Intellectual Acuity

[coberst]

Intellectual Acuity

I think that reality is multilayered like an onion. We live our life on the surface rarely penetrating the surface of reality. To seek a comprehension beyond the surface requires some kind of intellectual acuity.

Most people are familiar with the arts as a form of intellectual acuity but far fewer have any recognition of self-learning through books as a means of developing an intellectual acuity that can penetrate the surface reality.

What do you think of this opinion?

 

[bigvindaloo]

Intellectual Acuity

I think that reality is multilayered like an onion. We live our life on the surface rarely penetrating the surface of reality. To seek a comprehension beyond the surface requires some kind of intellectual acuity.

Most people are familiar with the arts as a form of intellectual acuity but far fewer have any recognition of self-learning through books as a means of developing an intellectual acuity that can penetrate the surface reality.

What do you think of this opinion?

I think you raise an important point. Art is a way into the perceptions of the artist which is effortless and profits from visual perception which is a cognitively impenetrable and effortless process. Book learning also pierces the skins of the onion, but requires effort, so is less immediately accessible as insight (less familiar). Most people hold a learned opinion of duality between emotional/intellectual understanding IMO. I hold this as a false dichotomy. But to view reality through this dichotomous lense is a reinforcing experience no doubt..

 

[Djamila]

I think the more you experience, the most rich your knowledge and wisdom, and you achieve a greater depth in the levels on which you interact with the world.

If I sit at a table with a Canadian woman my age, it doesn't take long for me to become frustrated and anxious. You think they're pathetically shallow and boring, they think you're egotistical and condescending - but that's just how it is. If I sit at a table with a Bosnian woman, we don't even need to say a word. We can just make eye contact for a few moments, and we've experienced more together, felt more at different levels, than the stereotypical Canadian woman will ever feel in her life.

It comes from suffering, from a wide range of different things. I think the lower you suffer, the higher you're able to perceive as well. And it just strips away so much of the fascade.

 

[bigvindaloo]

I think the more you experience, the most rich your knowledge and wisdom, and you achieve a greater depth in the levels on which you interact with the world.

If I sit at a table with a Canadian woman my age, it doesn't take long for me to become frustrated and anxious. You think they're pathetically shallow and boring, they think you're egotistical and condescending - but that's just how it is. If I sit at a table with a Bosnian woman, we don't even need to say a word. We can just make eye contact for a few moments, and we've experienced more together, felt more at different levels, than the stereotypical Canadian woman will ever feel in her life.

It comes from suffering, from a wide range of different things. I think the lower you suffer, the higher you're able to perceive as well. And it just strips away so much of the fascade.

I can only assume you meant "higher" suffering induced perception considering analogy between Bosnian and Canadian women. Do you think that accepting suffering as inevitable enhances intellectual acuity? If so, I agree with you.

 

[Djamila]

Not necessarily accepting it, but just experiencing it. The more experiences you have, the more... you are, basically. It just affects everything.

 

[bigvindaloo]

Not necessarily accepting it, but just experiencing it. The more experiences you have, the more... you are, basically. It just affects everything.

Right. Experiencing it increases intellectual acuity. I am lucky not to have experienced much personal suffering in my life compared to many others. Yet my belief and experience lead me to hold that suffering is inevitable and my acuity is enhanced from that. I chose a path that leads me to something other than retaliation towards what I might understand is the external cause of suffering.

 

[Buttercup]

It comes from suffering, from a wide range of different things. I think the lower you suffer, the higher you're able to perceive as well.

I agree that suffering often enables a person to empathize with others on a like scale. But, I don't think suffering always equates to being more perceptive. Sometimes suffering causes people to become more self absorbed. I've met many people who have suffered through various horrible trials and end up bitter and resentful and mean. It just depends on the person and how they choose to handle bad times and move on.

I think intellectual acuity takes a lot of work.....it's an ongoing process and a choice we make. Some people simply have no desire to explore themselves or the world any further.

 

[bigvindaloo]

I agree that suffering often enables a person to empathize with others on a like scale. But, I don't think suffering always equates to being more perceptive. Sometimes suffering causes people to become more self absorbed. I've met many people who have suffered through various horrible trials and end up bitter and resentful and mean. It just depends on the person and how they choose to handle bad times and move on.

I think intellectual acuity takes a lot of work.....it's an ongoing process and a choice we make. Some people simply have no desire to explore themselves or the world any further.

Yours is an important point and describes the other path persons experiencing suffering can choose to follow. Suffering is inevitable but reaction to it requires a choice we have control over and create a better world for ourselves. We might find a description of this in religious books.

 

[coberst]

Not necessarily accepting it, but just experiencing it. The more experiences you have, the more... you are, basically. It just affects everything.

I agree as long as you include reading as possibly the most rewarding of experiences.

 

[Sunstone]

I think the more you experience, the most rich your knowledge and wisdom, and you achieve a greater depth in the levels on which you interact with the world.

If I sit at a table with a Canadian woman my age, it doesn't take long for me to become frustrated and anxious. You think they're pathetically shallow and boring, they think you're egotistical and condescending - but that's just how it is. If I sit at a table with a Bosnian woman, we don't even need to say a word. We can just make eye contact for a few moments, and we've experienced more together, felt more at different levels, than the stereotypical Canadian woman will ever feel in her life.

It comes from suffering, from a wide range of different things. I think the lower you suffer, the higher you're able to perceive as well. And it just strips away so much of the fascade.

I have to agree with those who point out that it's not how much you experience but what you make of it that counts most towards wisdom. We've all known people who've learned little or nothing from their experiences, people who've only learned to be cynical and bitter from their experiences, and people who've only learned a sort of arrogance from their experiences. None of these things is compatible with great wisdom.

On the other hand, I've met children who at least in some ways were wiser than many people two or three times their age.

 

[retrorich]

Intellectual Acuity

I think that reality is multilayered like an onion.

I'll have a bloomin' onion, please.