6 Paramitas – Wisdom or Prajna

“…I once saw a beautiful statue of Prajnaparamita

who is also known as the Mother of the Buddha’s. She is a feminine deity with four arms. Two arms and hands are folded in the classic meditative pose that rests in her lap. The other two arms hold a sword and a book. Through these gestures and items, she shows us three aspects of Prajna: academic knowledge, cutting through deception, and the perception of interconnectedness.

Through our education, we fulfill the importance of the academic knowledge and one aspect of Prajna. We attend and finish high school, looking forward to our independence and college days. Then, we finish college, and look forward to the fun and excitement of working.

We have learned through books and classes the foundations of our ABC’s. We have learned that 2 + 2 = 4. Our education and academic knowledge is very important. However, we don’t learn the other two aspects of Prajna in school: cutting through deception and our interconnectedness.” http://www.ocbuddhist.org/blog/sakamotoa/20120308/6th-and-final-paramita-prajna-or-wisdom “The wisdom in this paramita refers to the insights of interbeing, emptiness, impermanence, and the practice of right view. The insight of interbeing is the insight of the interconnectedness of all things. It is the recognition that things are made up of composite elements, none of which have a separate existence.

To understand the insight of interbeing, suppose you were reading the article on a sheet of paper – maybe you are. The sheet of paper is made up of many different elements – the sunshine, the rain, the forest, the logger, the truck that carried the wood to the mill, the paper company that delivered the paper, and so forth. The piece of paper does not have a separate existence. It has to inter-be with everything else. Because the paper is made up completely of non-paper elements, it is empty of a separate self, and this is the insight of emptiness. The insight of impermanence is that all conditioned things are subject to change. “You cannot step into the same river twice,” said Heraclitus around 500 B. C. A flower blooms, then withers away. A tree loses its leaves in the autumn. As far as humans are concerned, we all know about the five remembrances: we age, get sick, die, we lose our loved ones and possessions, and we leave behind the results of our thoughts, words, and deeds. Even the sun will die in about 4-6 billion years. It will become as “jolly red giant,” and swallow up Earth as if it never existed. The universe will expand so completely that galaxies cannot see each other at all. But for now, we all need to practice right view to eliminate our stress and fear and continue to enjoy the wonders of life in the present moment. Right view is a deep understanding of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path, which lead to the end of suffering. This is the last of the six paramitas and it is the one that takes us to the other shore of great wisdom and compassion. This wisdom is as valid today as it was in the time of the Buddha. There are many practices that we can do to transform our lives and experience love, joy, wonder, and wisdom in this life, just as it is.” http://mountainsangha.org/the-perfection-of-wisdom/

This is a shorter paper as the concepts introduced are very important and need discussion, exploration, and usually a little time.

These 4 highlighted concepts are the foundational understanding that Buddhism calls ‘Wisdom’ or ‘seeing the world as it real-ly is.