That link between innocence and wisdom

Certain basic concepts are not matters of degree. They are all true or all false. It is impossible to conceive of light and darkness, or everything and nothing, as joint possibilities.

Innocence is one of those concepts. It’s meaningless until it’s total. So what does total innocence mean? And how does it link to total wisdom?

To understand total innocence and total wisdom, we have to first look at what partial innocence and partial wisdom mean.

Partial innocence 

Naïve innocence – innocence that lacks wisdom – is partial innocence. For example, a bird not recognising that its fledglings have been eaten up by the cat that is in front of it. This is why the partly innocent are apt to be quite stupid at times. They don’t see the knives and so are apt to walk right into them. Partial innocence is also prevalent in relationships where one person considers the other as innocent but considers herself as guilty and unworthy, or vice-versa.

Partial wisdom

Partial wisdom dawns when at some point we take off our rose-colored glasses, look around, and see that it’s a jungle out there. We see that the world is full of evil. We have lost our innocence, but at least now we are wise.

This, however, is not real wisdom, because this “wisdom” doesn’t see what is really there. It doesn’t see the perfection that lies past the evil in people. Partial wisdom sides with evil, validates it. And so, it strengthens the misperceptions in others.

Total innocence / total wisdom

These qualities occur when partial innocence (no knowledge of evil) and partial wisdom (knowledge of evil)—which seem mutually exclusive—actually fuse. How can that be? Because now our lack of knowledge of evil is a deep awareness that evil is not real. We readily see that on the surface of each mind is that film of misperception. But we are not so naïve as to think that that’s all there is. We don’t kid ourselves into believing that that’s the person’s reality. No, we look past the film, seeing only what is true in that person, only the perfection that God created. This then becomes total wisdom.

Effects of your innocent perception

Since perfect goodness is now what we see, that’s what we side with in the other person. That’s what we validate. We thereby give the person a miracle, and this has the power to cancel out the film of his or her misperceptions. We thereby strengthen the person’s right mind, so that now he or she is able to do things that were out of reach before. And as a result, our faith in this person, which seemed naïve to those still in partial wisdom, becomes fully justified. We are healed together.