Kind Of Wisdom Research Articles

An Analysis of Jia Tanchun’s “Three Talents” Character Image in the English Translation of Dream of the Red Mansions—Based on David Hawkes’s and Yang Xianyi’s Versions

The current study aims to analyze the characterization of Jia Tanchun in English versions of Dream of the Red Chamber translated by David Hawkes and Yang Xianyi. As an important character in Dream of the Red Chamber, Jia Tanchun’s image may differ in different English translations. By comparing and analyzing the translations of the two versions, this study reveals the ways in which different translations portray the character of Jia Tanchun and the cultural factors involved. By analyzing the translated texts about Jia Tanchun in the two versions, the current study finds that in Hawkes’s translation, the image of Jia Tanchun is endowed with a kind of wisdom, calmness and thoughtfulness, while Yang Xianyi’s translation highlights Jia Tanchun’s boldness, passion and adventurousness more. This may stem from the differences in the translators’ understanding of the original image of Jia Tanchun, as well as the influence of translation style and cultural background. In the process of translation, the characterization of Jia Tanchun’s “three talents” has attracted much attention. Based on the two versions, this study analyzes Jia Tanchun’s talents in management, learning and handling. The characterization of Jia Tanchun’s “three talents” is comprehensively presented in Hawkes’s and Yang Xianyi’s translations. Additionally, this study provides a new perspective for the translation of Dream of the Red Chamber and calls on translators to emphasize the shaping and expression of the characters in the process of translation and convey the rich connotation of the original. Meanwhile, readers should also keep an open and comparative mind when reading different translations to understand the work from multiple perspectives.

What Is the Use of Philosophy and How to Do It Well?

Philosophy has survived for a long time, which is based on the classics and keeps up with the times. Philosophy is the theoretical character of philosophy, which is consistent with the true connotation of philosophy. Philosophy is to love wisdom. This kind of wisdom is not self-talking, but the wisdom of the times, which needs to be constantly loved and pursued. What is the use of philosophy? It not only serves national politics, but also is indispensable to people’s spirit, mood and social development. Philosophy examines the world and is constantly reflecting on it. We need to have great care, conceptual thinking and appropriate research methods to study philosophy, so as to better do philosophy and make philosophy develop better.

반야바라밀(Prajñāpāramitā)은 멸진정(Nirodhasamāpatti)인가?

The prajñāpāramitā is often translated as the perfection of wisdom, meaning ‘the highest wisdom.’ There has been an active debate in academic circles as to whether this perfection of wisdom is a kind of wisdom with conceptual understanding or a concentration beyond such understanding. This paper moves away from Prajñāpāramitā texts, which have been the main focus of such studies, and examines the perfection of wisdom in the Daśabhūmikasūtra. This is because there are narratives in the scripture that imply that the perfection of wisdom is the same as the absorption of extinction(nirodhasamāpatti) or the cessation of ideation and feeling(saṃjñāvedayitanirodha).
 In Chapter II, this paper finds traces of the absorption of extinction in the seventh stage of the Daśabhūmikasūtra, which states that bodhisattvas from the sixth stage (i.e., abhimukhī bhūmiḥ) can “enter into extinction (nirodhaṃ samāpadyate) but do not realize it.” It singles out the ‘dwelling of/in prajñāpāramitā (prajñāpāramitāvihāra) of the sixth stage as a candidate for the absorption of extinction.
 Chapter III clarifies that, in the context of successive dwellings (anupūrvavihāra), the dwelling of/in prajñāpāramitā equates to the absorption of extinction (nirodhasamāpatti), given the narrative of the third stage (i.e., prabhākārī bhūmiḥ) describes eight dwellings successively except for the nirodhasamāpatti, the culminating point of this succession.
 In Chapter IV, this paper shows that the ‘realization of extinction (nirodhasākṣātkriyā),’ both in the context of the investigation of the four noble truths and the context of nirodhasamāpatti, results in becoming an arhat who will be free from saṃsara after this life. It, therefore, infers that the statement “he/she does not realize extinction (na nirodhaṃ sākṣātkaroti)” relates to bodhisattvas’ means (upāya) postponing final nirvāṇa until he will have attained all the attributes of the [perfectly enlighted] Buddha(s).
 Chapter V points out that bodhisattvas’s resolve to “not give up on the sentient beings by not realizing the reality limit” based on great compassion gives rise to the intuitive experience of “dwelling of/in prajñāpāramitā” instead of nirodhasamāpatti. This intuitive experience in the mode of shining light, which can be compared to the experience of the path of vision in mainstream Buddhism, is not the same as the absorption of extinction.
 Through these steps, this paper suggests that in the Daśabhūmikasūtra, the perfection of wisdom presents itself as concentration and that the author(s) or editor(s) of the Sūtra, keeping in mind the altruism of bodhisattvas, have transformed the nirodhasamāpatti into prajñāpāramitāvihāra, expecting the result of ‘postponing final nirvāṇa’ for the sake of all other beings.

