Here is something a little different maybe from what you have heard before. In a way, there are three types of wisdom. We read something or we hear something, that is the first type of wisdom; that is coming in from somebody else. First level of wisdom, we just read or we hear something. The second type of wisdom: we reflect about what we have read or heard. The third type of wisdom is that we know it.
Sometimes the knowing comes without the reflection. I'll give you a little example: say you have a three-year-old child, or nephew or so on. You are in the kitchen cooking, have the stove on, and it is hot. You have never ever let the kid in the kitchen before, because the kitchen is not a safe place for little kids to be, but the kid comes in and goes, "Daddy, can I stay here in the kitchen with you for a little while?" And you decide, "Ok, it is time to let the little kid learn about the kitchen." And you say, "Ok, you can stay here, but be very careful and don't touch that! It is the stove, it is very hot, don't touch it." But the little kid doesn't know what "stove" is, doesn't even know what "real hot" is, and the stove looks kind of like a TV, right? It has a kind of window frame and little dials, and the kid goes, "Yes, ok, Daddy." You turn your back and chop your vegetables. The kid looks at you and goes to the stove and touches it. "Oww!", the child screams. You turn around and say, "I said it is hot!" Ok, the kid heard the words "It is hot, don't touch it", but they couldn't reflect, they couldn't understand what that meant. But when they touched the stove, then they knew what "hot" meant. So occasionally we skip the middle one.
Three levels of wisdom. What we are trying to do is to get to the 3rd one: we want to know it. I can ask everyone of you, "Are you going to die?" and you're going to say "Yes". You can walk down the street and you can ask people, complete strangers, "Excuse me, are you going to die?" They will look at you as if you were a freak and say, "Of course I will die", but do they all believe it? And do you guys all believe it? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. So, we have heard that death is going to happen, we have read that death is going to happen, we have reflected that death is going to happen, and a lot of times we believe it, but a lot of times - no - the party on the weekend, "Yes, I will be there, see you soon!" In those moments we have forgotten death may happen first. So work to develop your wisdom, on any of the three levels.