“People are only wise when they are searching for wisdom; when they feel they have achieved it completely, they are fools.”

-Solomon ibn Gabirol

One of my friends and mentors used to warn me, “Joe, stay close to those seeking the Truth and far away from those who’ve found it.” His implication was that truth is too vast to be fixed to one thing, one place, one time. Therefore it’s always possible to seek it, but if we’ve found The One And Only Truth, we are probably missing something. Like sunlight, our paths can be illuminated by it, but we cannot hold it in our grasp.

People often criticize spiritual texts, especially the Bible, for their inconsistencies. Others hold every jot and tittle to be literally true. Both, in my opinion, miss the point. Like the Zen koan about the finger pointing at the moon, once the moon is seen the finger is no longer needed. So it is with sacred texts, rituals, customs, even wisdom. They point toward that which  can never be fully grasped, fully understood, fully grasped in our hands or our minds. It can only be experienced in this moment, and the next moment and the next. And they are only true for the moments in which they are true.

Nothing in the universe is fixed or constant- not the celestial orbs, not sunlight or moonlight, not the winds, tides, seasons, or the continents. Love waxes and wanes even in the most constant relationships, feelings shift; on some days grace fills us to overflowing and on others it is unconsolably absent. The only constancy is flux. So too with Wisdom and Truth.

So to try to grasp Truth or Wisdom as a singular thing is a fool’s mistake. Rather it is a journey,  a river flowing through our lives, a sunbeam illuminating our way. It can not be held in our hand anymore than Love can. Like G!D, Truth is a essentially a verb, not a noun. Wisdom is a path. We can walk in it, but never really possess it. And that’s the Truth! 🙂

What Truth or Wisdom are you seeking today? What Truth or Wisdom is seeking you?

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Solomon ibn Gabirol (alt. Solomon ben Judah), was an 11th-century Andalusian poet and Jewish philosopher with a Neo-Platonic bent. He published over a hundred poems, as well as works of biblical exegesis, philosophy, ethics, and satire.

In the 19th century it was discovered that medieval translators had Latinised Gabirol’s name to Avicebron and had translated his work on Jewish Neo-Platonic philosophy into a Latin form that had in the intervening centuries been highly regarded as a work of Islamic or Christian scholarship. As such, Ibn Gabirol is well known in the history of philosophy for the doctrine that all things, including soul and intellect, are composed of matter and form, and for his emphasis on Divine Will.

Joe Laur is a father, husband, naturalist, executive, consultant, and a lowly rabbinic student. Send him your favorite teaching quote for commentary. He can be reached at joe.laur@godsdog.net.