Analisis Dampak Krisis Moral pada Siswa Sekolah Dasar Era Revolusi Society 5.0

A crisis is an event that has more negative implications in an organization. The crisis also has much potential for the negative in affecting an organization or a company and in the community. Whereas morals are things that fit with ideas which are commonly accepted by humans, which are good and which are bad. Assessments of morals are measured in local cultures. When such a person does according to the values that are in society it is accepted and the person has good value. So the moral crisis is the negative that can influence a system and aspects of that good life in the home, school, and community environment. The crisis phase is that crisis build up, the second crisis breakout, the third chrinic crisis stage, and the last crisis stage. Furthermore, the revolutionary society 5.0 concept, which will play a major role in transforming data into a new kind of wisdom that ultimately enhances human ability, opens the door to a meaningful life. In the society 5.0 era a great amount of information would accumulate in the virtual world. The impact is that the world is becoming so connected that national boundaries seem to be lost.

Thoughtlessness as an Intellectual Vice in Kierkegaard and Aristotle

I examine the Kierkegaardian intellectual vice of thoughtlessness (Tankeløshed) and its opposite, the Aristotelian intellectual virtue of phronēsis, or practical wisdom. I argue that thoughtlessness is primarily an intellectual problem rather than a moral one. My emphasis on intellectual virtue in Kierkegaard contrasts with more typical characterizations of passion, will, and action as Kierkegaard’s main concerns and reliance on intellect as an obstacle to be overcome. Drawing on Aristotle’s account of phronēsis as the intellectual virtue related to action, I show that Kierkegaard offers a rich account of practical wisdom and a critique of its opposite, thoughtlessness. I conclude that, since there are different kinds of wisdom, Kierkegaard can say that faith is not a form of knowledge in the sense of epistēmē, or scientific knowledge, while preserving a central role for intellect in the task and life of faith.

A 4W Model of Wisdom and Giftedness in Wisdom

ABSTRACT We propose that wisdom should be considered in understanding, identifying, and developing skills of thought translated into action in gifted children and adults. First, we review some of the history of the gifted field and conclude that ideas about understanding, identification, and instruction are largely obsolete and based on assumptions that might have seemed valid in the early 20th century but that now are known not to be. Second, we discuss wisdom—what it is and how it is structured. Third, we discuss different kinds of wisdom and why they matter. We further discuss “4W’s” of wisdom. Fourth, we discuss the role of wisdom in the identification of gifted individuals. Fifth and finally, we conclude that our emphasis in the understanding, identification, and development of gifted individuals needs to be expanded to include wisdom, and certainly not just IQ.

Ecological Virtue: Articulating Tolerance as a Mutual-Respect Between Human Being and Environment

This paper elaborates the meaning of eco-tolerance in the context of ecological community between human and environment. Tolerance is often discussed as theological conception related to the relationship between religion (religious virtue) or socio-political conception related to the relationship between community or identity (political virtue). But how to build a tolerant relationship between human and their environment? What kind of wisdom that we need? I discuss about tolerance as an ecological wisdom or, “ecological virtue”, and a need for human to become a moral subject who has an ecological insight. I will elaborate ethical arguments from the perspective of virtue ethics, one of important disciplines in normative ethics, and environmental ethics, the most important branch in applied ethics, which describe that humans really need to have a mindset of ecocentric oriented, be wise and respectful toward the nature and the environment, build a mutual respect relationship, tolerance is not only a main value in political community, but also a main value in ecological community in a mutual respect ecosystem atmosphere and the existence of mutual recognition between human and nature.

