The following is the intro chapter of a long thesis I’ve been working on about seeking God and the nature of truth and wisdom. I hope if you read it that you’ll be willing to tell me what you think about it. Seeking God — The Nature of Truth:
Every system of philosophy I’ve ever admired, every philosopher I’ve read whom I respect–each of them has made a very shocking claim about truth and seeking God. They have said that wisdom and truth are not only difficult to attain, they’re often seen as foolishness to society; scoffed at by the masses. When I fist came across this concept in philosophy, I was bewildered. How could it be that wisdom could be seen as foolishness, and foolishness wisdom? I will give you a handful of examples. First, from the Tao Te Ching, a quote about seeking and finding wisdom and the right way to live life:
“Scholars of the highest class, when they hear about the Tao,
earnestly carry it into practice. Scholars of the middle class,
when they have heard about it, seem now to keep it and now
to lose it. Scholars of the lowest class, when they have heard
about it, laugh greatly at it. If it were not thus laughed at,
it would not be fit to be the Tao.”
It’s important to first note that when he uses the word “class” he’s not talking about social status or caste. The word “class” is synonymous more with the word “order” or “degree.” He’s saying “Scholars of the highest order or degree,” not”Scholars of the highest social class.” But let’s move on. Taoism, Tao means “the way.” The way of wisdom; the way of our world; the way of the natural balance and order of the universe; the way to live life to its fullest measure. And what does it say about this “Way?” Some who hear about it eagerly put it into practice. Some who hear about it seek to live by it, but often fail in their attempts. But the common man, when he hears about it, not only rejects it, but labels it foolish. What has turned him round so completely, we must wonder, that what he thinks is foolish is wisdom, and what he perceives as wisdom, is nothing more than his simple pleasures?
The next example is from a western philosophy, Plato, and his”Allegory of the Cave.” In principle, these two philosophies, on a whole, are as different as they come. And yet, when they talk about the nature of truth, seeking God, and man’s relationship to wisdom, they have a striking similarity. In Plato’s allegory, he has us imagine a cave in which prisoners have been kept since childhood, unable to see the light of the sun or any of the outside world, and chained to the ground, facing the back of the cave. There is a fire burning behind them, and occasionally, puppeteers pass objects in front of the fire, casting shadows and images on the back wall of the cave for the prisoners to see.
He says that over time, the prisoners would come to accept the shadows of the images as the real things themselves – real truth and wisdom. But then he describes what happens when one of them finally is freed and able to walk from the cave:
“When one of them was freed and suddenly compelled to stand up, turn his head, walk, and look up toward the light, he’d be pained and dazzled and unable to see the things whose shadows he’s seen before. What do you think he’d say, if we told him that what he’d seen before was inconsequential, but that now because he is a bit closer to the things that are and is turned towards things that are more he sees more correctly?… And if someone drug him away from there by force, up the rough, steep path, and didn’t let him go until he had dragged him into the sunlight…he’d see the shadows most easily, then images of men and other things in water, then the things themselves… he’d see the sun, not images of it in water or some alien place, but the sun itself, in its own place, and be able to study it…
Consider this too. If this man went down into the cave again and sat down in his same seat, wouldn’t his eyes, coming suddenly out of the sun like that, be filled with darkness? And before his eyes had recovered, and the adjustment would not be quick, while his vision was still dim… wouldn’t it be said of him that he’d returned from his upward journey with his eyesight ruined and that it isn’t worthwhile even to try to travel upward.”
It’s such an interesting picture, mankind chained to the back wall of a darkened cave, most of its citizens unable to perceive real and meaningful things, but only the shadows of those things. But once they do at last perceive the real and true good, they’re often seen as fools and ridiculed by the masses. It’s the same idea conveyed by the Tao Te Ching above. When those who cannot perceive wisdom and real truth come into contact with it, they perceive it as foolishness and ridicule it. One more example, this one from the Bible, the book of First Corinthians:
“For it is written:
‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.’
Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?…But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong…We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.”
Are they not all giving the same message? There is something out there, something mysterious and secret, something that most will never perceive or understand. And so, we each must ask ourselves two basic questions. Are there truly great and wonderful things in this world to be found, things that most who hear about them shake their heads at? And if so, what keeps us from seeing and knowing what they are? What keeps us locked up in chains, staring at the back wall of the cave of which all humankind is a part?
And so we each must ask ourselves. Do we really know what wisdom is? Do we really know the things in life truly worth attaining, truly worth striving after? In another place in the Bible, the author describes mankind in this way:“The wise man has eyes in his head, while the fool walks in the darkness.“ Simple, yet true. We go to school, go to work, get a job, buy a house. We play sports and watch TV, and all the while, our life slowly slips away from us, and never do we realize that these are the things people do, not the things they live for. Those things are something rare, things which must be sought, not stumbled upon or settled for.
For my own part, I feel like the scholar of the middle class who at times seems now to keep it and now to lose it. Most of my days are spent in simple diligence, going about my tasks, never once lifting my mind’s eye to the heavens, to discover what else this life may hold for one like me. But when life finally does come to call, when I feel that subtle beckoning away from the business of life, something changes. Making my way down a dusty road in evening underneath the starry canopy of the heavens, something comes and demands to know what I’ve been doing with this life of mine — if I have lived it with wisdom and passion, or squandered it on foolish things. And in those moments, something within me will suddenly change. I’ll feel a sudden rush of timelessness sweep over me, and I’ll remember that I too am a part of something greater than myself, hearing again those whispers of ancient questions asked of every man in the quiet hours of his thought. What kind of man will you become, it whispers to me? Will you be the kind of man who fights for great and worthy things? Or will you settle for the vain ambitions of a small and petty heart?
If you liked this post, you’ll definitely like Ben’s book Mountainside — a philosophical and poetical work that explores the depths of life and modern society.
