WISDOM

Wisdom is the last of the liberating virtues, without which the former are fruitless. The merit, which we have built up through practicing the former virtues, will bring us millions of years of great enjoyment in gods' worlds, but will not liberate us. For reaching BUDDHAHOOD we need both wisdom and merit.

Wisdom is divided into two categories: that of the world and that which liberates.

Worldly wisdom we all know from the western world, e.g., technical knowledge, intellectual knowledge and financial knowledge. This is very useful to us in our present lives. By means of it we can construct things such as cars and airplanes, but if we are travelling in a rocket to the moon and die on the way, we are none the wiser. Even the highest worldly knowledge does not tell us what happens when we die, and thus it leads to a rebirth within the six conditioned worlds. There is nothing wrong with it, but it does not bring us lasting happiness. This only liberating wisdom can do; without this we lack the necessary understanding. We are like a clever monkey who has learnt how to cook, but when things start to boil over it does not know what to do and throws a stone into the pot so that everything breaks. These days our dirty water and air are good examples of this.

To have liberating wisdom is to know the nature of mind, we see that it is empty of any self-nature and to understand that everything in the world of our senses is an illusion consisting of changing conditions.

The mind is like somebody dancing: it changes all the time but still it is the same. In a mirror the reflection is yellow if the reflected object is yellow, red if red, etc., but the mirror is the same; it has no own-nature. Everything arises from conditions coming together.

Rinpoche also puts it like this:

Let us look at, for example, a bell. What makes it sound? Is it the metal of the body, is it the clapper, is it the hand moving the bell, or is it our ears that bear it? They are all necessary and all have to be present at the same time in order to give the impression of a bell being rung. They are all mutually dependent causes for the phenomenon, sound. In the same way we all know that a sweet is sweet, but where is the sweetness, in the tongue or in the sweet? If no mind perceives it, nothing is sweet. These are the conditions.

The whole of our world of the senses has this nature of being conditioned. Everything depends on many conditions, but has no basis, substance or own-nature. As the conditions change the phenomena change and finally they disappear. Things are like a rainbow, the reflection of the moon in water, a bubble, or a dream.

If we try to find out what "we are", where our mind is, how big or heavy it is, what color it is, we cannot find it. If we cut our finger, the mind suffers. It is as if the mind is in the finger. If however the finger had been cut off, we should feel no pain even if it was squashed afterwards. Thus the mind cannot really be in the finger. The finger itself feels no pain. In the same way we feel pain if our friend is unhappy, our mind is with our friend. If somebody kicks a dog he may not feel any pain because his mind is not with the dog. The dog is separate from him, just as the finger is after having been cut off.

Nothing can be isolated and called "our mind". It is without any self-nature, empty. Mind is empty, but there is much pain within our world of illusion. To meditate only on the emptiness of everything is of no more value than standing outside a house and saying that it is empty. This is not something to be said or thought, because by doing that we change it. Mind is empty when calm, but is bound and agitated by bad actions. It is both not-empty and not not-empty, beyond conception. The six mind-poisons also have no own-nature, but still we become angry, greedy, etc. Also good and evil are without a self-nature, but good helps us to see this and become free, while bad fetters us and makes us blind.

The outer world is a product of mind, ignorance and Karma. It has the reality of a collective hallucination, until the time comes when we are so pure that we see it to be unreal and only consisting of conditions. If we understand that which happens to be a dream we shall not be bound by what occurs. If in a dream we see a tiger we are afraid, but if we know that it is a dream, fear disappears. Now we believe that things are real, we fight for them and do other stupid things.

All duality like hope-fear, all sorrow and unhappiness only exist because of our belief in a real 'I'. We are ignorant, and it is very difficult both for others and ourselves. Therefore we must have great compassion.

Illusions only stop when the mind can stay in its natural state. If we have the idea of being apart from other beings we are born again and again. If we think that everything is just empty, we are reborn in the world of the formless gods. We must see things as unreal while at the same time thinking very strongly of Karma, and we must understand that everything is both empty and not-empty.

The perfection of wisdom cannot be expressed in words or in thoughts. The necessary conditions for reaching it are the liberating virtues, faith in Karma and the peace of mind, which we reach by letting go of the idea of the reality of things. First we are ignorant and it is like deep night. Then a little merit allows us just to look around us. After that we accumulate both merit and wisdom, and the light grows. In the end merit has made all our ignorance into wisdom, and this is seen as radiant as the sun at noon.