知識和智慧在人生中同樣重要。
無知 ignorance 和 低思考能力 low thinking ability，
可以產生迷信 superstition，偏見 prejudice，愚昧 folly，
謬見 delusion ……。
無知和低思考能力，更加是謠言的溫床！
Philosophy is a necessary activity because we, all of us,
take a great number of things for granted, and many
of these assumptions are of a philosophical character;
we act on them in private life, in politics, in our work,
and in every other sphere of our lives──but while some
of these assumptions are no doubt true, it is likely
that more are false and some are harmful. So the
critical examination of our presuppositions──which
is a philosophical activity──is morally as well as
intellectually important.
( Karl Popper )
雖然知識和智慧在人生中同樣重要，
但如果真的要比較知識和智慧的話，
始終是深思熟慮、鍥而不捨的智慧勝出：
Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth
──more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is
subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible,
thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions,
and comfortable habits; thought is anarchic and lawless,
indifferent to authority, careless of the well-tried
wisdom of the ages. Thought looks into the pit of hell
and is not afraid…Thought is great and swift and free,
the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.
( Bertrand Russell, Why Men Fight )
從修行的角度來看，知識只能夠令人聰明，
但部份聰明人十分狡詐，追逐名、利、權，
度橋在灰色地帶行騙，討厭保守他們的「心」！
只有追求智慧的人才會懂得對「道/真理/智慧」謙卑，
謹慎自己的行為和思想，並且每日修行，晝夜思想，
企圖迫近「道/真理/智慧」，
不但竭力保守他們的「心」，堅持他們的人格，
這就是為何所有正確的宗教都鼓勵修行者追求智慧。
由於追求智慧是修行者畢生的事業，
所以重視智慧的宗教都鼓勵修行者和智慧的人同行，
站在長輩及巨人的肩膀上，佔他們的便宜，
借助他們的智慧，並且尋找同道中人互相砥礪。
至於有福氣的愚蠢人，
由於他們沒有能力在複雜的社會中保守他們的「心」，
所以就只能夠遵循戒律，讓愚蠢人互相監視，
避免受邪魔外道誘惑而墮落，甚至為虎作倀。
Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.
( Jalaluddin Mevlana Rumi )
追求智慧是人生中最重要的事情，
因為在追求智慧的過程中，我們懂得了
1. 對真理「謙卑」Humility。
2. 對生命及經歷「感恩」Gratitude。
3. 堅持「人格」Integrity 的重要。
4. 必須「終身學習」Lifelong Learning。
5. 人生苦短，勤奮和毅力必須用在刀鋒之上。
6. 智慧必須分享，期望智者的批判顯示其中缺失。
7. 「享受生命」的定義和方法。
可惜追求智慧從來都不是一件愉快的事！
因為追求智慧首先是一個去蕪存菁的破壞和重建過程，
除了要判斷知識的真偽，
除了要批判所有自己未曾深刻思考就接受了的「信念」之外，
還需要「自我批判」，打倒自己的虛偽。
Every human being has to fight for his sanity.
( Jason Ling )
常見的現象是，
一般人求神拜佛都是祈求非常具體的利益，
所以我們有「觀音借庫」這種民間習俗。
而「執輸行頭慘過敗家」的普港價值，絕對不包括追求智慧，
所以一般人向靈界祈求的，
絕對不會是「愛、智慧、真和誠」這些屬於精神領域的東西。
是否當人生走到絕路的時候，
一般人才需要醍醐灌頂或者當頭棒喝？
可是臨急抱佛腳，來得及嗎？成功的百分率和年齡有關嗎？
Diana Ross
Do you know where you’re going to？
沒有哲學方面的訓練，如何能夠培養正確的思考？
沒有正確的思考，如何產生真的「正能量」？
沒有哲學方面的訓練，如何能夠培養求真的精神？
如何懂得怎樣去尋找真理？
If devotion to truth is the hallmark of morality,
then there is no greater, nobler, more heroic
form of devotion than the act of a man
who assumes the responsibility of thinking.
( Ayn Rand )
哲學思考和個人道德及社會道德有不可分割的關係，
所以任何人的思考一旦牽涉到私人或者團體的利益，
包括看來最微不足道的面子和輩份，就必然會擁抱「虛偽」。
擁抱「虛偽」的人思考能力就會垂直下降，
出現語焉不詳，迴避吞吐，甚至語無倫次、互相矛盾的說法，
出現「支吾其詞」prevarication 的現象。
Any clever person in an awkward situation
has a tendency to prevaricate.
