Unpacking Wisdom

“Wisdom is the capacity to judge developmental depth; so wisdom is the capacity to judge -ultimately depth times span; so a wise choice is one that follows the prime directive, which is to protect and promote the greatest depth for the greatest span.”

-Ken Wilber

In a paraphrase of this quote, wisdom is the capacity to judge developmental depth and breadth; which means that wisdom is best understood in the context of what is sometimes called the prime directive or the basic moral intuition, which holds that protecting and promoting the greatest depth for the greatest span is the essence of wisdom.

Ah, but the word is not the thing, the map is not the same as the territory.

One day i was walking a woodsy path that closely parallels a portion of the charming and grandmotherly Fox River. The opposite shore was clearly visible and i was reminded of those times in my surveying career when i was charged with taking measurements sufficient to develop cross-sections of various rivers; this is the process of gathering data at right angles to the thread of the stream, cutting as it were, cross-sections through it that could be used to generate flow rates at the locations measured. Obviously both depth and span (x and y axes) are critical to this calculation.

So there it was, staring me right in the face, a natural-world object lesson about wisdom and the prime directive, a scene that later inspired this haiku:

Hidden in the Open

Teaching as it goes:
Greatest depth for greatest span;
River as it flows.

This means that from wisdom’s view all necessary alternative views are considered, witness this little, but true story:

After dinner, Mary, mother of two young sons, was approached by the boys with a question, could they have some leftover pie from the kitchen counter that was tempting their young palettes? Mary, a wise and talented parent said immediately: “Danny (the elder) you cut the remaining pie in two pieces. Christopher (the younger) you get first choice.”

Here in the world of duality, wisdom needs a counter-part lest it be cold, calculating and distant. The countervailing quality that needs to grow in tandem with wisdom is compassion. Taken together this pair offers a path to the very highest of what humans are capable.