Buddhism Jean Smith Radiant Mind

¶ … Wisdom in Buddhism

Some twenty-five hundred years ago, Buddha Shakyamuni devoted the last forty-nine of seventy-nine-years of life teaching his practices to people in the area today of Northern India about enlightenment and how to achieve that state of being, as he had. The term Buddha as translated today from the Sanskrit word means wisdom or enlightenment, though the two terms are not interchangeable. It is the goal for all sentient beings to achieve enlightenment, or Buddhahood, where all pain and suffering in one's life are extinguished and removed from their very being. Nevertheless, wisdom is an essential concept within Buddhism; in fact, it is the third essential elemental practice within the Noble Eightfold Path. Wisdom is innate in all of us, as is enlightenment. Some two thousand years ago, some forty Mahayana sutras were composed on the perfection of wisdom, which is also known as prajnaparamita. There are three forms of wisdom in Buddhism. The first is General Wisdom, which is an understanding of the Universe; the second is Differentiation Wisdom, which is the ability to comprehend all the infinite possibilities in the Universe; and the third is Perfect Wisdom, which the ultimate understanding of the Universe. But there are many ways an individual reaches Wisdom. Facts alone are not wisdom. Knowledge alone is not wisdom. But understanding the Truth will help an individual lead to Wisdom. There is an old legal saying, "Don't let the facts get in way of the truth." If an individual is given a series of facts, they may be lead to believe that the culmination of those facts is the Truth. But they many not be the Truth. Just a series of facts. When pursuing wisdom one must use the five skandhas (form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness) to help derive them toward wisdom. But to better understand wisdom in Buddhism, we can examine one common sutra mentioned: Heart Sutra.

The Heart Sutra is the most familiar of the original teachings. It is designed to inspire the practice of the Perfect Wisdom. It sometimes called the sacred mother because is gives rise to the Buddhas - the sacred ones: as a mother raises a child, Buddhahood cannot be achieved without Perfect Wisdom. This sutra contains on of the most recognized paradoxes found in Buddhism: form is emptiness; emptiness is form. For one to reach enlightenment, an individual must develop an understanding about the void in one's own mind. This voidness of the mind, it is said, is valueless; understanding it makes it precious and holy, and it is understanding that helps us achieve Perfect Wisdom. One must also be aware that the mind, like all other things in the Universe, is not independent. It relies on other factors to exist and function. The voidness of the mind is an existence and is dependent on the phenomena of existence. Anyone who wants to achieve Perfect Wisdom must come to understand that none of the five aggregates (form, feelings, discernments, formative elements, and consciousness) exist inherently independent of mental imputations. The idea of emptiness as a substantive form is essential if one is to achieve enlightenment. Once an individual can understand that concept then a realization that everything is connected to that emptiness becomes clearer. And towards enlightenment one must engage in the practices of Buddhism. An individual must have a free-flowing way of observing and accepting life through different eyes and angles, without taking sides, thinking with our entire mind in order to create stability.