Two faces of wisdom

Imagine you try to describe taste of orange to someone else. You would first start describing the fruit. Which is the size of a Golf ball, orange color fruit of citrus family. It is round than a Lemon, but taste less sour, and bit sweet than other fruits of this class. Once you finish the obvious you will start to describe it more. If your friend has tasted apple, pineapple and lemon, you can say it is Not like apple, not like pineapple, but a mixture of pineapple and lemon. This is an example of the two faces of wisdom.

mask

Two faces of wisdom.

First is to recognize and enumerate what is obvious and established.

Second is to know what is not there.

If you go to a doctor for some illness, he/she will first ask you questions. Generally, they would listen to what you have to say about your symptoms. After that you will be bombarded with a list of questions which seems very irrelevant to the current disease you are having. Obviously, you cannot see the connection. But these are important negatives if you do not have them. They have much significance as the positives.

If an artist stared at a blank canvass, he would see a painting. A painting which is not there. While all of us the general people can see is just a white board. Similarly, an artist with a white marble will see a Sculpture. Once he starts to chip out pieces of unnecessary marble, the Statue will appear Like it had been there all the time.

Imagine a Scientist, trying to do research. He starts with obvious, possible and evident. Then he will hypothesize about the results. About his observations, possible reasons. If he guessed right the results will show, and even if he guessed wrong, this would add to the knowledge base so next time he can narrow down reason.

How to tap into unknown wisdom?

For anyone curious, this should be the next question. As, how can we know the unknown. The answer is simple. It is magical. Nobody knows, how artist bring out the sculpture hidden inside a marble. It is not replicable, not even by him or herself. Nobody knows how we speculate about unknown future. Nobody knows how a child can guess answer to a simple mathematical question 1+1 =2. But there are factors that we can manipulate to get more closer to illusion of control in this creative process. Following are few.

Basic human needs are met.

Observation is a powerful tool.

Better information about current status.

Rest, calm and peaceful environment.

A blind belief that there is a process.

Starting to juggle with obvious (Play- according to Einstein)