Many spiritual teachers - in Buddhism, in Islam - have talked

The teacher and prophet of the heart, bell hooks, once declared: “Many spiritual teachers—in Buddhism, in Islam—have talked about first-hand experience of the world as an important part of the path to wisdom, to enlightenment.” In these words she reminds us that wisdom is not a treasure hidden in books alone, nor enlightenment a prize given by mere belief, but a flame born of experience. To walk the earth with open eyes, to taste sorrow and joy, to touch both suffering and beauty—this is the ground upon which true understanding is built.

The origin of this teaching lies in the great traditions of spirit. In Buddhism, the Buddha did not achieve awakening through second-hand tales or ritual alone, but by leaving the palace, witnessing sickness, old age, and death, and finally sitting beneath the Bodhi tree until truth revealed itself through lived struggle. In Islam, too, the Prophet Muhammad’s revelations came not as abstractions, but within the fabric of daily life—through exile, community, conflict, and mercy. Thus, as hooks declares, the path to wisdom is forged in life itself, not apart from it.

History confirms this truth in the life of Mahatma Gandhi. He studied law in London, read scriptures, and learned doctrine, but it was in the harshness of South Africa—being cast from a train, witnessing injustice—that he found his mission. Through the first-hand experience of oppression, he discovered the path of nonviolent resistance, which would later liberate millions. Without these encounters in the world, his learning would have remained theory, not wisdom.

The ancients knew this as well. The Stoics, such as Epictetus, taught not from lofty palaces but from the depths of slavery, where their words were tested by hardship. The Hebrew psalmists sang not of imagined sorrows, but of lived battles, betrayals, and deliverances. Their wisdom carried weight because it bore the mark of experience; it was flesh, not shadow.

Therefore, O seekers, remember this: the path of enlightenment does not lie in escape from the world, but in walking through it with eyes unclouded. Books may guide, teachers may inspire, but only first-hand experience can carve truth into the soul. Do not fear suffering or mistake struggle for failure, for these, too, are teachers. Embrace the world, for it is both the question and the answer, the battlefield and the temple. In living deeply, you will come to know what sages across ages proclaimed: that wisdom is not learned second-hand, but lived.