Wisdom versus Cleverness

Cleverness or wisdom?

As most of the world gets enveloped by cleverness, true wisdom is rarely found. The gratification of hearing two wise people speak can be enormous. This gratification is not as profound as that when listening to two clever people speak. What is the difference between the two? Cleverness is more concerned with mental trickery, a certain degree of overcoming conflictual thoughts, memory, agility, swiftness, multitasking, multidimensional thinking, expressions, communication, networking. Wisdom is knowledge that cleverness is temporary. It is one level deeper. It is knowing that life is transient and that the mind can be tricked. What is clever today may not be clever tomorrow but wisdom is timeless. It can sometimes be wise to be foolish and foolish to be clever. Wisdom can come to those who are not educated. It can be passed through generations by story telling, poetry and nature. Cleverness usually associates itself with those who want to become rich and famous. Invariably those who are highly educated. Wisdom cannot bring harm. Cleverness cannot bring personal harm. Wisdom is what remains when we pour experience through a sieve, but you do not have to live that experience to be wise.

Cleverness can lead to wars among nations. It can create conveniences and comforts. Wisdom is about self-control and sacrifice. Cleverness says “carpe diem” - seize the day. Wisdom says what can you give up today. It is bringing gratification by delaying it. People can have different degrees of cleverness and wisdom within them. A Nobel-prize winning physicist can be clever but unwise if he develops the nuclear bomb. On the other hand, an old unknown man who tends to his garden, watches squirrels fight and the bee settle on a rose bud may not be clever but he is wise. Most people grow from being clever and unwise to being wise and not clever. Why is this so? Some feel that they were wiser when they were young, when habits had not bought spontaneity and arrested creativity. Wisdom does not come through habit but through creative experience. It can come while walking in a park freshly sprinkled with dew, while writing thoughts in a diary, while singing in the shower. Cleverness comes through reading books and talking to clever people.

Wisdom can sometimes be misconstrued with cowardice. However, a wise person will prefer to show that he is a coward in order to make the clever person feel brave. Wisdom will seldom fight with cleverness even if the latter taunts him to do so. Wisdom will rather let cleverness be, for it understands the true nature of self. Cleverness feeds the mind and can become obsessed with it. Wisdom nourishes the soul and does not hold on to the nourishment. It lets it pass through to others who may wish to receive it. It is free knowledge.

Often, we can have a choice – to make friends who are clever or those who are wise? It is clever to choose clever friends and cleverness usually grows in both till they cease to be friends. Wise friends cannot be chosen for they only come naturally and with serendipity. These friends may not make you any wiser, but at least they shield you from the clever ones. The sharing of ideas and experiences with the wise can lead to new interpretations and flexibility of concepts. The clever are usually fixed about right and wrong, good and bad, great and small, less and more. They are more concerned with finding ways to achieve efficiency. They are more task and outcome-oriented. Finding the shortest path from point A to point B. The wise looks for a path less travelled in order to achieve happiness.