Wisdom does not mean being any better than others, but to simply be a true human being, so that others might perhaps benefit from the example. Wisdom is the art of being responsive to the opinion of others while freeing one’s understanding from the limitations of one’s own preconceived ideas. At a higher level of awareness, the only true guidance to what is right or wrong for oneself is one’s own conscience. When one does something inappropriate one is unhappy, and even though one might try to fool oneself, one always knows what is really true and what is false. The wise avoid having pride upon their good deeds, recognizing that vanity is a veil, behind which a compassionate act cannot always be seen as a virtue.
When wisdom is seen hidden behind modesty, that attitude is not necessarily weakness, nor is it an inferiority complex founded upon self-pity. Modesty is a feeling that arises from the living heart, which is secretly conscious of its inner beauty while at the same time veiling itself from its own sight. Water is found in the depths of the earth, so is wisdom hidden in the depths of the heart. In one person wisdom is found at a deeper level than in another. And just as water makes the earth abundantly fertile, in the same way the magic of modesty makes the heart sooner or later bear sweet and fragrant fruit of wisdom.
Hidayat Inayat-Khan
