Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Everyone talks about wisdom – The Buddhists, the Christians, the Confucians, the Taoists, the scientists, the teachers, the philosophers, the theologists… But what is wisdom? And how to gain wisdom?

To start out, everyone thinks that s/he is wise, though s/he may be dumb like a piece of wood. Ignorant people don’t know that they are ignorant.

And wisdom covers everything in the universe. What do we want to be wise about?

The Buddhists probably say, “Wisdom means you see everything ‘as it is,’ without coloring comments or judgments.” But “as it is” is also a difficult concept, because each person has a way of looking at things, this person’s “as it is” could be completely different from the other person’s “as it is.”

The Christians base their wisdom on God – You commit yourself to God and God takes care of you. God will lead you in everything and you follow God’s lead. God is your wisdom.

As to the subject of wisdom, I would say your wisdom is to know yourself.

Why?

Because we live and work with people. If you know yourself, then you will know 99% of everyone else, because we humans are 99% similar, and only 1% different from others.

And if you know 99% of everyone else around you, you will be hugely successful in life, however you define success.

And to know yourself, you need to observe yourself often. On Feb. 11, 2009, the third day of the then new-born ĐCN, I wrote Biết mình (Know yourself), showing the method to know yourself.

Each night you spend about 10 or 15 minutes to sit and observe yourself. You can sit cross-legged like a yogi or sit on a chair. Take every thing off your mind, so your mind is quiet down.

First, you look at what you have done, what you have said, and what you have thoughts during the day. Is there some thing you have done that you shouldn’t have done, so that you need to adjust your attitude and behavior for the future? That is observing the past day.

Second, you observe yourself here and now. This is Satipatthana (Four kinds of Mindfulness, Thiền Tứ Niệm Xứ), with some minor modification from me: Observing your body, observing your feelings, observing your thoughts, observing everything in the universe. We only talk about the first three here; we don’t need the fourth to know ourselves.

– Observing your body, the way you sit, the way you cross your legs, the way you straighten your backbone and your neck…

– Observing your feelings: First, physical feelings – itchy somewhere in the body, tired somewhere, comfortable somewhere…

Second, mental feelings – Are you a little sad, why? A little disturbed, why? A little angry, why? A little happy, why?

– Observing your thoughts: What are you thinking in your mind right now? Why you think about those?

If you practice each night about 10 or 15 minutes of observation that way, you will develop a habit of being aware of every of your feeling and thinking. Then you know yourself very well.

And knowing yourself is a very fundamental piece of wisdom, from that you know everyone else in the world.

Good luck!

With compassion,

Hoành

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