The teachings of wisdom presented in this Scroll of Wisdom are inspired by the psychological teachings traditionally attributed to the Buddha and by the broader tradition of Eastern psychology. I have practiced Buddhist teachings since I was seventeen years old, and through years of practice, many of these principles have become second nature to me and an integral part of who I am.
The purpose of this Scroll of Wisdom is not simply
to provide ideas to read and remember. Wisdom becomes meaningful when
knowledge is understood, practiced, and incorporated into our way of
living. I therefore encourage you to put these teachings into practice
and observe for yourself whether they bring greater clarity,
understanding, and well-being to your life.
Wisdom (noun): the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment; the quality of being wise.
Knowledge provides us with an understanding of information and facts. Wisdom goes beyond merely possessing knowledge. It involves understanding what we have learned through experience, applying it appropriately, and developing the judgment to know how and when that knowledge should be used.
In this sense:
Knowledge is what we understand. Wisdom is what we learn from understanding and experience, and how we apply it to our lives.
Therefore, if we wish to develop wisdom, we should not merely study ideas. We should put them into practice, observe their effects, learn from our experiences, and continually refine our understanding.
Before beginning these teachings, I encourage you to consider the following quote from the Buddha: "Do not listen to what anybody says, including me, if it doesn’t agree with your own common sense."
As you study the teachings, keep this knowledge in mind.
1. The Boundary of Knowledge
“We know what the evidence allows us to establish. We do not know what the evidence does not establish. The ability to distinguish between the two defines clarity.”
It is better to recognize that we do not know something than to believe that we know it without sufficient evidence. When the available evidence does not determine an answer, intellectual honesty requires us to acknowledge the uncertainty rather than choose an answer simply because we prefer one.
For example, when a question has multiple possible answers and the available evidence does not establish which answer is correct, we should not mistake one possibility for knowledge. We should instead recognize that the answer remains unknown.
The ability to distinguish between what we know, what we believe, and what we do not know allows us to think more clearly and logically about the world. Clarity is not merely having answers; it is knowing which answers are supported by evidence and recognizing when an answer has not yet been established.
For example, when a question has multiple possible answers and the available evidence does not establish which answer is correct, we should not mistake one possibility for knowledge. We should instead recognize that the answer remains unknown.
The ability to distinguish between what we know, what we believe, and what we do not know allows us to think more clearly and logically about the world. Clarity is not merely having answers; it is knowing which answers are supported by evidence and recognizing when an answer has not yet been established.
2. The Ability to Change Our Habits
"We are capable of changing our habits of thought and behavior. By becoming aware of our patterns and consciously practicing new responses, we can gradually form better habits."
Our habits are not necessarily permanent. We can change habits of thought, speech, and behavior by first becoming aware of the patterns we have developed. When we observe ourselves carefully, we can recognize what triggers a particular habit and notice when we are beginning to repeat it.
Once we recognize a habit that we wish to change, we can consciously interrupt the familiar response and choose a different one. By repeatedly practicing the new response, we can gradually make it more natural and habitual.
The ability to observe ourselves gives us an opportunity to change what we otherwise might repeat automatically. Awareness gives us the opportunity to choose; conscious choice gives us the opportunity to practice; and repeated practice can create a new habit.
3. The Influence of Belief on the Self
"What we believe about ourselves can influence who we become. If we want to improve ourselves, we can cultivate beliefs that are both realistic and constructive."
The beliefs we hold about ourselves can influence the way we think, behave, and respond to challenges. For example, persistent self-doubt can cause us to avoid challenges, give up more easily, or interpret difficulties as evidence that we are incapable. In this way, a negative belief about ourselves can contribute to the very outcome that we fear.
Conversely, believing that we are capable of learning, improving, and overcoming difficulties can encourage us to take action, persist when we encounter obstacles, and learn from our mistakes. These behaviors can increase the likelihood of achieving our goals.
