Wisdom is like the bird that soars in the limitless night sky, silently gazing down upon the woodland; no amount of darkness could hinder its sense of the truth. Its inscrutable eyes watching, perceiving, soaking in everything and anything, even the littlest flutter of a leaf. Its obscure nature and presence remains arcane, and yet, has somehow earned the respect of others.

Knowledge and patience only compose a minor fraction of wisdom. The moment you have even an inkling of capturing it, it flies away like dust in the wind. No cage, net, or weapon can impede its path.

What makes up the rest of this so-called wisdom? It is the self. Now what makes oneself so important? Living, the state of living everyday life serves as a medium for wisdom. To know yourself—your likes and dislikes, what makes you laugh, your strengths and weaknesses—is living. To experience happiness, epiphanies, sadness, is what it truly means to be alive, to live, and in this case, to achieve wisdom.

“Within Siddhartha there slowly grew and ripened the knowledge of what wisdom really was and the goal of his long seeking. It was nothing but a preparation of the soul, a capacity, a secret art of thinking, feeling and breathing thoughts of unity at every moment of life.”

Siddhartha

You might be thinking: Does that mean everyone has wisdom? This is similar to asking if everyone is happy, in which the answer is no. There is a distinction between living actively and passively; one has experiences and the other doesn’t. Similarly, there is a difference between knowledge and wisdom: one serves as a means of bragging and the other as a means of living. What is an owl without its night vision, eyes, and unique neck rotation?

Wisdom requires knowledge, as well as effort. Anyone can become knowledgeable with the use of books and researching, but it takes more than that to achieve wisdom. Wisdom is the ability to use that knowledge to live life filled with wonder, to fly through the darkness without apprehension of what may happen next.