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Understanding in spiritual life

Spirit of Light

Spirit of Light

Be who ever you want
When we encounter people who have "advanced" to a deeper level of wisdom why does it come so difficult to belive what they say?

Is it because they "see" something we do not do?
Is it because if you can not understand it it can not exist?
Is it that we get ignorant to what we can not understand and therefor others should not be able too?
Are we afriad of what we do not know?
When we meet someone with deeper wisdom then our self, does it make us feel less important?
 
wizanda

wizanda

One Accepts All Religious Texts
Premium Member
Amanaki said:
When we encounter people who have "advanced" to a deeper level of wisdom why does it come so difficult to belive what they say?
Click to expand...
It is because of spiritual maturity: as children we compete, as adults we relate, as grandparents we raise.

In my opinion. :innocent:
 
osgart

osgart

Nothing my eye, Something for sure
I think any wisdom learned must be understood for one's self to have any impact. Learning from people of greater wisdom is a blessing actually.

Its not merely holding a wisdom in your hand, but how one takes it to heart that makes all the difference. Genuineness is taken well, anything less is not.
 
Windwalker

Windwalker

Veteran Member
Premium Member
This applies to not only spiritual wisdom, but just knowledge in general. When we are less developed, say in our adolescence of any given area, we tend to think we know more than we actually do. But as the saying goes, the more we know the more we know we don't know. That arrogance of youth gives way to the humility of wisdom.

The other factor I should add here is that those whose experience is greater than our own, there is no way we can really get what they are saying, because we lack the necessary context to see what they are saying. We can gracefully assume they know what they are talking about, but we won't get it. It will sound foreign to our own experience, and our minds will fill in the details with assumptions based on what we do know. Emerson put it perfectly when he stated, "What we are, that only can we see."
 
BSM1

BSM1

What? Me worry?
Amanaki said:
When we encounter people who have "advanced" to a deeper level of wisdom why does it come so difficult to belive what they say?

Is it because they "see" something we do not do?
Is it because if you can not understand it it can not exist?
Is it that we get ignorant to what we can not understand and therefor others should not be able too?
Are we afriad of what we do not know?
When we meet someone with deeper wisdom then our self, does it make us feel less important?
Click to expand...

Your answer may be in your question. Unless someone is looking for a specific knowledge or wisdom they might not even realize that wisdom is even being offered. In other words, they may just be ignorant, which makes them defensive in many cases.
 
WalterTrull

WalterTrull

Godfella
My right hand is much more advanced than my left, so as I gained a certain maturity, I usually have deferred to my right. There is the odd exception of the baseball glove. Workin' on it.
 
9-10ths_Penguin

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
Amanaki said:
When we encounter people who have "advanced" to a deeper level of wisdom why does it come so difficult to belive what they say?

Is it because they "see" something we do not do?
Is it because if you can not understand it it can not exist?
Is it that we get ignorant to what we can not understand and therefor others should not be able too?
Are we afriad of what we do not know?
When we meet someone with deeper wisdom then our self, does it make us feel less important?
Click to expand...
I've never found a way to tell the difference between someone who's actually "spiritually advanced" and someone who isn't, but has deluded themselves into thinking they are.

How do you tell the difference?

In the real world, I've found that one mark of a true expert is that they can explain their positions to lay people in a way that the lay person understands.
 
Spirit of Light

Spirit of Light

Be who ever you want
9-10ths_Penguin said:
I've never found a way to tell the difference between someone who's actually "spiritually advanced" and someone who isn't, but has deluded themselves into thinking they are.

How do you tell the difference?

In the real world, I've found that one mark of a true expert is that they can explain their positions to lay people in a way that the lay person understands.
Click to expand...
Spiritual advanced is those who really understand the teaching/dharma, those who can use it and understand also what is not seen with the physical eyes
 
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Spirit of Light

Spirit of Light

Be who ever you want
an
9-10ths_Penguin said:
By listening them... and comparing what they say to your understanding?
Click to expand...
and to the teaching of buddha. the more one read the teaching the deeper wisdom one attain, but ofcourse meditation is a huge part of it too.
It is called cultivation of dhamma, and when you get a very deep understanding you almost become the dhamma
 
Windwalker

Windwalker

Veteran Member
Premium Member
9-10ths_Penguin said:
I've never found a way to tell the difference between someone who's actually "spiritually advanced" and someone who isn't, but has deluded themselves into thinking they are.
Click to expand...
If you reject spirituality as valid, then how could you possibly know any differences at all?

9-10ths_Penguin said:
How do you tell the difference?
Click to expand...
Maturity.

9-10ths_Penguin said:
In the real world, I've found that one mark of a true expert is that they can explain their positions to lay people in a way that the lay person understands.
Click to expand...
You must be talking about science, or some other cognitive concepts. Spirituality is lived experience. It can't be explained. It has to be lived.
 
9-10ths_Penguin

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
Amanaki said:
and to the teaching of buddha. the more one read the teaching the deeper wisdom one attain, but ofcourse meditation is a huge part of it too.
It is called cultivation of dhamma, and when you get a very deep understanding you almost become the dhamma
Click to expand...
It seems problematic to me for someone to rely on their own understanding to decide whether someone else has a deeper understanding.
 
Spirit of Light

Spirit of Light

Be who ever you want
9-10ths_Penguin said:
It seems problematic to me for someone to rely on their own understanding to decide whether someone else has a deeper understanding.
Click to expand...
Example for me as a buddhist it is very easy to see that a monk has deeper wisdom then i have, just from talking with the monk i would hear it in the way he talk, and the way he describe the dhamma
 
9-10ths_Penguin

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
Amanaki said:
Example for me as a buddhist it is very easy to see that a monk has deeper wisdom then i have, just from talking with the monk i would hear it in the way he talk, and the way he describe the dhamma
Click to expand...
What could a monk possibly tell you that would let you know that he really does understand things that you don't understand?
 
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