Twenty Steps to Wisdom

This is a time when we are hungry to know more. Our stomachs are full, and we wonder if our souls are empty. We yearn for the return of wisdom. If civilization is the “long process of learning to be kind,” then wisdom is the shared memories through the ages that guide us toward that goal. The problem is remembering what we have learned. There is a known path to wisdom and to joy. There is a beginning step; there is no endpoint. You have already started on the way. You only need to be reminded in this fast-moving world of what you know. We need to tap our collective memory. Here are twenty steps, from awakening to transformation, followed by virtually every religious and philosophical tradition, described by great minds and prophets, that have guided the best of our culture for 3000 years. Simple steps, familiar, but as the wisdom journey itself, profound, passionate, and enlightening.