PRAJÑĀ (WISDOM)

With karuṆĀ (compassion), prajñā (wisdom) is one of two virtues universally affirmed by Buddhists. Broadly, prajña is correct discernment of any object; specifically, it is intellectual and experiential insight into soteriologically significant truths, whether metaphysical (e.g., categories of dharmas, the functioning of karma, the realms of saṂsĀra) or ontological (e.g., no-self, emptiness, the natural purity of mind). Virtually all Buddhist traditions affirm that wisdom is a prerequisite to enlightenment, and that a buddha possesses the maximum possible wisdom, or gnosis (jñāna).

Like many Indian religious teachers of his era, the Buddha apparently regarded the "sentient condition" (repeated, uncontrolled rebirth in unsatisfactory realms) as rooted primarily in misapprehension of reality. For early Buddhists, ignorance (avidyā) was, with desire and aversion, one of the three poisons that perpetuate saṂsĀra, the cycle of rebirth; it was also the first of the twelve factors of pratĪtyasamutpĀda (dependent origination) that account for continued rebirth. This ignorance misconstrues both the details and the ultimate nature of the world and of persons. In particular, the belief that one is or has a permanent, independent self leads to desire and aversion, thence to unskillful actions and unpleasant results, including rebirth. In fact, both philosophical and meditative investigation reveals that, because there is nothing anywhere in the conditioned world that is permanent, there can be no such self. The recognition of this fact of no-self (anātman) is the antidote to ignorance, that is, wisdom. When one realizes experientially, with insight meditation founded on one-pointed concentration, that there is no self, one no longer creates desire or aversion for the sake of that self, and one begins to uproot defilements, becoming an ārya, whose enlightenment is assured.

In TheravĀda and other mainstream Buddhist texts, both canonical and commentarial, wisdom is, with morality (śīla) and concentration (samādhi), one of three indispensable Buddhist trainings. Wisdom itself is commonly divided into that gained through study of written and oral teachings, reflection upon the meaning of those teachings, and meditative internalization of those meanings. This list and its sequencing show that in most Buddhist contexts both philosophical and experiential wisdom were valued, but that experiential wisdom, gained through insight meditation, was considered superior. Most great Theravāda and Śrāvakayāna texts—from the Sūtra and Abhidharma Piṭakas to scholastic masterworks such as Buddhaghosa'sVisuddhimagga (Path to Purification) and Vasubandhu's AbhidharmakoŚabhĀṢya (Treasury of Abhidharma) (both ca. fifth century c.e.)—provided a more or less systematic categorization of the dharmas or phenomena into which Buddhists analyze reality, while also stressing the limitations of intellectualism and the necessity for meditative scrutiny of oneself and the world, especially so as to negate the idea of a subsisting self.

Despite caveats about scholasticism, Theravāda and Śrāvakayāna philosophers sometimes reified dharmas and their categorizations, and many MahĀyĀna texts evidently were written to counter this tendency. The earliest and most influential was the PrajÑĀpĀramitĀ literature, which focused on wisdom as the sixth and culminating pĀramitĀ (perfection) that a bodhisattva must master en route to full buddhahood. This literature described wisdom as the nonconceptual realization that not just the self, but the very dharmas that constitute the person and the world are intrinsically empty. The bodhisattva must also perfect such methods (upĀya) as generosity, morality, patience, effort, and contemplation, but does so while bearing in mind their emptiness. Other Mahāyāna sūtras promoted wisdom in other ways, seeing it as the realization of nonduality, sameness, lack of intrinsic nature, mind-only, the interpenetration of all dharmas, or the stainless primordial mind. However they described the object of wisdom, these sūtras shared an emphasis on the ultimate inconceivability of reality and the primacy of experiential over intellectual approaches to wisdom.

