The tao – only 3 things to teach simplicity, patience, compassion
Wis-dom
In the domain/land/region/home/place/area
of wis
Wis –
Viss / vision / seeing / knowing / understanding
Seeing the big picture
Definitely, for me, has a compassionate aspect under-standing
Old English wis “learned, sagacious, cunning; sane; prudent, discreet; experienced; having the power of discerning and judging rightly,” (good judgmennt as in correct) from Proto-Germanic *wissaz(source also of Old Saxon, Old Frisian wis, Old Norse viss, Dutch wijs, German weise “wise”), from past-participle adjective *wittos of PIE root *weid- “to see”
Usage: Wisdom, Prudence, Knowledge. Wisdom has been defined to be “the use of the best means for attaining the best ends.” “We conceive,” says Whewell, ” prudence as the virtue by which we select right means for given ends, while wisdom implies the selection of right ends as well as of right means.”
Hence, wisdom implies the union of high mental and moral excellence.
Prudence (that is, providence, or forecast) is of a more negative character; it rather consists in avoiding danger than in taking decisive measures for the accomplishment of an object.
Sir Robert Walpole was in many respects a prudent statesman, but he was far from being a wise one.
Burke has said that prudence, when carried too far, degenerates into a “reptile virtue,” which is the more dangerous for its plausible appearance. Knowledge, a more comprehensive term, signifies the simple apprehension of facts or relations. “In strictness of language,” says Paley, ” there is a difference between knowledge and wisdom; wisdom always supposing action, and action directed by it.”
Knowledge and wisdom, far from being one, have ofttimes no connection. Knowledge dwells In heads replete with thoughts of other men; Wisdom, in minds attentive to their own. Knowledge, a rude, unprofitable mass, The mere materials with which wisdom builds, Till smoothed, and squared, and fitted to its place, does but encumber whom it seems to enrich. Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; Wisdom is humble that he knows no more. – Cowper.
wise” in the “way of proceeding” noun manner. The relationship between the two forms seem obvious.
-wise / -weise must be closely related to wisdom / wise via the way
Wisdom is the way, in the Taoist sense of the way. Wisdom is about the way of knowing, not the known. Obvious. In fact this etymology of “wise” reinforces this with a Lao Tsu quote from the “Tao Te Ching” – “A wise man has no extensive knowledge; He who has extensive knowledge is not a wise man.” Also wisdom as seeing (in the knowing, wissen sense), as in “vision” – Latin “vid” Greek “eid”, and without even reference to the Taoist concept of “way”. Interestingly, not only the Old-English and Germanic derivations, but the Proto-Indo-European origins too. Only a small step back to common Sanskrit origins of the Buddhist Vedas as well as PIE surely ?