Imparting Truth and Wisdom
From a talk held on 26 October 1981 at Trinity College Oxford, advertised as 'Wisdom and Where to Find It’.
What is the difference between truth and wisdom? Wisdom comes from the realisation of the truth that every man and woman has within them. Wisdom is the imparting of that truth. And what is that truth? It is nothing...
If you are going to be the truth, you have to be that nothing. If I were to have an opinion I would be something. If I had to quote someone else, I would be that person in the form of that quotation and I would be something. I cannot be wise while I have to quote another. I can inform you and I can be wonderfully helpful but I cannot be wise, because wisdom is to impart the truth, which is nothing.
And how do I impart the truth? I take your memory from you. I take your opinions from you. I take what you are thinking from you. I take your reservations. I say: Get your reservations out. If you can get what you have inside you out, if you can get rid of your doubts and your judgments of me, then the true you, the real individual, the living immortal person will be there. It is a remarkable thing, is it not, to have someone stand in front of you, saying that it is your reservation - the thing you are sitting on now, that very reservation - that is holding you back, that is between you and your self.
Talking of Truth