There’s rarely a day that goes by in any week that someone doesn’t ask me how I’m doing. Typically, I respond by telling them my simple truth: “I’m walking the fine line between wisdom and ignorance. Mostly on the ignorance side of the path.” And what evidence do I have? Well, more than you might suspect. And unfortunately I’m rarely alone in walking on the ignorance side. I have a LOT of company.
But first, we should probably all get on the same page with a mutual understanding of just what I mean when I speak about wisdom and ignorance. Wisdom is basically what I’m left with when I stop operating ignorantly in my life. And by ignorance I simply mean: constricted view or limited understanding. About anything and everything.
Buddhist Dharma teacher, Christina Feldman has this to say about ignorance: “Ignorance is sometimes taking that which is not beautiful to be beautiful, as a cause of attachment. Sometimes it is defined as believing in an idea of self to be an enduring and solid entity in our lives when there is no such thing to be found. Or as not seeing things as they actually are, but seeing life, seeing ourselves, seeing other people through a veil of beliefs, opinions, likes, dislikes, projections, clinging, attachments, et cetera, et cetera. Ignorance flavors what kind of speech, thoughts, or actions we (regularly) engage in.”
Grace
My friend and colleague, Dr. Kathleen Singh is the author of “The Grace-y Trilogy” (The Grace in Living, The Grace in Aging & The Grace in Dying). Shortly before she herself died, Kathleen wrote and published Unbinding, which I consider to be her Masterwork. In it she essentially translates the 12 Buddhist constructs of Dependent Origination into plain, everyday language. You’ll notice in the illustration below that exploring Ignorance heads the list. In Unbinding Kathleen makes the elegant argument that we come to Wisdom by recognizing Ignorance operating in our lives. And one authentic way to begin to recognize Ignorance is by noticing what’s missing. Ignorance is very likely operating if Delight is missing. Ignorance is likely operating if a Sense of Wonder is missing. Ignorance is likely operating if Lightness of Being is missing.
If these experiences and others that Kathleen identifies are regularly missing in our lives, the question becomes … why? My suspicion, based upon personal experience and extensive reading and study in neurobiology and the trauma literature, is these experiences aren’t showing up regularly as a result of impoverished or fragmented neural networks in our brain. And, most often those networks got that way as a consequence of unprocessed and integrated adult traumatic experiences, or early Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) – early emotionally overwhelming experiences that our nervous system wasn’t sufficiently developed to be able to fully process, metabolize and integrate without help from The Golden Rule of Neuroscience.
The Way Out: In
So, if Ignorance is predominating in our lives, what do we do? Early on in the writing of this blog I listed a number of therapeutic modalities that my own experience and the clinical literature suggests are effective in helping to access and integrate memories of early traumatic experiences. They are mostly psycho-physiological approaches and you can find the list HERE.
My own answer for myself has been and continues to be: grow new brain cells and network connections by developing a Wisdom Practice. Mine consists of ongoing, regular, study, practice and learning and teaching in … The Neurobiology of Wisdom! In addition: learning and practicing paying attention to thoughts and feelings that attempt to elevate my stress hormones unnecessarily – like worrying about money or future health or home or car maintenance – things to worry about are seemingly endless. Since I know that internally, “state drives story” – the level of stress hormones in my body and brain at any moment tends to drive the narrative that emerges in my thought generation. Knowing this, I work daily and diligently to keep my adrenal glands from “making me their bitch” – whenever possible, doing my best to course-correct to the Wisdom side of the street.
The Flowering Brain 
Thank you – needed this. x
Here is the last post from Doc Brady –note what he says about what healthy minds will do. Delight, Sense of Wonder and LIghtness of being. CHris lacks most of this and all of it on his darker days.