We should therefore examine the beliefs we hold about ourselves and ask whether they are both true and helpful. We should not replace an inaccurate negative belief with an equally inaccurate positive one. Instead, we can develop realistic beliefs that recognize our present limitations while also recognizing our capacity to learn and change.
Our beliefs do not determine who we become, but they can influence the choices and behaviors through which we become who we are.
4. Freedom From Jealousy
"Focusing on our own lives frees us from the burden of comparison."
There is little value in constantly comparing our lives with the lives of others. Another person's success does not diminish our own, and another person's fortune does not determine the value of our life. When we allow comparison to occupy our attention, we can become dissatisfied with what we have and develop jealousy toward those who possess what we desire.
Jealousy can also draw our attention away from the things we can actually influence. Instead of using our energy to measure ourselves against others, we can use it to improve our own lives, pursue our own goals, and appreciate what we already have.
Comparison can sometimes reveal what we value or what we wish to achieve, but we do not need to turn that awareness into resentment. We can learn from the lives of others without measuring our worth against them.
We each experience our own life, and our time and attention are limited. We can use them more wisely by focusing on what we can control: our own choices, our own growth, and our own path.
5. Returning to the Present Through the Senses
"When our thoughts carry us away from the present, we can return our attention to the world through our senses."
Our senses—sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste—give us a direct way of experiencing the world around us. At any moment, we can pause and deliberately bring our attention to what we are seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, or tasting.
This can be especially useful when we notice ourselves becoming absorbed in repetitive, negative, or unproductive thoughts. Rather than continuing to follow every thought, we can redirect our attention toward what is actually happening around us in the present moment. This does not require us to stop thinking; it simply gives us the ability to choose where our attention rests.
The more frequently we practice directing our attention toward our sensory experience, the more familiar the practice can become. We can strengthen this awareness by occasionally choosing one sense and deliberately observing it throughout the day, then practicing with another sense on another day.
Our minds can take us into the past and the future, but our senses continually bring us back to the present. Learning to move our attention between thought and direct experience gives us greater control over our awareness.
6. Tranquility Through Equality
"Tranquility comes from recognizing our shared humanity and meeting others as equals."
We may have qualities, accomplishments, knowledge, or circumstances that differ from those of other people, but these differences do not require us to regard ourselves as more valuable or more deserving of respect than others. We can recognize our strengths without using them as a reason to look down upon someone else.
When we become preoccupied with being above others, we can create unnecessary feelings of pride, resentment, competition, or contempt. When we instead recognize that every person is a human being with their own experiences, struggles, strengths, and limitations, we can relate to others with greater humility and compassion.
Seeing others as equals does not mean pretending that everyone is identical or that differences in ability, achievement, or responsibility do not exist. It means recognizing that these differences do not determine a person's fundamental human worth.
This perspective can also free us from judging ourselves according to how we compare with others. We do not need to feel superior to feel worthy, nor inferior to acknowledge someone else's strengths.
By practicing compassion toward ourselves and others, we can gradually replace unnecessary comparison with understanding and unnecessary judgment with acceptance.
We are each different in countless ways, yet we share the same fundamental condition of being human. Recognizing this can bring tranquility to our relationships with both others and ourselves.
7. Understanding the Uniqueness of Others
"Every person has a unique perspective, shaped by their experiences, circumstances, and understanding of the world."
We often interpret other people's thoughts and actions through the lens of our own experiences. Because we know our own intentions and understand our own experiences directly, it can be easy to assume that others see the world in much the same way that we do.
However, every person has lived through a different combination of experiences, relationships, circumstances, and influences. These experiences contribute to the way each person understands the world and interprets what happens within it. Even when two people encounter the same event, they may understand it differently because they bring different knowledge, expectations, memories, and perspectives to the experience.
If we wish to understand another person more deeply, we should therefore try to understand the world from their perspective rather than assuming that our own interpretation is the only possible one. We can ask questions, listen carefully, and consider what experiences may have contributed to their way of thinking.
