Is Ancient Wisdom Still Relevant to Modern Life?

Have you ever contemplated what is unchanging over the ages? Is ancient wisdom still relevant to us now? One afternoon during a walk – which is often when insights come to me – I stopped to wonder what lessons our ancestors might have for us if they could speak across the ages? Imagine ancient beings, long gone from this world, observing humanity from a distance, watching us navigate the complexities of modern life. What wisdom might they have that could help us today?

It’s tempting to dismiss our ancestors as primitive, as people who lacked the knowledge and sophistication we pride ourselves on today. But what if we’re missing something? What if the wisdom of those who came before us holds more value than we think?

Many of us view ancient humans as less evolved versions of ourselves—people who didn’t know much, who lived in ignorance compared to our information-rich society. We assume that with all our technology, science, and progress, we’ve surpassed them in every way.

But is that really true?

Our ancestors may not have had smartphones or modern medicine, but they were navigating the same fundamental challenges we face today. They dealt with relationships, emotions, survival, and the mysteries of existence. They lived in a physical world, just as we do, and their brains were human, just like ours.

In fact, they may have had wisdom we’ve lost in our fast-paced, hyper-connected world. By disregarding their knowledge, we risk making life harder than it need be.

This is the topic of this week’s AI Art Video done to my song ‘Rain on a Scarlet Flower’. Watch it, listen to the song, and contemplate the words.

A Story of Duality

Imagine an ancient being looking down on humanity, observing the ebb and flow of our lives. They would see a world of duality—light and dark, joy and sorrow, beauty and destruction—different technology, but same mental challenges, same dynamics of life as they had when they were alive. These contrasts are inescapable; they are the fabric of human existence.

The Buddha acknowledged this truth in his very first teaching 2500 years ago. Suffering, he taught, is an inherent part of life.

People do bad things, but people also do good things. We get frustrated, angry, jealous, prejudice, but we also feel joy and love and compassion. Our natural world is beautiful, but also brutal – just watch a lion hunt. Birth can be a cause of joy, or a cause of grief when something goes wrong. Death can be a tragedy or a relief.

And when our experience falls on the negative side of these dualities, it hurts, and we want the pain, distress, dissatisfaction to go away. That’s natural. It’s not wrong. But that pushing away might be causing us more pain, distress, and dissatisfaction.

A Desire for Perfection

I always wanted the world to be perfect. I wanted to get rid of all those negative feelings, all those people who did bad things. I wanted politicians who weren’t puppets of big business, and so on. I thought things shouldn’t be how they are, and it caused me a lot of frustration.

I screamed inside, WHY DON’T THOSE PEOPLE SEE WHAT HARM THEY ARE CAUSING!

Then I realised what the ancients probably knew.

This is just the way life is.

Every story ever told has both good and bad in it. Every life has it too. Granted we don’t always agree on what constitutes good and bad, and if we get into deep metaphysics, the topic can get very complicated, but however we define it, good and bad, positive and negative, experiences are still part of life on earth.

Might accepting that simple truth – the truth that there is, always has been, and always will be both good and bad in this dualistic world in which we live – make the negative easier to handle.

Isn’t this what the Buddha was on about?

What if we could accept that things are the way they are, accept our inability to change world events, accept that terminal illness and so on, instead of thinking things should be other than as they are?

It wouldn’t mean we stop doing our best to right wrongs – I still pray that all beings will come to know great awareness and act with love and compassion.

It means that our actions to make positive change would come from a stable place of calm acceptance, not a volatile place of anger and frustration where we may not make the best decisions.

Acceptance of both good and bad as just how things are simply means we suffer less over the bad in our life.

And in the same vein, what if we could embrace the full spectrum of human emotions—love, hate, anger, joy—without clinging to them or pushing them away?

Where this Contemplation Led Me

Sometimes we don’t know what we know. Or we ‘know’ something intellectually, but it hasn’t quite hit us in our body where deep knowing resides. This little contemplation of what is unchanging over the ages also led me to understand some related things more deeply.

1. Duality is part of life. The good and the bad, the beautiful and the terrifying—they coexist, and accepting this can bring peace.

2. Suffering is inevitable, but how we respond matters. While we can’t avoid physical pain, we can learn not to make it worse by rejecting the experience. That just lays emotional suffering over the physical suffering

3. All emotions are natural. Negative emotions like anger aren’t “bad”; they’re part of being human. The key is not to cling to them or reject them.

4. Attachment and aversion create problems. As the Buddha taught, letting emotions flow through us without resistance or fixation can prevent unnecessary suffering.

5. Wisdom comes from acceptance. Life’s challenges are not obstacles to be avoided but experiences to be embraced.

6. We’re all going to die, so dance while you can and love with abandon. Nurture all beings, nature too. Sing your songs of praise all throughout your days.

How this Relates to Our Lives

In a world obsessed with progress and perfection, this kind of ancient wisdom – yes it is what the Buddha taught – reminds us to slow down and reflect. It teaches us that life isn’t about eliminating pain or avoiding discomfort – it’s about learning to live with them.

This perspective is especially relevant today, as we grapple with mental health challenges, societal pressures, and the constant pursuit of happiness. By reconnecting with these kinds of insights, likely understood by many of those who came before us, we can find more equanimity in our lives.

What do you think? Does accepting that good and bad is a natural part of life help us handle the bad with less stress?