Wisdom implies a knowingness of truths harvested from the totality of one’s life experience.  It surpasses the knowledge gained only through intellectual conceptualization and empirical observation.   It emerges from the synthesis of all our knowledge gained throughout our lives through the combination of physical, emotional and intellectual sources infused and informed by perceptions that reach beyond ordinary appearances and mental projections of reality. There is a deep reverence for Wisdom in many spiritual traditions along with an implicit assumption that all humans are capable of achieving it. Prajna is the Mahayana Buddhist word for Wisdom.  It connotes a direct perception of the Ultimate Truth – Emptiness – which is an un-intermediated knowingness that is unfiltered by concepts and the senses. In Buddhism, as in some other traditions, Wisdom is associated with the feminine whereas the compassionate method for applying Wisdom is associated with the masculine.  Sophia, the Greek word for Wisdom, was adapted by Christianity to connote the knowledge of God that comes from a direct relationship with the divine.    Gnosis, also a Greek term, has been used to connote a direct mystical insight and spiritual knowledge of the divine.  Chokhmah, the Hebrew word for wisdom, also associated with the infinite knowledge of God, connotes direct intuitive insight into the essence or truth of existence. In Taoism, Wisdom is the quality of mind that is in harmony with the unnamable essence of the universe. When we gradually nurture the garden of our consciousness with seeds of wisdom from authentic teachers and traditions, and when cultivate our own inner wisdom through each of the seven ISM steps, we create the foundation for transcendent fulfillment for ourselves and others.