Understanding someone's perspective does not require us to agree with it. We can understand why someone sees the world differently while still determining that their interpretation is mistaken.
Recognizing the uniqueness of human perspective encourages patience, empathy, and humility. It reminds us that our own interpretation of the world is also shaped by our particular experience.
To understand another person, we must temporarily look beyond our own experience and make room for theirs.
8. Overcoming Bias Through Broader Understanding
"Bias can limit our understanding by preventing us from considering perspectives beyond our own. We can reduce this limitation by remaining willing to examine all relevant possibilities."
Bias can cause us to favor certain interpretations while overlooking information that challenges them. In its simplest form, this can arise from ignorance: we may reject a perspective simply because we have never considered it or do not understand it. However, bias can also persist even when we possess considerable knowledge.
When we have a predetermined rejection of an opposing viewpoint, we limit our ability to understand the subject as completely as possible. If we wish to form more informed opinions, we should therefore examine our assumptions and remain willing to consider evidence and perspectives that challenge our existing beliefs.
This does not mean that every viewpoint is equally valid or that we must accept every possibility as true. Rather, we should be willing to consider relevant perspectives before determining whether they are supported by evidence. Sometimes an opposing viewpoint will reveal an error in our thinking; sometimes it will strengthen our original conclusion by showing us why the alternative is mistaken.
As our knowledge expands, so does our ability to recognize possibilities that we previously could not see. Considering multiple perspectives can therefore help us discover better explanations, identify overlooked problems, and develop solutions that would not have emerged from a single point of view.
To understand something as completely as possible, we should look beyond the boundaries of our own perspective and allow relevant evidence, possibilities, and viewpoints to expand our understanding.
9. The Power of Self-Support
"We can learn to become a source of encouragement and support for ourselves."
We do not have to depend entirely on others for encouragement. We can develop the ability to support ourselves when we face difficulties, recognize our accomplishments, and encourage ourselves to continue growing.
Instead of automatically putting ourselves down when we make mistakes, we can learn to respond with patience and constructive encouragement. We can acknowledge what we have done well, recognize the progress we have made, and remind ourselves that mistakes and setbacks can be opportunities to learn.
When we repeatedly practice this way of treating ourselves, self-encouragement can become a habit. We can become our own source of motivation without needing to constantly rely on external approval.
However, self-support does not replace the value of other people. Human beings benefit greatly from friendship, compassion, guidance, and encouragement from those around us. The goal is not to become independent of everyone else, but to develop an inner source of support that remains available even when external support is limited.
We can be both supported by others and supportive of ourselves. Learning to encourage ourselves gives us a source of strength that we carry wherever we go.
10. The Influence of Attention
"Our minds are influenced by what we choose to give our attention to."
What we repeatedly pay attention to can strongly influence our thoughts, perceptions, and emotional state. When we continually focus on something that causes us distress, our attention can keep those thoughts and feelings active. When we redirect our attention toward something constructive, meaningful, or enjoyable, we can sometimes change the way we experience the present moment.
We can also examine the way we interpret the things that we encounter. If we dislike something, we can ask whether there are perspectives we have overlooked or aspects of the situation that we can understand differently. This does not mean pretending that something unpleasant is pleasant; it means recognizing that our first interpretation may not be the only way of understanding it.
There are also circumstances that we cannot change. In such situations, we may not be able to control what has happened or immediately change how we feel about it, but we can often choose where to direct our attention afterward. If we notice ourselves becoming absorbed in an unproductive thought, we can deliberately turn our attention toward another activity, person, idea, or experience.
This ability should not be understood as a way to simply eliminate difficult emotions. Some emotions require us to acknowledge and understand what we are experiencing rather than distract ourselves from it. However, learning to direct our attention gives us greater influence over what occupies our minds.
We cannot always choose what enters our minds or how we immediately feel, but we can often choose what we continue to give our attention to.
