To become wise like a Daoist sage is to practice life learning, careful analysis, and deliberate action.
Path 1 – Build Experience
Empty your cup.
Do you remember the first time you saw dinosaur bones in a museum? Or the first time you had a delicious peach? At that moment, your world gradually expanded, and you became wiser. The Daoist concept of ’emptying your cup’ refers to the idea that you must first empty your cup to take in more. A cup is only useful when it has space to hold something. An empty ‘mind cup’ can be filled with the wonder of new knowledge and challenging ideas.
Always stay curious and open-minded. Instead of predicting the situation, learn to open up and say to yourself, “I don’t know what to expect.” Then you can learn and gain Daoist practical wisdom. When you let go of stereotypes about the people, objects, and situations around you, your sense of meaning grows, absorbs change and new ideas, and puts no one above or below you.
Ask lots of questions.
Learning doesn’t stop just because you graduated from high school or college or if you have children and have a lot of experience to teach them. Even if you’re a top-notch teacher or an expert in your field, you haven’t finished your studies yet. Daoist sages continue questioning their motives and conventional wisdom and love to ask questions in moments of ignorance.
Change Your Pace.
Be still at least once a day to relax and not be distracted from the hustle and bustle of the world. Staying busy and constantly worrying about being seen may make you a paragon of virtue at work, but it won’t make you wiser. Stop. Calm down. Notice what a laid-back perspective brings you.
Daoist sages spend time in meditation. Pay attention to giving yourself time and space for rest, free from distractions. If you spend your spare time on TV or video games, turn an hour of TV into an hour of reading or watching a nature documentary. Better yet, go outside and go hiking in the woods. Daoist sages love their walks.
Think first, then speak.
Speaking your mind or contributing to a group is not always important just because you can. Daoist sages don’t have to prove their knowledge. This does not mean that you should avoid communication or never speak. Be a good listener and be accepting of others. And if your view is needed, give it. Daoist sages don’t wait for their turn to talk just to show everyone how smart they are. This is not the Way.
Path 2 – Emulate Wisdom
Learn from a teacher.
Daoist sages are part of a long lineage of teacher-student relationships. Find a teacher you admire and emulate their values and ideals. Ask them questions. Listen carefully to their answers because there is much to learn from their experiences, stories, and reflections. When in doubt, seek advice and guidance from your teacher. You don’t have to agree with everything they say, but it will give you something to consider.
By modern standards, your teachers don’t have to be successful or subject experts. You’re likelier to meet a Daoist bartender than a math professor or billionaire. Learn to appreciate the wisdom in everyone, and everyone becomes a teacher.
Read a lot.
Read the writings of philosophers and social commentators. Read the comics. Read adventure novels. Read online or on your mobile device. Get a library card. Read poetry. Read Melville. Read like your life depends on it. But take the time to form opinions about the material and talk to others about what you read.
Read about a specific area of interest, whether a job or a hobby. Read about other people’s experiences and discover what others have already done in situations you will probably face. You don’t have to agree with everything you read. But you need to analyze it.
Stay connected.
It would be a mistake to think that practical wisdom development is to be more than or above others. It is a myth that Daoist sages never worry about their feelings and float above the rest of us in a bubble of numbness.
You will always be a human being. It is natural to get upset or disappointed about things. Daoist sages know how to stay connected to their teachers and those they care about. In times of need, it is ok to want to talk to someone who will understand. Surround yourself with open-minded, willing, and receptive people to provide you with a sounding board. Open up to them, and they will open up to you.
Practice humility.
Is it prudent to sell yourself? The world of business and marketing has convinced us that self-promotion is necessary because we have turned ourselves into social asset commodities. But there’s a big difference between understanding and sharing your capabilities with others versus exaggerating skills outside your comfort zone to keep up with the competition. To be humble is to emphasize one’s strengths and abilities without giving up one’s values. As a result, people will see you as an approachable and dependable source of support.
Daoist sages know that being humble allows the truth to come out. Humility also respects the abilities of others and does not fear them. Daoist sages accept their limitations and connect with the strengths of others.
Get to know other people.
Contrary to what you see in the movies, Daoist sages rarely grow magic beards and hide in far-off caves. Daoist sages are engaged in the world. They act as guides and share their practical wisdom with others. You, too, can be a mentor and teacher; you can help others learn critical thinking, emotional acceptance, a love of lifelong learning, and confidence.
Avoid using wisdom as a barrier to distance yourself from others. Daoist sages know that wisdom is shared. Practical wisdom grows when it is exposed to the ideas of others, no matter how contradictory they may be.
Path 3 – Reflect
Learn to admit your mistakes.
Often the most challenging journey is looking inside yourself and being honest about what you find. Even if you have a skilled teacher, you must figure out your beliefs, opinions, and prejudices at some point. Being wise is hard if you don’t want to know yourself well and learn to love your innate strengths and weaknesses. Knowing yourself gives you the foundation to grow as you travel through life.
Be wary of self-improvement advice that claims to have a “secret.” The only “secret” to self-improvement is hard work and consistency. There’s nothing wrong with exploring self-help fads. But don’t lose track of the fact that there’s nothing new under the sun. Humans have been wrestling with the same issues since the beginning of time. And nothing will change the reality of having to do the work of personal reflection and making sense of the world.
Accept the fact that you can’t know everything.
Daoist sages know that, despite decades of study and contemplation, they still know very little. The more you think about people, things, and events, the clearer it becomes that there is always something to learn. Intellectual knowledge is only the pinhead of all awareness. Accepting the limits of one’s knowledge is at the heart of Daoist practical wisdom.
Do not confuse expert skill with practical wisdom. Expertise refers to an elevated level of knowledge in a particular field. In contrast, Daoist sages understand that practical wisdom refers to seeing the big picture of that knowledge and living calmly and confidently with one’s decisions and actions along the learning path.
Take responsibility for yourself.
You are ultimately responsible for your choices. If you’ve been doing the “right” thing for years by someone else’s standards, not your own, you are not in charge of your life. If you are feeling directionless, the chances are that you’ve been living someone else’s dream and not living a life aligned with your innate strengths. Daoist sages have agency over their life.
This means that if you are in a job where no one recognizes your talents, find employment where you can excel at what you are good at doing. If you interact with people not aligned with your values, find a new tribe. Earn a living that doesn’t compromise compassion, care, and your interests. Daoist sages know that taking responsibility for your life is less about resources and more about resourcefulness.
Don’t complicate your life.
For many people, the meaning of life is “created” by being overly busy and overcomplicating everything from work to love. Complexity can make a person feel necessary and desirable, but this way of being rests on unstable ground. Daoist sages know that living this way is a distraction and prevents a person from dealing with their significant life issues, such as understanding how life works and how to enjoy it. Complexity creates unnecessary barriers to doing your work and impedes clear thinking, making you vulnerable to confusion, anxiety, and fear.
Simplicity brings clarity, which leads to resolution. With time and experience, life and people will become easier to understand, wisdom will flourish, and you will grow.