Another look at the identity of the ‘wicked woman’ in 4Q184

In this study, I take another look at the possible identity of the ‘wicked woman’ in 4Q184. Although a number of scholars attempted to identify the ‘wicked woman’, I would like to examine two other possibilities that (as far as I know) have not been discussed yet. The first possibility is that it can be seen as a metaphor for the city Jerusalem. This possibility is inspected by comparing the ‘wicked terminology’ that was used to describe the ‘wicked priest(s)’ in the Habakkuk commentary with the ‘wicked terminology’ that was used in 4Q184, as well as in a study of existing traditions in the Old Testament where Jerusalem was portrayed as a woman or wife. The other option is that the ‘wicked woman’ is a metaphor for foreign wisdom, specifically in the form of Hellenism and Greek philosophy or Hellenistic (non-Israelite) diviners. The fact that 4Q184 refers to ‘teaching’ and warns against her influence (this kind of wisdom), that she can let righteous and upright people (not foolish young people) go astray might be a very strong possibility that the Yaḥad is warned not to get diverted by this ‘upcoming culture’ that seems to be so attractive.

Wisdom of the elderly

In the studies on wisdom of the elderly, there are two kinds of wisdom: pragmatic and transcendent (spiritual), which is a general respond to the world and is associated with the level of personality development. Through its specific context, old age creates conditions for achieving wisdom. The fact whether these opportunities will be used and lead to the development of human personality in old age depends on the individuals.

Other Countries, Other Shores

We love poets for the things their poems lead us to imagine; but equally, we love them for how we imagine their lives to be. Confusing poets' lives with their work is an illusion as old as the tradition of confusing words with objects. But in fact it is for the sake of this illusion that we feel such a strong need for poetry, for novels, for literature. There are some poets whose work we read with their lives in mind, and what we know of those lives ensures that their poetry leaves a more enduring impression. C. P. Cavafy is, for me, just such a poet. Like Edgar Allan Poe, like Franz Kafka, Cavafy makes no explicit reference to himself in his best and most stirring work; and yet, with every poem we read, we cannot help thinking of him. I think of him as an old man wandering the familiar streets of an aging city. I think of him as a lover of books living as a member of a minority within a minority. I think of him as a lonely, provincial man who is fully aware of his provinciality, and who turns that knowledge into a kind of wisdom. Cavafy was born in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1863, to a Greek family of wealthy drapers and cloth merchants. (The word kavaf, now forgotten even by Turks themselves, is Ottoman Turkish for a maker of cheap shoes.) Cavafys were originally from Istanbul's Fener neighborhood, where the city's rich and politically influential Greek families lived. Later, they moved to Samatya, a fishermen's neighborhood, and then immigrated to Alexandria, where they lived as members of the Orthodox Christian minority among the Muslim majority. At first, their business activities in Alexandria proved successful, and they lived in a large mansion staffed with English nannies, cooks and servants. In the 1870s, after the death of Cavafy's father, they moved to England, but then returned to Alexandria following the collapse of the family business. After the Arab nationalist uprisings of 1882, they left Alexandria again, this time for Istanbul, and it was in this city, where he was to spend the next three years, that Cavafy wrote his first significant poems and felt the first stirrings of homoerotic desire. In 1885 the family, now impoverished, returned to Alexandria once more, to the very city he wanted to leave behind. return: It is the saddest part. It is the source of the sorrow that permeates his unforgettable poem The City, which I have read again and again in Turkish and in English translation. There is no other city to go to: city that makes us is the one within us. Reading Cavafy's The City has changed the way I look at my own Istanbul. For those who lead a provincial life, life and happiness are always to be found elsewhere, in another city, in another country. But for us provincials, this other place is perpetually out of reach. Cavafy's wisdom is in the dignity and introspective sensibility with which he approaches this sad truth. And finally, with the same linguistic restraint and philosophical simplicity, he concludes by revealing that we have wasted our lives in that city. We come to realize that we have all been wasting our lives, and that the problem lies not in being provincial, but in the very nature of life itself. Great poets can tell their own stories without once saying I, and in doing so, lend their voice to all of humanity. Kierkegaard once said that the unhappy person lives either in the past or in the future. There are many old men in Cavafy's poems; not trusting in the future is, for him, another kind of wisdom. …