11. The Wisdom of Pausing Before Acting
"When we pause before acting, we give ourselves the opportunity to respond with reason rather than react automatically to emotion."
Unexpected situations can produce strong emotional reactions that influence the way we think and behave. When we immediately act on those reactions, we may say or do something that we would not have chosen after having more time to think.
We can create space between an emotional reaction and our response by pausing before we act. In that moment, we can notice what we are feeling, consider what has happened, and think about the possible consequences of different responses. This gives us an opportunity to respond deliberately rather than simply following our first impulse.
Our emotions should not necessarily be ignored. They can provide information about what matters to us and how we are experiencing a situation. However, an emotion does not have to determine our behavior. We can acknowledge what we feel while still deciding what response is most appropriate.
This is particularly valuable during emotionally heated disagreements. If someone speaks to us angrily or says something hurtful, we may initially feel anger, embarrassment, or defensiveness. Instead of immediately returning that reaction, we can pause, allow the initial intensity to settle, and then choose our words carefully. A calm response can sometimes prevent a disagreement from becoming more serious.
We cannot always control our first emotional reaction, but we can practice controlling what we do with it. The pause between feeling and acting is where conscious choice becomes possible.
12. Being Happy for Others
"Another person's success does not diminish our own. We can choose to celebrate the happiness and achievements of others."
When someone else succeeds, we may sometimes compare their circumstances with our own and feel jealousy or dissatisfaction. Instead of allowing comparison to create resentment, we can practice being genuinely happy for the person who has succeeded.
Being happy for others encourages kindness, generosity, and positive relationships. It allows us to appreciate another person's good fortune without treating it as a threat to our own sense of worth. Their success does not take away from our accomplishments, nor does their happiness prevent us from pursuing happiness of our own.
Being happy for others does not require us to deny our own feelings. We can recognize that we may also wish to achieve something similar while still appreciating the achievement of another person. Their success can even inspire us to pursue our own goals.
The more often we practice responding to the success of others with goodwill rather than resentment, the more natural this response can become. In this way, happiness for others becomes a habit that strengthens both our relationships and our own peace of mind.
We do not lose anything by allowing another person's happiness to be a source of happiness for us. When we can celebrate the good in another person's life without comparing it to our own, we make more room for joy in both lives.
13. Knowledge and the Formation of New Ideas
"The more knowledge that we attain, the more connections we have from which new ideas can emerge."
Knowledge provides the mind with information, concepts, experiences, and perspectives that can be connected in new ways. As our understanding grows, we gain more material with which to reason, imagine, question, and develop new ideas.
Seeking knowledge also allows us to see beyond the limits of our existing perspective. When we examine different explanations, opposing viewpoints, and unfamiliar ideas, we may discover connections or possibilities that we would not have recognized from a single perspective.
This does not mean that every viewpoint is correct or that we should accept every idea we encounter. Understanding an idea and accepting an idea are two different things. We can examine an argument, consider a possibility, and understand why someone believes something without deciding that it is true.
The ability to entertain an idea without immediately accepting it allows us to investigate ideas freely. We can temporarily set aside our attachment to our existing beliefs, examine alternative possibilities, and then evaluate them according to the evidence and reasoning available.
The more knowledge we acquire and the more perspectives we are willing to examine, the greater our ability to recognize relationships between ideas and develop new conclusions. Knowledge expands the possibilities available to thought, while open-minded reasoning allows us to discover what those possibilities can teach us.
14. Receiving Criticism Wisely
"Accept useful criticism without allowing criticism to determine your worth."
Criticism can be useful when it helps us recognize mistakes, discover weaknesses, or see our work from another perspective. However, not all criticism is equally valuable. Some criticism may be uninformed, overly harsh, poorly communicated, or unrelated to what we are trying to accomplish.
We should therefore evaluate criticism rather than automatically accepting or rejecting it. We can ask: Is the criticism specific? Is it supported by a reasonable explanation? Does it identify something I can learn from or improve?
