Wisdom of Jesus, Confucius and Gandhi

Things just work themselves out if you let them.  A major disease in our culture is pride.  People think that their “hard work” and “effort” is to thank for their good fortune, but there are factors responsible well out of our control.  Many want to control the uncontrollable and this leads to stressful days and sleepless nights.  I attempt to avoid this as much as possible and I feel like I have been rather successful in this.  Our culture may think of me as lazy or not motivated, but in fact it is just that I realize my limitations and trust things will work out.  If there is something you can do solve a problem, then do it.  If not, then nothing you do, especially stress, will solve it.  Typically in the West it seems that people think that they and others can do a lot more than they actually can.  (This is a paraphrase of what Confucius taught)

 

            Our culture is desperately lacking in wisdom.  I teach History and my favorite quote is from historian Jakob Burkhardt, “We do not study history to be smarter next time, but to be wiser forever.”  We do not study people like Confucius, Jesus and Gandhi enough.  These men were wise.  They knew that to be human, and a good human at that, was much more significant than gold or silver. They knew the limitations of man, but also the great power that we have to collectively make this a world in which we could all hope.  These men sought wisdom and taught its values.  Our country has sadly bought into the myth that what’s in your bank account is worth more than knowledge, soul and love.  It’s not that we don’t value these things, it’s that we de-prioritize them in an effort to attain power and wealth.  I wonder what our world would look like if we could somehow rearrange the priorities in society and individuals. 

            All major changes start with individual action, but swimming against a tsunami is impossible.  We need more than just a few dedicated individuals; we need wholesale change in our communities and world.  How does that happen?  I don’t mean to sound like a total downer and cynic, but I’m not sure it can.  People have tried, with mixed results at best. 

            About 1/3 of the world and much of the West claim in one way or another to be a follower of a man who lived on Earth 2000 years ago and claimed to be God.  He was Jesus of Nazareth, I’m sure you’ve heard of him.  He lived in what we call Israel today, which at the time was controlled by the Roman Empire.  His message was wise , but it was amazingly counter-cultural for his time.  Roman culture at this time was very self-indulgent, materialistic, militaristic and proud.  Sound familiar?  He told people that they should not kill their enemies, but pray for them.  He told people that if they were hit in one cheek, they should turn the other to be hit as well.  He said it was the duty of people to care for those that needed care the most.  He said that we should look after the widows, orphaned and imprisoned.  He said that you should never worry, especially about money.  He said that we should never judge others and worry about our flawed actions first and help those who need our help. 

These are very difficult things to put into practice for any human being, but it seems the worst part is that very often we don’t even attempt to do these things.  It seems our culture and world are very much the opposite of what the wisest men ever to live actually thought our world could and should be like.  It seems that we have given up on the possibility to make our world wise and given into economic data, political infighting and unbending ideology.  The irony is that if we emphasized wisdom more in our culture, daily lives and educational systems our economy, political system and irrational beliefs would all work themselves out naturally.  One can’t solve economic problems, political crisis or seek truth without seeking wisdom first.  Our priorities are backwards and the callous way at which we treat those who are different from us shouldn’t shock us.  We love those closest to us but do not worry about those that exist far away.  We typically see them as victims of their own lack of success and fail to ever see our role in creating dictatorship, hardship and poverty across the globe. 

I’m looking for new ways and ideas to get our culture and society to reprioritize wisdom that will lead to more value on wisdom for the sake of bettering all of our situations and not lead us down the dangerous path that we have chosen of rugged individualism, which has led our society to be extraordinarily wealthy and powerful, but empty of wisdom.  Gandhi encouraged people by emphasizing individual action that would better the community.  Gandhi said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”  I couldn’t possibly agree more, but how can we then swim against that tsunami of self-indulgence, pride and greed and create a more empathetic and wise society.  Any thoughts on how this change could be achieved?