Why do we need practical wisdom? A Chinese lesson in the process of globalisation

The term ‘shijianzhihui’ (实践智慧) is a Chinese translation of the ancient Greek word φρονησις (phronesis). Aristotle first defined it as the philosophical term practical wisdom. It is a kind of wisdom in the field of praxis, which is distinguished from theoretical wisdom (sophia) in the field of theory (theoria) and productive wisdom (techne) in the field of production (poiesis). This article holds that practical wisdom has two basic elements. One is that practice is prior to theory, which means that practical wisdom takes it as the starting point to solve practical problems; it aims at good action through integrating various theories. Moreover, it regards the maximisation of real benefits as evaluation criterion. The other is that all participants in practice should have the right to speak, which means that since all agents have practical wisdom and cooperatively act for a win–win situation, they all should have their voice in the cooperative actions. Only through practical wisdom, rather than theoretical wisdom, can practical problems be solved. In the last two decades, Chinese scholars began to regard the concept of practical wisdom as an important issue. Contemporary China in particular needs practical wisdom. This is because we once made a perfect fetish of the theoretical wisdom of Marxism, which resulted in failure in the nation’s development and the people’s lives; it was a bitter lesson. At the same time, practical wisdom is required at the global level, because the Western hegemonic powers are trying to remodel the whole world in accordance with the theoretical superstition of liberalism, which is now the root cause of much international turmoil. The emphasis on practical wisdom could mean that human practice in the age of globalisation could break away from all sorts of theoretical myths and could direct its energies to the real needs of humanity and their common practical judgement.

Wisdom as an Aim of Higher Education

A central concern of theoretical speculation about education is the kind of epistemic states that education can and should aim to achieve. One such epistemic state, long neglected in both education theory and philosophy, is wisdom. Might wisdom be something that educators should aim for? And might it be something that their students can achieve? My answer will be a qualified yes. One qualification derives from the fact that in the present paper I will only be concerned with the potentiality of wisdom to be an aim of higher education (HE). Because my argument will depend upon some of the particular features of HE, it may not be extendable to primary or secondary education. A second qualification is that I will defend a place for only one kind of wisdom – what I will call epistemic wisdom – as an aim of HE. The limitation to epistemic wisdom, as we will see, derives in large part from the fact that in this paper I am seeking to establish wisdom as an achievable aim of all disciplines in HE. My task is to defend the claim that wisdom can be sought and achieved across all HE settings – natural and social sciences, the arts, and the humanities. In the next section of this paper, I forward, largely without argument, an account of wisdom. In the third section, I will look at some distinguishing features of HE, those that I will argue are responsible for the generation of wisdom. In Section 4, I will defend my own model of how all disciplines of HE can be the source of epistemic wisdom. I conclude my paper with some comments on the different kinds of epistemic wisdom offered by sciences and humanities disciplines.

‘In the manner of Cavafy’: The example of the poet from Alexandria

The Greek poet C.P. Cavafy (1863–1933) is held in high esteem around the world by readers and authors alike. He had influenced not only some of the greatest authors of the twentieth century, but due to the fact that his work lends itself particularly well to translation, he is also a relatively strong presence in literatures other than Greek and English. For many – most notably gay readers, authors and artists – Cavafy holds an exemplary status both in terms of literature and life. W.H. Auden has argued that, what ultimately distinguishes Cavafy, is his tone of voice which reveals a person with a unique perspective on the world. Within the context of a research project on idiolectic author identity, this contribution attempts to review the distinguishing features of Cavafy’s work in terms of both form and content. This is done within the framework of the broad critical discourse on Cavafy, and with reference to some manifestations or examples of a Dutch and Afrikaans critical and creative perspective on his poetry, with the aim to shed specific light on the special kind of wisdom communicated in Cavafy’s work.