二千年前羅馬哲學家 Seneca 賣花讚花香，
認為哲學家示範了永恆的價值：
For they not only keep a good watch over their
own lifetimes, but they annex every age to theirs.
All the years that have passed before them are
added to their own. Unless we are very ungrateful,
all those distinguished founders of holy creeds
were born for us and prepared for us a way
of life. By the toil of others we are led into
the presence of things which have been brought
from darkness into light.
( Seneca, On the Shortness of Life, 4 BC–AD 65 )
From them you can take whatever you wish:
it will not be their fault if you do not take your
fill from them. What happiness, what a fine old
age awaits the man who has made himself a client
of these！ He will have friends whose advice he
can ask on the most important or the most trivial
matters, whom he can consult daily about himself,
who will tell him the truth without insulting him
and praise him without flattery, who will offer
him a pattern on which to model himself.
( Seneca, On the Shortness of Life, 4 BC–AD 65 )
We are in the habit of saying that it was not in
our power to choose the parents who were allotted
to us, that they were given to us by chance. But
we can choose whose children we would like to be.
There are households of the noblest intellects:
choose the one into which you wish to be adopted,
and you will inherit not only their name but
their property too. Nor will this property need
to be guarded meanly or grudgingly: the more
it is shared out, the greater it will become. These
will offer you a path to immortality and raise you
to a point from which no one is cast down.
This is the only way to prolong mortality──
even to convert it to immortality.
( Seneca, On the Shortness of Life, 4 BC–AD 65 )
一旦選擇了巨人的作品，或者遇上了優秀的老師，
再經歷過多年嚴謹的批判思維訓練和實踐的洗禮，
始終會有一天豁然開朗，融會貫通，成就了自己！
可以這樣說：一個人智慧有多高，心就有多寬；
而心有多寬，他的成就也就有多大。
You don’t have to be an antique
to appreciate philosophy and wisdom.
( Jason Ling )
Set your life on fire.
Seek those who fan your flames.
( Jalaluddin Mevlana Rumi )
If I have seen farther
it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.
( Bernard of Chartres )
These words dropped into my childish mind as if
you should accidentally drop a ring into a deep
well. I did not think of them much at the time,
but there came a day in my life when the ring
was fished up out of the well, good as new.
( John Steinbeck )
Jordan Peterson on The Necessity of Virtue
2010-10-13 Hancock Lecture
一般而言，在大事之上，預防勝於事後的治療，
因為在大事上一旦失足成為千古恨，旁人無力挽救。
聖嚴法師說「智慧不起煩惱」，
講究實際的人，當然應該列出智慧的實用價值，
證明具備智慧，就不再起煩惱：
☆ 畢生追求智慧的人妥善解決了「愛別離」之苦，
因為他們明白
1. 緣起緣滅，緣聚緣散。
2. 禍福相倚伏，快樂和痛苦必然相伴而來。
3. 父母夫妻子女摯友的關係，除了互相學習之外，
往往不是來還債，就是來討債。
4. 有生必有死，天下無不散之筵席。
☆ 畢生追求智慧的人妥善解決了「怨憎會」之苦，
因為他們明白
1. 「三人行，必有我師焉。
擇其善者而從之，其不善者而改之。」
2. 智慧讓他們有能力將絆腳石變成踏腳石。
3. 不以人廢言，亦不以言廢人。
必然將一個人的言論、思想和他的人格分開來判斷。
☆ 畢生追求智慧的人妥善解決了「求不得」之苦，
因為他們明白
1. 智慧讓他們認識自己，有自知之明及懂得「對真理謙卑」。
2. 成功是因緣際會，往往包括了很多條件，
例如智慧、天時、地利、人和、運氣、業力、努力、意志。
3. 塞翁得馬，焉知非禍？塞翁失馬，焉知非福？蓋禍福相倚伏也！
4. 人無千日好，花無百日紅。
我們只能夠做到「未雨綢繆，盡人事，聽天命」，
而在這個情況之下，忍耐才會顯示出它的價值！
迫近真理的智慧，
不但能夠令智者「苟日新、日日新、又日新」，
不但能夠令智者將人生中的絆腳石變成踏腳石，
不但能夠令智者運籌帷幄，決勝於千里之外，
更加能夠令智者憑藉文字的工具，薪火相傳，
延續於千年之後，福蔭後世。