A person's ability to criticize also does not depend entirely on their ability to perform the task themselves. Someone may recognize a genuine problem without being capable of producing a better result. What matters is whether the criticism itself is well-founded.
This is especially important in creative work. Art can be interpreted differently by different people, and disagreement about an artistic choice does not necessarily mean that the work is objectively bad. We can listen to criticism while still maintaining confidence in our creative decisions.
Most importantly, criticism of something we have done is not necessarily criticism of who we are. We can make a mistake without being a failure, and we can have something to improve without being of lesser worth.
Let criticism teach you where you can improve, but never allow another person's judgment to become the measure of your value.
15. Think for Yourself
"Do not accept a claim merely because it is established or taught by an authority. Examine the reasons and evidence for yourself."
Established knowledge deserves consideration, but its acceptance by an institution, profession, or society should not be treated as proof of its truth. A textbook, teacher, expert, or educational institution can provide us with valuable knowledge, but we should distinguish between trusting a source and blindly accepting a claim.
Education should not merely give us information to remember. It should teach us how to examine information, question assumptions, evaluate evidence, and reason toward conclusions. When we encounter a claim, we should be willing to ask why it is believed, what evidence supports it, whether there is evidence against it, and whether alternative explanations have been considered.
This does not mean that we should reject established knowledge simply because it is established or assume that our own judgment is automatically superior to the judgment of experts. No individual can independently investigate every subject in sufficient depth. Rational thinking sometimes requires relying on people who possess greater knowledge or expertise. However, intellectual independence means understanding why we trust a source rather than treating authority itself as evidence of truth.
We should also remain willing to reconsider established beliefs when strong evidence warrants doing so. Knowledge advances when people are willing to question existing conclusions while taking evidence seriously.
Think for yourself, but do not mistake independent thinking for rejecting everything others have discovered. True intellectual independence is the ability to examine what we are taught, understand why it is believed, and accept or reject it according to the strength of the evidence.
16. Feeling and Understanding Our Emotions
"We can better understand and regulate our emotions when we allow ourselves to notice and experience them without immediately reacting to them."
When difficult emotions arise, our first instinct may be to suppress them, distract ourselves from them, or react to them immediately. Instead, we can practice pausing and acknowledging what we are feeling. We can notice the emotion, recognize what may have caused it, and allow ourselves to experience it without judging ourselves for having it.
Experiencing an emotion does not mean that we must act according to it. We can feel anger without acting angrily, feel fear without allowing fear to make every decision for us, and feel sadness without concluding that the feeling will last forever. By creating space between an emotion and our response to it, we give ourselves greater freedom to choose how we behave.
With practice, we can become more familiar with our emotional reactions and recognize them earlier. This can help us respond more calmly when unexpected situations arise or when disagreements become emotionally heated. Rather than attempting to eliminate emotions, we learn to understand them and decide how to respond to them constructively.
We do not need to fight every emotion or obey every emotion. By learning to notice what we feel without immediately reacting to it, we can develop greater understanding, self-control, and emotional freedom.
17. Awareness of Our Intentions
"Pay attention to your intentions, for understanding why you act can help you choose how you act."
Our intentions influence many of the actions we take. By becoming aware of what we intend to accomplish, we can sometimes recognize an emotionally charged impulse before acting on it and give ourselves an opportunity to choose a different response.
Before acting, we can ask ourselves: “What am I trying to accomplish?” “Why do I want to do this?” and “What result do I hope my actions will produce?” These questions can reveal motivations that we might otherwise overlook and allow us to consider whether our intended action reflects the person we want to be.
Awareness of our intentions can also improve our understanding of other people. However, we should be careful not to assume that we know another person's intentions simply from their actions. We can consider possible motivations while recognizing that only the person themselves may know what they intended.
Examining intentions can therefore help us understand both ourselves and the situations we encounter. It allows us to distinguish between what happened, how we interpreted it, what we intended, and what another person may have intended.
