admit to the presence of others. We are in control of how we experience phenomena, as we now are more competent at tracing patterns and making sense of them. We do not let distractions interfere with what we are doing. We effectively have a different world-view than our impatient self ever did.
Again, I must stress that this is all philosophical. Consider this example where we went on the trip to the countryside and experienced nature in full. We gave it our undivided attention. We allowed it to enter our space and enrich our life. We could do it only because we were patient. We were actually focused on the moment and had no pressure to be somewhere else. We were not in a hurry.
This same approach applies to how an intimate relationship would unfold. If we are not focused on the moment, we are faking it or simply not making the most out it. And the same for every field of endeavour. If we do not put it the endless hours of hard work, we will never have the skills for it. A foreign language, programming, playing the guitar⊠Whatever it is, it has to be done with the understanding that there is no magic way to learn it in an instant. We must be patient.
Patience grants us perseverance. It gives us a special kind of endurance as we are not phased by the lack of short-term gains. Just as with a foreign language, we do not expect to be fluent in it from day one and are content with the slow and incremental improvements to our skillset.
Perseverance is what we need when we venture on an uncertain path. Imagine the scientist who formulates a hypothesis. They have to put it to the test, evaluate the findings, prepare more experiments, and more hypotheses, and theories on top, until they eventually make a discovery. It is a long and tedious process. Humanity largely benefits from it. None of that is possible without perseverance.
Patience and the right attitude
Patience which is now expressed as perseverance sustains our inquiry into whatever it is we are doing. The scientist who goes through the rigours of experimentation remains true to the more general idea of discovering the truth in the given case. The artist who practices for hours on end is committed to the aesthetic experience. The romantic partner who actually cares cherishes the relationship. And so on.
When we persevere in this way, we learn to deal with a degree of uncertainty and/or a sense of curiosity of what is to be revealed. We then have a disposition of being curious and an outlook of not taking things at face value. Why? Because we do not rush to conclusions. We are not in a hurry to call it a day.
Patience, then, trains us to be inquisitive and dubitative. We inquire about the world, about the subject matter, and we always maintain a healthy dose of doubt about our findings. Our patience has taught us that there are things out there we have not noticed yet. There is always something that intrigues us even when we are experts in our field. Those who think they know everything are simply impatient and are lying to themselves.
Inquisitiveness and dubitativeness are fancy words, arenât they? The equivalent in Greek, which exist in English as well, are zetetic (ζηÏηÏÎčÎșÏÏ) and aporetic (αÏÎżÏηÏÎčÎșÏÏ), respectively. But we do not need to know such technicalities to actually conduct ourselves in the spirit of inquisitiveness and dubitativeness. All we need is patience. The rest follows from there organically, because patience entails commitment in the face of uncertainty.
You may recall from my previous presentation the notion of parrhesia. I explained it in detail, just as I am doing now but here is a quick summary to refresh your memory.
Parrhesia is the attitude of speaking plainly. No tricks, no gimmicks! When we express ourselves in parrhesia, we do it with honesty. We have no intention to fool anyone, no ulterior motive to flatter them, nothing of the sort. All we want is to speak our mind and express what we consider to be authentic in that very moment.
Patience is at the root of parrhesia as well. This is because we cannot have a sense of sincerity and of its truth if we are distracted all the time. And, if we try to fake it, by masquerading our ignorance as confidence, we are simply not speaking in parrhesia. We are charlatans!
Patience helps us overcome our ego, as I already mentioned. When we exchange views with someone, we do not try to out-compete them. Such is an expression of egoism. Instead, we collaborate with them in pursuit of a common cause: to jointly emancipate ourselves from falsehood; to jointly discover some finer point of sophistication; to jointly partake in the knowledge of a more profound insight. If I have this attitude and you show me how I am wrong, I will be very happy because you have done me the great favour of freeing me from a misconception. There is no pettiness involved; pettiness which is concerned with âwinning the argumentâ. That is what the enemies of wisdom care about: the appearance of winning when they are actually losing.
From ancient Greece, we know that this attitude of discoursively approximating the truth is called âdialecticâ: a word which relates to âdialogueâ and means âthrough wordsâ or âby means of discourseâ.
Dialectic is a fancy way of saying that we exchange views in a spirit of honesty. A âpositionâ in Greek is a âthesisâ. One side posits their own thesis. Another side propounds a different thesis. As this other thesis is presented in juxtaposition to the original one, it counts as an âanti-thesisâ (antithesis). Both sides may converge to a position somewhere between those two, so they have found a âsyn-thesisâ (synthesis). Or they may simply not find anything, in which case they will continue searching. Dialectic is all about patience. There is no ego involved. No feeling of out-competing the other side. The âIâ gives way to the âweâ. We want to figure it out; we want to help each other grow and develop further.
