Develop one's capacity for deeper thought, for both. Mere study of philosophy does not make one a philosopher. A philosopher does not require a teacher. Teachers of philosophy pass down the thoughts of another philosopher, but an actual philosopher is an independent thinker.
A sage... my take on this role... to me a sage is a person who out of deep thought, self-knowledge, and intuition; a spiritual guide arises. They have created their own philosophy to be at peace with the many incongruences of life. They are the type of person who may know of other forms of thought but would seldom adopt these ideals.
I have read some philosophies, but have therein learned to philosophize, which in my opinion is a personal and spiritual practice. It is definetly worth doing. Once you leap out into the world community, you may notice some very puzzling challenges to previous spiritual conjectures, things that may have seemed so apparent become fuzzy, doubtful, and troubling; then you are well on the way to try to philosophize about them. Once you figure out a way to explain why, for instance: God exists and famine and injustice exist too, but God is good. You will be on your way to sagacity. A sage should help others to feel better about the pain of life and how to be happy with life. These are my own thoughts, and are free to be dissagreed with, but if you look through my words you will see what I mean: Don't adopt the words, instead, adopt the idea of independent thinking, question your surroundings, and try to see the good in the world. Know that the bad is just less good, do not believe in evil, believe only in less good. I believe that we are the glorious incarnations of the many great facets of God, in order to be most reunited we must become most good. My additional idea is that God has created life and eternity but cannot be overtly involved in the present, or otherwise the distinctions of good and not good will not come to be; Earth and the realm of life is a plane of purification for the spirit of God (us).
I do not encourage this belief, but it is my own, it is my philosophy, and any inspiration which I share with someone with the intent of helping them is ultimately rooted in this vision and thus I am not prone to the usual religious conflicts that mythologies create. I am more at peace with my present beliefs, and not terribly vulnerable to personal attacks on my spirituality.
I have studied and practiced Buddism, Gnosicism, The Craft,
and others including Christianity. I have fallen down to atheism and have recovered from that, now I see God everywhere. A sage helped me on my way. He was a Ghuru which I was fortunate enough to meet. I will say that no one must meet a ghuru or do anything. Live life well and learn to open your awareness. I encourage you to learn the pure discipline of meditation; you must practice to silence your mind, the more you do this, the better your focus and clarity of mind will be afterwords.
I hope you trust my advice but otherwise know there are no shortcuts to anythings worthwhile. Also, there are infinite paths in this life which lead to the same places, and thus there is simply no possible way that one can do as another and arrive at the same result, this only exists in mathematics. So by that know that I am only right for myself, my reality exists in my mind, and my path is less likely to be the path of anyone else.
I would like to further say that a particularly brilliant and detailed post was made by a man above me. I feel like he is particularly wise. My best advice would be listen and do not become discouraged by the path to growth.
Best wishes!
What must a person do in order to become a sage and philosopher?
I suggest Happy Hiram's answer is way above the best because, in the first place, it is better than it needs to be; second, it is funny and true wisdom tends to be that way; third, it is erudite and forces you seek your own answers.
I was going to suggest that sage and philosopher are different roles. The philosopher loves wisdom, (as the etymnology of the word suggests); the sage IS wisdom.
The chief philosopher in the west is Socrates. I highly recommend Protagoras, which much like Happy Hiram's reply is funny, erudite, and better than it needs to be.
The chief sages among the moderns at least are the advaitin, the nondualists, arising out of Indian culture. Sri Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj are the standout figures, although Vivekananda, Ramakrishna, Gandhi, and the twentieth century Saint Teresa are all strong sage-types.
The more popular meaning of sage is something like a very famous inspirational teacher. In reality, most genuine sages are anonymous.
Study the works of those who have gone before, and come to your own conclusions.
Reply:Well first you need to get up and do some philosophercizing :P. You already are a philosopher, all philosophers really do is ask questions about the essence and nature of life and attempt to find answers for them. Once you have many answers and are renowned for your wisdom you may consider yourself a sage or wise spiritual mentor. I believe there are actually qualifications you can get from philosophy but you would do well to ask a university about such things. Officially though you don't need a qualification to be a philosopher, just think deeply and consider answers for the questions of life. :D
Reply:To be a sage I say to seek and desire and then appreciate knowledge that is based on truth that is not found in man's wisdom.
To be a philosopher you share the knowledge of the sage within you. By this I mean how you interpret the knowledge and wisdom you learned is what you share with others.
Reply:Here is a thumbnail course in wisdom.
Socrates says the questions are more important than the answers. He swallowed poison and died miserably.
Epicurus says that pleasure is good and pain is bad. But physical pleasure passes, while pleasure in mastering and living up to your values are more long lasting and fullfilling pleasures. Epicurus died of old age.
Nietzsche says morality is the handmaiden of weak minds. He died in a mental institution.
Sartre says that life is nauseating and meaningless and that hell is other people. He lived a long life and got on well with his friends and his lover.
I want to describe something to you called the vinegar tasters. It is a sketch of three old Chinese men each tasting from a large vat of vinegar. The man who represent Confucianism tastes the vinegar and finds it sour. The man who represents Buddhism tastes the vinegar and finds it bitter. The man who represents Lao Tsu tastes the vinegar and smiles, thinking "this would taste good on a nice salad." Which guy would YOU most want to have over for lunch?
Lastly, Abraham Lincoln said, "People are usually about as happy as they make up their minds to be." Since I am a miserable creep, I don't exactly live up to Lincoln's perspective.
Not every jar has a lid and "what is real is not seen with the eye," (Antoine de Saint Euxpery.)
If you understand all of this you are now a sage.
Reply:Think more with the right-side of their brain.
