O infinite God, you are the first and last experience of my life. Yes, really you yourself, not just a concept of you, not just the name that we ourselves have given you! You have descended upon me in water and the Spirit ... And then there was no question of my contriving or excogitating anything about you. Then my reason with its extravagant cleverness was still silent. Then, without asking me, you made yourself my poor heart's destiny. You have seized me; I have not "grasped" you. You have transformed my being right down to its very last roots and made me a sharer in your own being and life. You have given me yourself, not just a distant, fuzzy report of yourself in human words. And that is why I can never forget you, because you have become the very center of my being. Your word and your wisdom is in me, not because I comprehend you with my understanding, but because I have been recognized by you as your friend. O, grow in me, enlighten me, shine forth ever stronger in me, eternal light. May you alone enlighten me, you alone speak to me. May all that I know apart from you be nothing more than a chance traveling companion on the journey toward you.
A holy and disciplined mind turns
from ignorance and falsehood,
ignoring their myriad distractions,
while the soul stands firm, allowing
Wisdom to have her way.
Who is wisdom and where is it to be found? Wisdom comes with the ability to be still. Just look and listen. No more is needed. Being still, looking, and listening activates the non-conceptual intelligence within you. Let stillness direct your words and actions.
Blessings of Wisdom to all of you, dear friends of silence! The term "sophia perennis" (perennial wisdom) seems to imply that wisdom is always with us, and yet sometimes it seems to be so sadly lacking. Emily Dickinson wrote about truth, "The truth must dazzle gradually or every (hu)man be blind." Perhaps something similar is true of wisdom: it comes gradually, or it would be beyond our understanding. But perhaps, also, we too often do not look for it, or even think about it. For wisdom is ever with us, in the deepest part of our being, and all around us in the natural world, where we can see it at play if we but pay attention. Internally we can find it by sinking into our silent depths and listening. May Wisdom abound in the world!
An ancient river of inner wisdom flows like limitless living water in deep recesses of our being; this activating wisdom wells up in every age to inspire all who have open minds and are able to hear and receive Sophia's sacred energy of new life, light, and purpose.
Resplendent and eternal is Wisdom, readily perceived by those who listen in the Silence of the heart. Wisdom hastens to make Herself known; She is available to all who love and seek Her; who awakens Her from within will not be disappointed; for Wisdom awaits at the threshold.