Letâs consider an example that shows how dialectic is also practical. Suppose we are now learning English. We just got started. We want to try it in earnest but know our limits. So we blithely say:
I donât speak England very best! đ
Some kind fellow corrects us. They do not do it to tell us how foolish we are. They are genuinely eager to help. And we accept their advice since we are not attached to our position. We do not want to win some inane argument. We only want to learn the language and accept our ignorance. We happily admit to our error and try to improve therefrom.
This aloofness is philosophical throughout. We have the patience to learn and exhibit the requisite selflessness. We donât let our ego take charge and tell lies. We exhibit parrhesia, we remain inquisitive, we are dubitative, and we operate dialectically.
Patience gives us four virtues of character that we would associate with âphilosophyâ even in the conventional sense: parrhesia, dubitativeness, inquisitiveness, and dialecticism. We do not have to memorise such technicalities. All we need is patience. I am just mentioning them so that you can see how far this goes. But wait! I am not done yet.
Patience is the gift that keeps on giving. Consider again this simple example of learning a new language through trial and error. We are not committed to our thesis, to that which we state. What we really want is the truth which, in this case, is to learn how to properly express ourselves in English so that we may communicate effectively. This means that we do not cling on to our current knowledge or ability. We do not make the mistake of considering it an extension of who we are. We are happy to let it go. We understand that it is not ours: it is alienable, meaning that it can be taken away from us.
Patience teaches us that many things we take for granted are, in fact, alienable. In case you watched my previous video, you may have noticed one such example: my beardânow itâs gone! When we have those qualities of character I just mentioned we develop an understanding of non-ownership. The expression âmy beardâ is just a construct of language. It is not truly mine because I can exist without it or, more generally, I can be conceptualised without it.
I lost my beard to an accident. It caught fire, so I had to shave it off. I shaved again this morning because short facial hair is more difficult to maintain in the summer. The philosophical point is that I didnât really lose anything because it was never mine by necessity. If I were to cling on it, I would be lacking parrhesia: I would not be recognising the fact of non-ownership. That would make sad about the loss.
Patience gives us the perspective of the bigger picture. Just as how we overcome the âIâ and become âweâ through dialectic, we no longer see indelible lines between what is and isnât ours. We understand that everything is interconnected. Why? Because we take the time to observe how things stand and we notice that nothing has a standalone presence.
There is no decontextualised self. There is no âIâ in a vacuum. Everything that exists in some way, exists so in relation to other presences. Every presence has an environment, which comprises other presences. We already learnt about this through the example of our excursion to the countryside. While we were impatient, we could not see anything. Our experience was centred around a very narrow conception of personhood. It was all about our ego. But as soon as we slowed things down, as soon as we assumed the initiative, we began to notice the flowers, and the bees, and the trees, and the sun, and the sky. We noticed how they all coexist.
Patience then gradually provides the profound insight that nothing exists on its own and nothing truly owns its attributes as there are environmental or contributing factors at play. Patience thus leads to the realisation that even the impression of self is not truly ours. We sense this the moment we escape from our ego. As always, it starts with the little things, such as when we recognise how another person needs to express their individuality, or when we stare another deep into the eyes and acknowledge how we are not the epicentre of the world.
Just as we escape from the pull of our ego in those moments, we can overcome it completely. That is the point when the notion of non-ownership is fully embedded: our self is not âoursâ. But we have to start small. Just as with learning a new language. Patience is key.
Philosophy is for everyone
Let me reiterate this point: philosophy is not a closed club for eccentric intellectuals or academics with obscure interests. Those exist as well, but philosophy does not belong to them. Wisdom is for everyone and applies to everything. You donât have to do presentations such as this one to qualify as a philosopher. You do not need to communicate in a certain way to be a philosopher. All you need is to remain open to wisdom.
Philosophy is not about abstractions that exist âin the heavensâ, so to speak. It can be, though not exclusively. With wisdom we change how we behave in daily affairs. We do everything thoughtfully. All those little things that your pedantic philosophy instructor at school would not count as âphilosophyâ: they are all philosophical throughout.
The philosopher who considers the abstractions is not limited to them. Such a person can translate those insights into practical advice. Think, for example, about non-ownership. We can talk about it in the most abstract ways, but we can also just relate it to facial hair. Both methods are equally good so long as we remain rooted in those qualities of character that sustain our friendship with wisdom. Do you think I am fooling around when I tell you that âmy beardâ is not mine? I am serious.
