Beware of unearned wisdom?

[Bazooka Jesus]

Hey guys, I am sure that many - if not most - folks on this forum have heard someone ejaculate this portentous CG Jung dictum at some point during their spiritual (online) treasure hunt. So my question to you is:

What do you personally make of this quote? Is there such a thing as earned / unearned wisdom in your view? And if so, then what exactly constitutes wisdom that is unearned vs wisdom that is earned?

Edited July 13, 2020 by Bazooka Jesus

[SamueLSD]

Earned vs unearned  =  knowing vs believing? 

[JosephKnecht]

3 hours ago, Bazooka Jesus said:

And if so, then what exactly constitutes wisdom that is unearned vs wisdom that is earned?

Earned is cherished more than the unearned. 

Earned wisdom is embodied, unearned is not embodied. 

[PenguinPablo]

there is no such thing as unearned wisdom. rather, the phrase points to those who believe they have gotten somewhere they haven't 

Edited July 13, 2020 by PenguinPablo

[ivankiss]

I suppose one can easily access information these days that they're not quite ready and mature for.

But that's not wisdom, really. Just information. True wisdom is always backed up with direct experience - I'd say.

[wavydude]

Basically belief vs direct experience

[cetus]

It's not so much about how wisdom is earned as how it is spent.

[GabeN]

Say you took a psychedelic and had an insight that every person you ever knew doesn't actually exist, if you are not ready mentally to realize and accept this idea, them you might get really confused and disturbed sometimes.

[The Lucid Dreamer]

It is possible for one to attain certain insights into the nature of reality before they are developed enough to handle it.  There are plenty of examples of this on this very forum where you see people creating posts about how they found out that they don’t exist and now they’re in emotional turmoil and on the brink of committing suicide.  They are still too emotionally attached to their conceptual identity and therefore will lash out when they find out it was all a sham. 

This usually happens after some kind of radical change in consciousness like taking a psychedelic perhaps mixed with some kind of external influence like a spiritual teacher talking about the truth of no-self. 

[VeganAwake]

oh no is the knowledge fairy going to slap me & take away my birthday.

No stop please ... someone help there's a knowledge fairy here trying to take away my birthday ?

 

 

[VeganAwake]

Everything is unconditional freedom whether it's recognized or not.

Identification with habitual thinking patterns and triggered emotions creates an illusory identity(the ME) which ultimately leads to suffering.

The sufferer isn't real ❤

 

[Nak Khid]

On 7/13/2020 at 7:52 AM, Bazooka Jesus said:

Hey guys, I am sure that many - if not most - folks on this forum have heard someone ejaculate this portentous CG Jung dictum at some point during their spiritual (online) treasure hunt. So my question to you is:

What do you personally make of this quote? Is there such a thing as earned / unearned wisdom in your view? And if so, then what exactly constitutes wisdom that is unearned vs wisdom that is earned?

I don't think "Beware of unearned wisdom" is Jung.  I am going to say it's miss-attributed until I see a reference to a verifiable Jung sources

________________________________________________________________
However it is sometimes associated with the letter below, pertaining to psychedelics 

 

p 80 Jung on Evil (compilation various sources, not his book title )

Two letters to Father Victor White in 1954,

Is the LSD drug mescalin?  It has indeed very curious effects— of which I know far too little. I don’t know either what its psychotherapeutic value with neurotic or psychotic patients is. I only know there is no point in wishing to know more of the collective unconscious than one gets through dreams and intuition.

The more you know of it, the greater and heavier becomes our moral burden, because the unconscious contents transform themselves into your individual tasks and duties as soon as they begin to become conscious.

Do you want to increase loneliness and misunderstanding? Do you want to find more and more complications and increasing re­sponsibilities? You get enough of it.

If I once could say that I had done everything I know I had to do, then perhaps I should realize a legitimate need to take mescalin.

But if I should take it now, I would not be sure at all that I had not taken it out of idle curiosity.

I should hate the thought that I had touched on the sphere where the paint is made that colours the world, where the light is created that makes shine the splendour of the dawn, the lines and shapes of all form, the sound that fills the orbit, the thought that illuminates the darkness of the void.

There are some poor impoverished creatures, perhaps, for whom mescalin would be a heaven-sent gift without a counterpoison, but I am profoundly mistrustful of the “pure gifts of the Gods.” You pay very dearly for them.

This is not the point at all, to know of or about the unconscious, nor does the story end here; on the contrary it is how and where you begin the real quest.

If you are too unconscious it is a great relief to know a bit of the collective unconscious. But it soon becomes dangerous to know more, because one does not learn at the same time how to balance it through a conscious equivalent.

That is the mistake Aldous Huxley makes: he does not know that he is in the role of the “Zauberlehrling,” who learned from his master how to call the ghosts but did not know how to get rid of them again:

It is really the mistake of our age: We think it is enough to discover new things, but we don’t realize that knowing more demands a cor­responding development of morality. Radioactive clouds over Japan, Calcutta, and Saskatchewan point to progressive poisoning of the uni­versal atmosphere.

I should indeed be obliged to you if you could let me see the ma­terial they get with LSD. It is quite awful that the alienists have caught hold of a new poison to play with, without the faintest knowl­edge or feeling of responsibility. It is just as if a surgeon had never leaned further than to cut open his patient’s belly and to leave things there.

When one gets to know unconscious contents one should know how to deal with them. I can only hope that the doctors will feed themselves thoroughly with mescalin, the alkaloid of divine grace, so that they learn for themselves its marvellous effect.

You have not finished with the conscious side yet. Why should you expect more from the unconscious?

For 35 years I have known enough of the col­lective unconscious and my whole effort is concentrated upon prepar­ing the ways and means to deal with it.”

 

 

 

Edited July 14, 2020 by Nak Khid

[DreamScape]

The illusory nature of the duality between good vs bad will be used differently between someone who is on a spiritual path and a criminal.

Edited July 14, 2020 by DreamScape

[VeganAwake]

16 minutes ago, DreamScape said:

The illusory nature of the duality between good vs bad will be used differently between someone who is on a spiritual path and a criminal.

If the difference between good and bad is an illusion how could it be used differently?

[Aaron p]

What is wisdom

[Nak Khid]

Just now, Aaron p said:

What is wisdom

nothing 

[mandyjw]

At best people give advice based on what worked for them, at other times they just repeat beliefs they have been told by others. Cause and effect isn't a real thing, it's very shortsighted. It's great to listen to advice about what seemed to work or not work (or be true or false) for other people but by being wary of it you can remain open to all other possibilities. 

[WelcometoReality]

22 hours ago, Bazooka Jesus said:

then what exactly constitutes wisdom that is unearned vs wisdom that is earned?

It takes a judgment to decide whether someone has earned or not earned the wisdom.

[Aaron p]

12 hours ago, Nak Khid said:

nothing 

Nah man that's a BS response 

[Nak Khid]

34 minutes ago, Aaron p said:

Nah man that's a BS response 

yes but look at the question