When we become aware of the intentions behind our actions, we gain another opportunity to choose our behavior consciously.
18. Intellectual Humility
"The more confident we become in our own intelligence, the more important it is to remain willing to question what we believe we know."
Confidence in our ability to think can be valuable, but excessive confidence can become an obstacle to learning. When we assume that being intelligent makes us unlikely to be wrong, we may become less willing to examine our assumptions or notice the limits of our knowledge.
Some things can be established with very high certainty, while other beliefs remain uncertain or depend upon incomplete evidence. We should therefore distinguish between what has been firmly established and what we merely believe to be true.
Intellectual humility does not require us to doubt everything we know. Rather, it means remaining aware that our understanding is limited and that even well-reasoned conclusions can sometimes be revised when new evidence appears. We can ask ourselves whether there are perspectives we have overlooked, assumptions we have taken for granted, or questions we have not yet considered.
This attitude protects us from becoming attached to our own conclusions simply because they are our conclusions. The mistakes of previous generations were not necessarily caused by a lack of intelligence; people can arrive at mistaken beliefs through incomplete information, faulty assumptions, or reasoning that seemed convincing at the time.
Intelligence is not the ability to always be correct. It is also the willingness to recognize when we may be wrong, examine our reasoning, and continue searching for a better understanding.
19. The Emotional Meaning of Words
"Words can carry emotional associations, and the feelings they evoke are influenced by the meanings we attach to them."
Words are more than definitions. Through our experiences, relationships, culture, and beliefs, we can develop emotional associations with particular words and labels. A word that feels neutral to one person may carry strong positive or negative feelings for another.
This is especially noticeable with words we use to describe ourselves. Labels relating to identity, personality, abilities, or social roles can become connected to memories, expectations, pride, insecurity, belonging, or rejection. Other people's reactions to those labels can also influence the way we feel about them.
Becoming aware of these associations gives us an opportunity to examine them. When a particular word or label produces a strong emotional reaction, we can ask ourselves: “What does this word mean to me, and why does it make me feel this way?” We may discover that some of our emotional responses come from assumptions or experiences that we have never consciously examined.
We do not have to reject a label simply because it carries difficult feelings, nor should we assume that changing a label will automatically change those feelings. Instead, we can examine the meaning we have attached to the label and determine whether that meaning accurately represents how we understand ourselves.
We can also recognize that a single label can never completely describe a human being. Each of us possesses many characteristics, experiences, relationships, abilities, and values, and none of these words alone encompasses the whole person.
When we become conscious of the meanings and emotions attached to our words, we gain greater freedom to examine those meanings rather than being unconsciously controlled by them.
20. The Journey of Self-Discovery
"We can go on a personal spiritual journey to decide how we want to conduct ourselves for the rest of our lives."
Each person has the opportunity to reflect upon how they want to live and what principles they want their life to embody. A personal spiritual or philosophical journey can provide a space for asking fundamental questions about ourselves, our values, our purpose, and the way we wish to treat ourselves and others.
One useful question to explore is:
“Who am I?”
Rather than searching immediately for a single answer, we can return to the question repeatedly and examine the different answers that arise. We may discover that some aspects of ourselves come from our experiences, some from our habits, some from the people who influenced us, and others from values that we have consciously chosen.
We can then ask a second question:
“Who do I want to become?”
This shifts self-reflection from merely describing who we are to consciously considering how we want to conduct ourselves. We can identify the qualities we want to develop, the principles we want to live by, and the habits we want to cultivate.
Self-discovery does not necessarily produce one final definition of who we are. We continue to encounter new experiences and learn new things about ourselves throughout life. What matters is maintaining the willingness to examine ourselves and consciously participate in our own development.
A spiritual journey does not have to be a search for a predetermined identity. It can be a lifelong process of discovering who we are, deciding who we want to become, and continually aligning our actions with that understanding.
This page will be continuously updated with more teachings by Nir Hazon....
© 2026 Hazon, Nir