“God did play the child”: Robert Southwell’s “Christes childhoode”

WHAT KIND OF WISDOM and knowledge did the Christ Child have? (1) Robert Southwell's poem Christes childhood, from the Maeoniae, offers a carefully constructed reply that provides evidence about Counter-Reformation attitudes toward this ancient question and, more important for our purposes, evidence about Southwell's own understanding of the Christ Child's nature as fully human and fully divine. Pierre Janelle once remarked that the lyric presents the Christ Child as an ideal Jesuit hero--the attitude of the boy Jesus seems to be modeled after the pattern of classical--and Jesuit--moderation (162). This description, while it responds to the poem's careful searching for balance and integration, ignores its argumentative edge. The lyric is celebratory of Jesus's virtues but it is also instructive: in its own subtle way it takes a stand against very common folkloric depictions of the Christ Child as wonder working and even disruptive to reintroduce the simplicity and mystery of the Gospels' depiction of Jesus the boy and reaffirm his divine knowledge and power, while retaining one aspect of extrabiblical depictions that Southwell, unexpectedly, seems to consider important: the Christ Child at play. This poem differs from his other more famous poems on the Christ Child in that it presents the Child in a hieratic stance, an image of power and judgment rather than that of an active lover, eager sacrifice, or Warrior Babe. On the other hand, true to Southwell's love of paradox, while the poem presents us with a Child who is Judge of the World, it also represents him as a God who plays and perhaps experiences mirth. Though Southwell verges on declaring the humanity of Christ an act performed by a divinity, he achieves a balance that demonstrates that he also wishes to affirm the humanity of Christ. Southwell does not explicitly deny the folk tradition of a wonder-working Christ Child any more than he denies that the Christ Child grew and learned: he merely asserts that even the Gospel writers are unworthy to write of the miraculous acts springing from his divinity and humanity in this period of Christ's life. The claim is surprising in the end, for it implies that the wonders, teaching, and redeeming acts of Jesus depicted in the Gospels can be written of by men, but the wonder of his childhood is too great for human pens. The Counter-Reformation, like the Reformation itself, was concerned to remove extraneous pious legend from the truth of the Gospel, and in particular to safeguard the honor of Christ and his saints from a folk imagination that mythologized and embroidered with a very strong basis in the generally accepted apocryphal stories that had been handed down from very early centuries of the Church, some so old that they were known to Mohammed and included in the Koran, such as the tale of the boy Jesus breathing life into clay birds. The Catholic thinker Molanus, or Jan van der Meulen, even had called The Golden Legend the Legend of Lead because it was so filled with lies (De Picturis et Imaginibus Sacris, pro vero earum usu contra abusus [Treatise on Sacred Images] of 1570). Even before the decree of the Council, tales about the boy Jesus had been omitted from some versions of the collection, a sign of sensitivity about their inappropriateness or even their potential to subvert orthodox doctrine about Christ. (2) Southwell's assertion that only angels might write of what Christ did during those childhood years seems to have no other reason for being in the poem other than to imply that what the legends passed on in popular religious culture was untrue. This odd caveat aligns itself with the decrees of the Council of Trent on sacred art, which made it clear that extrabiblical fables about the life of Christ were not to be represented: And if any abuses have crept in amongst these holy and salutary observances, the holy Synod ardently desires that they be utterly abolished; in such wise that no images, (suggestive) of false doctrine, and furnishing occasion of dangerous error to the uneducated, be set up. …

