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Wisdom is Making a Comeback


Wisdom used to be cool. Dudes in white robes would ask provocative questions to young Greeks in the town square. And, historically, Wisdom Schools have emerged during times of crisis or on the cusp of great leaps in human consciousness in order to help shepherd society through a challenging transition.

More than 2,500 years ago, Lao Tzu wrote the Tao Teh Ching and offered this wisdom about wisdom:

Knowledge studies others,
Wisdom is self-known.
Muscles masters brothers,
Self-mastery is bone.
Content need never borrow,
Ambition wanders blind.
Vitality cleaves to the marrow,
Leaving death behind.

Centuries later, the Scientific Revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries shoved wisdom to the intellectual and religious margins of society as it felt abstract and less relevant.

But, in an era in which knowledge has become commoditized and everyone has access to ChatGPT in the magic stone in their pocket, maybe it’s time for wisdom to make a comeback. Paraphrasing one of our MEA guest faculty members Jerry Colonna, MEA has been “smuggling consciousness since 2018.” And, we’re seeing a growing interest in the idea of “midlife wisdom schools” globally. 

Recently, I had an epiphany that MEA’s mission is to “demystify, elevate, and operationalize wisdom.” Pretty heady, right? I wrote about this topic in my short, free ebook “Why Successful Leaders Value Wisdom” which you can find on the MEA website. 

If you want to talk with a couple people who knows a thing about Wisdom, I’d highly recommend you consider enrolling in Wisdom 2.0 founder Soren Gordhamer’s workshop with Wisdom Ventures co-founder Cecily Mak (and the visionary behind ClearLife) “A New Year Reset: Shedding Unwanted Habits with Self-Grace and Presence” Dec 9-14 in Baja. It’s the most glorious time of year to be in Baja and having co-led a Wisdom workshop with Soren in the past, I can tell you that it will be a profound experience. 

-Chip

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