If you are a good conversationalist, good at memorizing things, and good at operating machinery, you are the opposite of philosophical.
If you are good at recognizing injustice, debating and disputing evolution, and good at defying convention, you are philosophical.
Reply:"Existence or Consciousness is the only reality.
Consciousness plus waking we call waking.
Consciousness plus sleep we call sleep.
Consciousness plus dream, we call dream.
Consciousness is the screen on which all the pictures come and go.
The screen is real, the pictures are mere shadows on it."
--Sri Ramana Maharshi.
"Consciousness is God's awareness of Self."
--Yellow Emperor.
Reply:Appreciate the world, but in the same instant, critique society's flaws and errors, and bring them to light. Be kind, wise, and peaceful. Study the teachings of Buddha, Christ, and immerse yourself in the many religions that surround us. All have their qualities, and at the same time, their flaws. Be political, fight injustice. Appreciate the nature that surrounds us. I know I sound like some cracked old man, so I'll stop there. Peace.
Reply:Philosophy is easy one must simply wonder.
A sage is a fool, and a wise sage admits to being one.
Reply:which one?
to be a philosopher one must study philosophers.
To be a sage, just be wise
Reply:think more critaclly than an average person.
is there a sage society? if so ask them.
Reply:Say little. Appear deep in thought. Scribble in a notepad.
Reply:Listen..........................
Reply:talk a lot
Reply:To become a sage or philosopher....
a “sage” as one who is wise through reflection and experience. In ancient cultures, a group’s sages were those who had experienced rich lives and were thoughtful about what they had learned through these experiences.
* Solicit Feedback Regularly: Perception is reality. Seek to understand how people perceive you. You may not be achieving the impact you expected in leading or working with others. You can not adjust your approach without the benefit of feedback that can inform you in terms of how your intentions were received by others. Be proactive in finding out what people think about you and your style of interacting and your approach. Be open to and appreciative of the feedback you receive, not defensive. Seek to understand rather than to be understood.
* Reflect on Performance: Some successful people are gregarious and extroverted while others are reserved and introverted. But all successful people know how to spend time alone being reflective and thoughtful about recent performance and behavior. Take time every day to reflect on the day’s work and interactions.
Always take ample time at the conclusion of major elements of work to reflect on the quality of what you produced and the effectiveness of your work with others. The key to reflecting on performance is remaining balanced in your self-assessment. Be self-critical: understand what you could have done better and learn from these mistakes. But also acknowledge success whenever warranted: celebrate and take pride in what you have done well.
* Know Your Strengths and Weaknesses: As you collect feedback and reflections, come to understand your personal strengths and weaknesses. Know that everyone has both. Successful people build success from their strengths while they limit the negative impact of their weaknesses. The reason to identify your key strengths and weaknesses is not so that you can improve your weaknesses. It is much more important to identify your key strengths and leverage these.
The management guru, Peter Drucker, in his classic article, “Managing Oneself” , states: “One should waste as little effort as possible on improving areas of low competence. It takes far more energy and work to improve from in-competence to mediocrity than it takes to improve from first-rate performance to excellence. And yet most people . . . concentrate on making incompetent performers into mediocre ones. Energy, resources, and time should go instead to making a competent person into a star performer.”
* Know Your Joys and Passions: Be in tune to your emotions as you engage in your work. We all need to do elements of work that are tedious or displeasing, but the bulk of how you spend your day should satisfy you and make you feel good about your contributions and the impact of your efforts. Success is difficult to achieve without that level of satisfaction. Know that people who excel enjoy what they do and do what they enjoy.
To become a philosopher...
1. Understand that there is no exact way to become a philosopher, you either have the ideas or you don't. You must free yourself of all limitations such as prejudice, religion, and point of view. Philosophers are often people that see the world from a child's eyes. It is important to listen to people, and travel a lot, to get a sense of the world and the people in it. Asking people in your town about what they think of the war in Iraq isn't really going to help, as a lot of these will give stereotypical answers, and will not be well-informed.
2. Understand that there is also no exact way in which you can investigate, and this is part of philosophy. Some philosophers, like Descartes, only trusted their mind and logic, and not the senses. Some say that the best way to start off, is to research about philosophy. When you study philosophy in college or university, you study about all the different philosophers and their opinions. Think about it, and disagree, or agree with what they think.
3. Think about the world , what it means to live, to die, to exist, and what the point of it is. Be the source of your own investigation. Since you're always available to yourself, any line of investigation about yourself (and there can be many) allows you to always make some progress. Consider the basis for what you believe. Why do you believe what you believe? Start from scratch and identify your reasoning.
4. Write down what you think about these subjects, including ideas you think you shouldn't write down (possibly because you think others may think they are stupid). While you may not be arriving at any striking conclusions, you will be exposing your own assumptions to yourself. You will probably marvel at how silly some of your assumptions can be, and in the process you will mature.
5. Re-write your ideas more formally and let others read your work, so you can get others to hear your ideas. You can ask friends, relatives, teachers, or classmates if they could offer some thoughts on your work, or you can post your writings online (through a website, a blog, or a message board) and look for responses there.
6. Engage in any debate possible. This will increase your ability to think freely. Keep in mind however, that you are not engaging in intellectual Olympics. There will always be someone who knows something better than you, and arrogance will stop you dead. You will need a healthy measure of humility.
7. Read philosophy copiously, learning new questions and problems to think about and past solutions, and their criticisms. Pursuing a bachelor's or master's degree in philosophy is a good way to structure these studies, but many great philosophers were also self-taught.
8. Pursue philosophy as a career by acquiring a doctorate in philosophy and getting a professorship at a university. This can be highly competitive, expensive, and challenging, but getting paid to think can be extremely rewarding.
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