VALUE DEVELOPMENT IN HISTORY LEARNING THROUGH PARIBASA AND BABASAN

This research derived from an anxiety that looked history learning as a subject that was very close with intellectual competences development. In fact, history itself ilustrated value experience which could give such a kind of wisdom, and more over the history also had a big value in it. So, it was thought that there was a need to have a right strategy to understand the value of history. One kind of value that could be internalized to students in history learning was Sundane local wisdom. Sundanese culture had various inheritances, for example was like oral literature (folklore) in paribasa and babasan. The problems in this research were how to identify the values of Sundanese culture in paribasa and babasan, and how the people could use paribasa and babasan in a process of value socialization and internalization, how those values could be applied in history learning. This research used a qualitative approach. It was divided in two phases, the first one was about folklore, and the second one was about naturalistic study on history learning process in the class. The result of this research was also divided in two parts. The first part was related to social values identification that could be extracted on Cireundeu Cultural Village pass through paribasa and babasan. Based on the result of the observation and interview with the villagers, they used paribasa and babasan which generally got the same point with the others Sundanese societies, so there was no specialty in Cireundeu. The main point was they still used paribasa and babasan in their daily life, especially when they counseled their children, interacted to each other, said euphemism critic, and taught Sundanese values to the young generations. Second, this part was related to paribasa and babasan’s value implementation in history learning on SMA Pasundan 1 Bandung. There were two approaches in this implementation, value inculcation approach and value clarification approach. This kind of history learning that put paribasa and babasan as a media of value inculcation passed through appreciation, self-identification, behavior implementation, and habit forming

Fusion of Horizons: A New Perspective on Intellectual Property Rights

The mission of legal philosophy and philosophical hermeneutics has always been to comprehend the nature of intellectual property rights and the intellectual property rights system for the purpose of improving them. The difficulty of this task lies in the limitations in legal thinking resulting from the division of labor in the legal profession. A clear perception of the nature of intellectual property rights and the intellectual property rights system can only be obtained when we transcend intellectual property rights law. If we adopt the thinking of legal philosophy and the logic of dialectics to analyze the intellectual property rights system and explore the differing nature of institutional structures and their interrelationships, we can show that the intellectual property rights system is essentially an institutional arrangement involving balancing different considerations and implying a high level of political intellect. Only when intellectual property rights legislation possesses this kind of wisdom will people voluntarily abide by its rules in their life and work.

An Underestimated Aspect of Enki/Ea

Abstract The god Enki (Sumerian)/Ea (Akkadian) is central to Mesopotamian myth, ritual and scholarship but there is still disagreement as to precisely what he is the god of. He governs subterranean water, magic, and ‘wisdom’—but what kind of wisdom was it? A traditional argument in Assyriology claims that Enki is more trickster than sage; his knowledge has to do with craft and cunning, not ethics or rectitude. This essay analyzes important neglected associations of Enki with Mesopotamian wisdom literature, demonstrating parallels with ideals found in the biblical book of Proverbs. In these texts Enki is associated with the proper conduct of human life, making him not just crafty and cunning but wise.

Wisdom's Root Revealed: Ben Sira and the Election of Israel (review)