Far from ending philosophical debate, however, the Mahāyāna sūtras spawned countless commentaries and treatises, which systematically analyzed both the subjective and objective aspects of wisdom, from YogĀcĀra school enumerations of types of consciousness, to Pramāṇa school analyses of epistemic authority, Madhyamaka school debates about the place of reason in arguments for emptiness, and tathĀgatagarbha-tradition evocations of a pure buddha-wisdom lying dormant in every sentient being. Scholar-monks examined the relation of wisdom to bodhicitta, compassion, and skillful means; the way to arrive at a "middle view" that avoided the extremes of eternalism and nihilism; the balance to be struck in meditation between concentration and analysis; and what is known by a buddha's perfect gnosis. By the late first millennium c.e., north India was dotted with great monastic universities emphasizing a scholarly approach to wisdom.

Not surprisingly, countercurrents developed. East Asian Chan traditions focused on direct transmission and nonconceptual realization of perfect wisdom. Indian and Tibetan tantric movements developed dramatic ritual and meditative practices to bring about a wisdom consciousness that simultaneously realizes emptiness, sees forms, and experiences bliss. Chan and tantric traditions themselves sometimes embraced scholasticism, and were in turn reformed by contemplatives, such as Huineng (638–713) in the Chan school and Saraha (late first millennium c.e.) in Tantra, who sought to return wisdom to its home in non-conceptual meditative experience. Meditative schools, however, sometimes adopted irrationalism or anti-nomianism, and so were opposed by others, including Zongmi (780–841) in China and Tsong kha pa (1357–1419) in Tibet, who insisted that philosophical training was a prerequisite to attaining experiential wisdom through meditation.

Wisdom was not restricted to philosophers and contemplatives; it became accessible to ordinary Buddhists through art and ritual. Content aside, texts were often believed to impart wisdom and protective power simply by virtue of being containers of the dharma, and they were worshipped accordingly. Certain doctrinal formulas were inscribed on steles and statuary; for example, "Of those dharmas arising from causes, the tathāgata has described the cause, and also their cessation—thus spoke the Great Ascetic." Wisdom was condensed into dhĀraṆĪs and mantras, which evoked power and knowledge in the practitioner, and served as purifiers in confession rituals. Wisdom also was deified, sometimes as male, as in the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī, whose widespread cult is centered at Wutaishan in China, but more often as female, as in Prajñāpāramitā, who is "mother of the Buddhas," or Vajrayoginī, who symbolizes the tantric gnosis experiencing emptiness and bliss simultaneously.

Wisdom remains central to contemporary Buddhism, especially as Buddhist traditions enter the modern world. Insight meditation (vipassanā) is practiced more widely than ever before, Buddhist views are compared with one another and with Western ideologies, and old debates continue about how to describe the object of wisdom, balance intellectual and experiential approaches to wisdom, and apply wisdom to living life in the world with real intelligence and freedom.

See also:Bodhicitta (Thought of Awakening)

Bibliography

Buddhaghosa, Bhadantacariya. The Path of Purification: Visuddhimagga, tr. Bhikku Ñyāṇamoli. Boulder, CO: Shambhala, 1976.

Collins, Steven. Selfless Persons: Imagery and Thought in Theravāda Buddhism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1982.

Lancaster, Lewis, ed. Prajñāpāramitā and Related Systems. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.

Napper, Elizabeth. Dependent Arising and Emptiness: A Tibetan Buddhist Interpretation of Mādhyamika Philosophy Emphasizing the Compatibility of Emptiness and Conventional Phenomena. London and Boston: Wisdom, 1989.

Pettit, John W. Mipham's Beacon of Certainty: Illuminating the View of Dzogchen, the Great Perfection. Boston: Wisdom, 1999.

Ruegg, David Seyfort. The Literature of the Madhyamaka School of Philosophy in India. Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz, 1981.

Williams, Paul. Mahāyāna Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations. London and New York: Routledge, 1989.

Yampolsky, Phillip B., trans. The Platform Sūtra of the Sixth Patriarch. New York: Columbia University Press, 1967.

Roger R. Jackson