In most difficult situations, people realize that they need to be wise. However, wisdom is often confused with other concepts similar to it, but slightly different in essence. And if we know exactly what wisdom is, we can easily distinguish all kinds of fakes. Consider the most popular points of view.
Wisdom is a combination of life experience and deep mind
Most accurately, this definition can be characterized by an example with a dangerous situation. A foolish person, having got into difficult conditions, is unlikely to get out of them. Smart will always find a way out. A wise person will never fall into it. Adherents of this point of view believe that this quality means the ability to solve various problems, relying on personal or other people's experience, sometimes without even resorting to direct logical operations. Therefore, to the question: “ What is wisdom?” often answer that she comes over the years.
What does science say?
Last year, Canadian psychologists decided to find out how the cultural environment of a person affects this quality. In particular, scientists conducted a test with Japanese and American volunteers. Test results made it possible to better understand what wisdom is, whether it comes with age or is innate. Volunteers between the ages of 25 and 75 were asked to read newspaper articles about conflicts between different groups of people, and then recorded their opinions on the causes that led to such situations and forecasts of further developments. It suddenly turned out that the wisdom of Americans is growing over the years, and among the Japanese, the dependence of wisdom on age was not found. It turns out that in childhood in Sakura’s Land they instill a love of interpersonal harmony. Therefore, the Japanese are better at coping with problem situations and wiser than American peers. Thus, it turns out that wisdom due to the influence of the cultural environment can manifest itself in a person, regardless of his age.
What is Christian Wisdom
The interpretation of this concept in the Bible is markedly different from conventional wisdom. It is known that this book contains many reliable historical facts. How many of us have not heard of King Solomon and how he judged the dispute of two women about a baby? I think that is all. The wisdom of Solomon serves as a kind of standard for all of us. The Bible contains three books that are traditionally considered written by his hand: Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, and Proverbs. If the first of them is mostly about love, then the last two help as well as possible to understand what wisdom is. In particular, in the 14th chapter, the 8th verse of the Book of Proverbs, it is stated that the wisdom of the rational is knowledge of his own way, and the stupidity of the reckless is error. Notice that nothing is said about age. If you read the Book of Proverbs, you can come to the following conclusion: wisdom is a prudent and skillful approach to life in full accordance with God's plan, which begins with fear of God and is always expressed in human behavior. In other words, the Bible, answering the question “what is wisdom,” tells us that this is the mind multiplied by humility.
How to acquire wisdom
In order to develop this quality in yourself, it is not at all necessary to wait for life experience to accumulate over time. It is enough to read books that have long become "eternal." In addition to the Bible, you can read and reflect on aphorisms every day, in which all the wisdom of the East and West is concentrated, practice meditation and perform the exercises described in popular publications on this topic. There are many ways, and everyone chooses what he likes best.