Tami Simon: The Quest for True Wisdom

It didn’t matter to me that other people hadn’t articulated it. I said I was going to be true. Again, that phrase matters to me, and what matters to me is that different financial returns are, of course, important, but I have two other bottom lines: one’s being true to our mission. And the other is being true to all of the relationships that make up the company. I sometimes refer to our relationship bottom line, and I could keep going. I mean, it was a big deal for me not to continue as a meditation teacher after the lineage that I had been a part of had given me so sacred opportunities that they were considered an honor. But I also knew it was something that wasn’t, over time, the right fit for me. And it just continues to be this journey in the language of, in the psychology of individuation, of becoming more and more of a unique individual by being true to what I have to be. Even if it goes against convention.

Victor Fuhrman: In your book, being true, you offer five principles for being true. What are those principles, and how may we look at them?

Tami Simon: Well, when I was thinking, how, what is the process? What is this process of staying true to my interior guidance? What occurred to me is that the very first step is to recognize that there’s only one of each of us. I mentioned this previously, but the reason this is so important, I think when it comes to being true, is that we’re often looking for a role model or a recipe of some kind. Could you just tell me how to do it? Can you tell me how to be true? What I can tell you is that there’s only one of you, and you have to be true to that. So that’s the starting point. The second point is that we must be willing to let go of our reference points.

Do you have that courage? And then the fifth part is to recognize that we’re always in this alive dialogue with all of life.

We’re not separate from it. So, the world is always talking to us. It’s always giving us feedback. So, if we make a couple of steps and it’s not quite really aligned with the depth and truth of our soul, we’ll get feedback, we’ll get feedback. So, the fifth part is being attuned to always offering a live universe. That gives us more information about what to do, where to go, and then rinse, repeat. There’s only one of you going back into the darkness.

Victor Fuhrman: Since 2000, there’s been an emphasis on stem education, that science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, some people add a for arts and make it steam. And especially for young women, would you like to see an additional emphasis on business leadership and entrepreneurial skills?

Tami Simon: Yeah. And I’m going to add a really important part. In addition to the skills, you described which I think are important, wisdom, skills, inner wisdom skills. That’s what we all need. Men, women, humans. That’s what we need without that. We won’t know how to use all of those other learnings in a way that honors this deep interdependence, interconnection, and the flourishing of all a life. We need wisdom—most of all.

So, I would put wisdom at the center, and the skills of wisdom are really, it’s the skill. Traditionally the way it’s defined in Buddhism is you must know, first of all, who you are not as a separate self that is cut out and apart from life.

But as nature, the fabric of life itself temporarily expresses through you. So, you have to know yourself as an expression of life. Then, you have to have access to that loving awareness, compassionate heart. So, it’s a combination of knowing who you are and having your compassion activated and online in you, both of those qualities.

Learn more about Tami Simon and her work at Sounds True