Reviewed by: Wisdom's Root Revealed: Ben Sira and the Election of Israel Alexander A. Di Lella Wisdom's Root Revealed: Ben Sira and the Election of Israel. By Greg Schmidt Goering. JSJSup 139. Leiden: Brill, 2009. Cloth. $159.00. Goering, assistant professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia, became acquainted with the question: "Who is a Jew?" That led him to consider the relationship of Wisdom and Torah, about which scholars have written extensively. He states that his purpose is "to show that the concept of election enables a profitable discussion of the relation of Wisdom and Torah in the book of Sirach" (p. xi). This book is a revised and expanded version of his doctoral dissertation at Harvard Divinity School (Jon D. Levenson director). Chapter 4 is the most extensive expansion. The book has seven chapters, the titles of which provide a good idea of the contents: 1. "Wisdom, Torah, and Election; An Introduction to the Study"; 2. "Election and Creation: The Sun, the Moon, and Israel's Chosenness"; 3. "Election and Revelation: General and Special Wisdom"; 4. "Election and Tradition: The Preservation and Transmission of Wisdom"; 5. "Election and Piety: The 'Fear of YHWH'"; 6. "Election and Eschatology: Israel among the Nations"; 7. "Conclusion: Ben Sira and the Election of Israel." Goering arranged the chapters with a certain symmetry: chapter 1, which establishes the initial problem, corresponds with chapter 7, which synthesizes his findings; chapter 2, which speaks of Ben Sira's creation theology, with chapter 6, which explains Ben Sira's eschatology; chapter 3, which deals with general and special wisdom, with chapter 5, which speaks of non-Jewish and Jewish piety. Chapter 4 stands in the center where [End Page 399] Goering analyzes the tradition of transmitting wisdom from one generation to another (p. 17). In chapter 1, Georing suggests that Ben Sira speaks of two kinds of wisdom, each of which originates in YHWH. YHWH gives to all persons general wisdom available through creation; but to Israel, His chosen people, he gives a special wisdom available through YHWH's commandments. In chapter 2, Georing shows how Ben Sira distinguishes one person from another on the basis of two unequal apportionments of divine wisdom. The first apportionment endows wisdom on all creation, including all humanity; the second gives an extra measure of wisdom to a select group, namely, Israel. These apportionments are forms of divine revelation. In chapter 3, the special wisdom granted to Israel is a special inheritance preserved and passed on from generation to generation. Chapter 4 identifies the mechanisms Ben Sira viewed as the means of safeguarding special wisdom for each Israelite generation. While marginalizing the role of the king, he stresses the role of the scribe as well as the role of the priests who preserve and transmit wisdom. These sociological realities reflect the new political configuration of Jerusalem in Ben Sira's day. Chapter 5 examines the content and purposes of the special wisdom Israel's elect are heir to and pass on to their children. The Jewish "fear of YHWH," implies loyalty to the stipulations of the covenant, which for Ben Sira are the Pentateuchal ethical and cultic commandments that enable the elect to conform their lives to the primeval order on which the world is built. This order connotes a piety that applies to non-Jews as well. In chapter 6, Goering explores Ben Sira's understanding of election for his eschatology. In Ben Sira's theology, non-Jews can experience fear of YHWH by recognizing God as Creator. Thus, the elect exercise a passive role in effecting the eschatological reality wherein all nations come to recognize YHWH as God alone. In chapter 7, Goering synthesizes the results of his study; he compares Ben Sira's theology of election with that of the Book of Jubilees as well as that of Philo. Jubilees, like Ben Sira, embraces a particularistic understanding of election originating in God's primordial decision to charge one people to practice a special piety. But Philo tended toward the universal view that any person could have an intimate relationship with the Lord by the philosophical quest of seeing God. From this comparison, it...

The Varieties of Wisdom: Contemplative, Cross-Cultural, and Integral Contributions

Contemporary research on wisdom consists of several approaches, inherited from diverse philosophical, religious, and contemplative contributions. This article therefore introduces integral theory to provide an encompassing conceptual framework that can compare approaches and integrate them into a larger picture. Among other things, this facilitates the overdue integration into wisdom research of cross-cultural and contemplative perspectives that offer rich reservoirs of information about wisdom as well as disciplines to cultivate it. Contemplative traditions also point to a further kind of wisdom—a transconceptual seeing into the nature of self and reality—that needs to be included in an expanded category system of the varieties of wisdom.

Two Concepts of Meditation and Three Kinds of Wisdom in Kamalasila’s Bhavanakramas

A close reading of the three Bhavanakramah texts, written by Kamalasila (740–795 CE), reveals that their author was aware of two competing concepts of meditation prevalent in Tibet at the time of their composition. The two concepts of meditation,associated with the Sanskrit words bhavana and dhyana, can be related respectively to the Indian and Chinese sides of the well-known debates at bSam yas. The account of the Mahayana path outlined in these texts implies an acceptance of the precedence of bhavana over dhyana. In this paper I argue that Kamalasila advocated bhavana – a conception of meditation which encompasses non-conceptual dhyana, but which also includes a discernment of reality (bhuta-pratyaveksa) that is conceptual in nature. Such conceptual discernment should not be understood simply as a process of ordinary rational understanding (cintamayi prajña) but rather as constituting a special kind of meditative wisdom (bhavanamayi prajña). A failure to recognize the subtle differences between Kamalasila’s employment of the terms dhyana and bhavana, along with his advocacy of the latter, could easily lead to mistranslation and, with this, a basic misunderstanding of his position. In particular, it could lead to a conception of insight (vipasyana) that is overly intellectual in nature. Given the historically important role that these texts played in the formation of Tibetan Buddhism, the implications of such a misconception could be far-reaching. This paper attempts to clarify the key meditation terminology found in the Bhavanakramas as well as demonstrate the rationale for using ‘meditation’ as the default translation for bhavana.