mindfulness

The Three Doors to Wisdom: Silence, Humility and Suffering

/ onetusk / 1 Comment
Lantern beside a mossy stone path through an autumn forest pond

The path to wisdom, I have found, asks three things of us: silence, humility and suffering. Deepak Chopra arrives at the same three in his new book, Awakening in the Final Chapter, where wisdom is one of six qualities he sees deepening in life’s later years. Silence makes room to listen, humility reminds us there is always more to understand, and suffering, if we let it teach us, shows us something of ourselves (Chopra, 2026).

1. Silence

Not the absence of sound, but the willingness to stop the inner commentary of opinions, judgments and plans. Meditation trains exactly this: returning, again and again, to the still point beneath the chatter (Kabat-Zinn, 1994). In that stillness a luminous receptivity opens, and we begin to hear what the busy mind would miss.

2. Humility

Not performed modesty, but the honest recognition that the unknown vastly exceeds the known and every perspective is partial. The Vedantic neti, neti (“not this, not this”) warns us never to mistake a concept for the reality it points to (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 2.3.6). The map is not the territory (Korzybski, 1933); the finger pointing at the moon is not the moon.

The Tamil poet Avvaiyar put it more simply still:

கற்றது கைம்மண் அளவு, கல்லாதது உலகளவு

Kattrathu kaimman alavu, kallathathu ulagalavu

What we have learned is a handful of sand; what we have yet to learn is the size of the world.

3. Suffering

Not because pain is noble in itself; it is not. But loss, failure, illness and betrayal, if we don’t harden against them, can crack the persona and show us what is real.

Viktor Frankl, writing after the concentration camps, observed that when we can no longer change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves (Frankl, 1946). Modern psychology has given this a name: post-traumatic growth, the positive change many people report after profound struggle (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 2004).

Suffering teaches us, at a level deeper than the intellect, that we are more than our circumstances, and more than our stories about our circumstances.

Three doors, one house

Silence lets us hear, humility lets us admit we have not yet understood, and suffering, met with an open heart, breaks the shell that keeps both out. Wisdom is less something we acquire than something we make room for.

References

  • Chopra, D. (2026). Awakening in the Final Chapter: Aging with Grace, Love, and Freedom. Deepak Chopra LLC.
  • Kabat-Zinn, J. (1994). Wherever You Go, There You Are. Hyperion.
  • Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, trans. P. Olivelle (1996). Upaniṣads. Oxford World’s Classics.
  • Korzybski, A. (1933). Science and Sanity. Institute of General Semantics.
  • Frankl, V. E. (1946/2006). Man’s Search for Meaning. Beacon Press.
  • Tedeschi, R. G., & Calhoun, L. G. (2004). Posttraumatic growth: Conceptual foundations and empirical evidence. Psychological Inquiry, 15(1), 1–18.
  • Avvaiyar. Kattrathu kaimman alavu, kallathathu ulagalavu. Traditional Tamil verse attributed to the poet Avvaiyar; English translation by the author.

–One Tusk supported by Claude

Pure Undisciplined Spontaneity is what meditation is….

/ onetusk / Leave a comment

In meditation there is no conclusion behind it. You are not doing anything in particular, you are simply being. It has no past to it, it is uncontaminated by the past. It has no future to it, it is pure of all future. It is what Lao Tzu has called wei-wu-wei, action through inaction. This is what Zen masters have been saying: “Sitting silently doing nothing, the spring comes and the grass grows by itself.” Remember, “by itself” – nothing is being done. You are not pulling the grass upward; the spring comes and the grass grows by itself. That state – when you allow life to go on its own way, when you don’t want to direct it, when you don’t want to give any control to it, when you are not manipulating, when you are not enforcing any discipline on it – that state of pure undisciplined spontaneity is what meditation is.

–Osho from The Heart Sutra: Becoming a Buddha through Meditation

Why is Journaling Impactful?

/ onetusk / Leave a comment

Journaling is impactful because it creates a unique space where multiple powerful psychological processes converge:

It externalises internal chaos. The simple act of moving thoughts from your mind to paper transforms abstract worries into manageable, concrete problems. This shift from internal rumination to external observation gives you psychological distance and clarity you can’t achieve through thinking alone.

It activates neuroplasticity (brain’s ability to change and adapt due to experience). Writing engages both analytical and creative brain regions simultaneously, literally rewiring neural pathways. The physical act of writing (especially by hand) strengthens memory formation and emotional processing in ways that typing or just thinking cannot match.

It breaks the illusion of permanence. When you write down fears, anger, or confusion, you often discover they’re more temporary and changeable than they felt in your head. Seeing “I’m terrible at everything” on paper reveals its absurdity in a way that thinking it doesn’t.

It creates a witness to your life. Journaling makes you both the observer and the observed, developing a kind of compassionate self-awareness. You begin treating yourself with the same curiosity and kindness you’d show a friend telling you their story.

It builds emotional resilience. Regular journaling literally practices the skill of processing difficult emotions. Each time you write through pain, confusion, or challenge, you strengthen your capacity to handle future difficulties.

It reveals your authentic voice. Without audience or judgment, your true thoughts, values, and desires emerge. Many people discover who they really are through journaling, separate from who they think they should be.

It creates forward momentum. Writing clarifies not just what is, but what could be, naturally leading to insights about next steps and positive change.

“The most important thing you learn from writing is about yourself.” — Ray Bradbury

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Continue reading →

What makes a person resilient to Alzheimer’s?

/ onetusk / Leave a comment

So, returning to a critical question, what makes a person resilient to Alzheimer’s? One factor is referred to as “cognitive reserve,” … The greater the amount of knowledge one has amassed and learned, for example through higher education, the greater the number of synapses in one’s brain. Since the degree of dementia in Alzheimer’s patients correlates most closely with loss of synapses, the more synapses you have, the more you can lose before problems set in. Thus, continuing to learn new things is very important as we age. When planning for your retirement, think just as much about your cognitive reserve as about your financial reserve.

The following recommendations have been shown to have the most useful effects on risk reduction—you’ll recognize them from our general advice for a healing lifestyle, although they are more specific here: 

Continue reading →