Timeless Wisdom

There is no timeless wisdom.
Taken out of its original context,
Out of its original time,
Much is lost,
As interpretations and translations loop back on themselves,
Time and time again,
Against the backdrop of an ever-changing world.
However,
There is still wisdom to be found,
If you but look for it.

Faith

If certainty were truly possible,
It wouldn’t be called faith.

Belief

What others believe does not matter,
How others worship does not matter,
And neither does what you claim to believe.
The only thing that matters is what you do.
If you believe and worship faithfully and sincerely,
According to whatever holy scripture you subscribe to,
And yet willfully cause harm to others,
Then, respectfully, you may have missed the point.

If you believe something,
Ask why you believe it,
And why others do not.
As honestly as you are able,
Question it, test it,
And, above all,
Have the humility to admit that you may be wrong,
In your belief, or your interpretation of what it means.

A belief left unchallenged by one who holds it,
And simply accepted as truth,
Is weak and without substance.

Respect the beliefs of others,
As you would have your own respected.
Further, do not try to push your beliefs on others,
For to do so infringes on their right to privacy of thought and belief,
As well as your own,
Rather let your actions speak quietly to your beliefs.

Hope

If fear is not real,
The same can be said of hope.
Both are illusions.
Hope can give you the strength to endure,
Through pain and hardship,
But hope too long unrealised,
Can easily twist into bitterness and resentment.
The same is true where the final reality,
Does not compare with the dream.
So, as with fear,
Carefully apply reason to hope.

Fear

We are all afraid,
Of illness, of war,
Of failure, of darkness,
Of loss, of change,
Of death, of life,
Of ourselves, of others,
Of fear.

It is difficult,
Uncomfortable and painful,
To admit to fear,
To see it for what it is,
And not as anger, distrust, disgust,
Or as the perception of deviance.

We cannot control what others believe and feel,
Or the universe around us,
We can only strive to accept,
With open minds and hearts,
Learning to delight in diversity,
In reality as it is,
Not necessarily as we would wish it to be.

Until we see through our beliefs and assumptions,
Seeing truly,
With reason and not with fear,
Nothing will change.

Wisdom

“We do not receive wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness, which no one else can make for us, which no one else can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world.”

- Marcel Proust