How terribly the rice suffers under the pestle! But it emerges polished, as white as cotton. The same process tempers the human spirit: Hard trials shape us into polished diamonds.
~ from A PRISON DIARY by Ho Chi Minh in AFTER SORROW by Lady Borton
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.