Thoughtfulness ultimately comes from patience. When we are patient with consistency, we are more focused, more considerate, less egocentric, less arrogant. In short, patience makes us better people. We all appreciate a friend who can listen to us and who knows us, a doctor who is actually leading a healthy lifestyle instead of merely pontificating about it, an artist who puts their heart into their art. We like thoughtfulness and people who donât let distractions lead them astray.
Patience liberates us from all sorts of misconceptions. We are all well aware of this prevalent notion of doing everything hard and fast. People are peddling easy solutions and make promises that cannot be realised. They tell us how we can learn this super complex topic in only a few hours. Others guarantee immediate results to have the âperfect bodyâ just in time for the holidays. Everyone is in a rush to go somewhere. Where exactly? They do not know.
We can listen to all those distractions and waste years of our life labouring towards unattainable goals. Or we admit to the need for patience. We have to impose a structure and set priorities. We must pick something and stick with it for some time in order to evaluate it better. We have to let go of this opportunistic attitude of remaining at the surface-level. With superficialities we will never be happy with ourselves because we will always be trapped in a cycle of constantly chasing after stimuli that call for immediate action. The reason we cannot be happy is because these are infinite. No matter how hard and fast we go, we will never be fulfilled.
There are things in life which involve a degree of sophistication. We have to give them the attention they deserve. Notice the word here: âsophisticationâ. Does the âsophiâ prefix sound familiar? It should, because it is the same sophia I have been talking about all this time. Sophisticated is that which is characterised by throughtfulness; that which is done in wisdom.
There is no magic trick to give us wisdom. There is no shortcut that we can take to become wise over the weekend. No acid, no mushroom will do it either. Substances may help us break free from certain falsehoods, but the rest comes from patience and the commitment it entails.
An aside here on the term âsophisticationâ. You will find its etymology to have negative connotations as it is traced back to the Sophists. The Sophists were sages of antiquity. We know from Platoâs works about Protagoras and Gorgias, both of whom were thoughtful individuals. I call them âsagesâ, meaning wise people, because that is what they were. But for whatever reason, due to differences of opinion and perhaps political conflicts or other such pettiness, Sophists have been misrepresented as charlatans. There is the pejorative term of âsophismâ which signifies trickery and deceit. This does an injustice to what the leading figures of that tradition stood for, which was not an exercise in dishonesty.
This is similar to how âcynicismâ, another important school of philosophy, has been systematically derided through the aeons to the effect that âcynicâ and its derivatives are used as a very bad words nowadays.
These are historical prejudices that have no place in a discussion that is conducted with the qualities of character that spring from patience. Remember that we develop dialectic to listen to what the other side has to say. If all we do is be bellicose or, as the ancient Greeks would say, eristic (divisive or causing discord), we are not being honest. Instead, we assume a position that we exalt as the single source of truth and then fight everyone who disagrees with us. We are not conducting ourselves with parrhesia as we pretend to know more than what we actually do. We are being dogmatic.
Patience allows us to take a deep breath. It lets us disengage from the fray. We do not want to merely react to stimuli. We need to have composure and thus presence and honesty and all of that.
As I said earlier in this presentation, do not let anyone belittle you. You too can be a philosopher. You start by learning to be patient. You figure out how to take things slowly. You observe but refrain from passing judgement. You cannot yet be sure. You have to wait. By maintaining this disposition, you gradually make a habit out of being honest. You do not lie to yourself, such as by pretending that you are somehow special. Eventually you develop skills that make you more thoughtful. You show compassion as you recognise the subjectivity of others. You give your full attention to what you are doing. You stop being an egoist. You become more reliable and gain the trust of others.
You may still have reservations though. It is understandable. You pick up some book that a philosopher wrote and do not understand what the subject matter is. Do not be discouraged. As with everything, there are those who are good teachers and those who are not. And there are topics which are for more advanced practitioners.
Do not make the mistake of conflating the main idea of âfriend of wisdomâ with expertise. All you need is to be more thoughtful in your life. You do not have to be a sage. It does not matter. Just imagine how much more rewarding our experiences would be. Have you ever talked to someone who payed attention to all of your words? Didnât that make you feel respected? Donât you want to have more of that in your life? Wouldnât it be better if we all were more patient?
Wisdom is not a finite resource. Remember that we do not really own anything. Befriend wisdom and you will notice how you start partaking in wisdom in practical ways. You will be wiser than before. More thoughtful, more sophisticated. Please take it slow: one step at a time. How slow? Donât worry about it. It is the attitude that matters.