Paramitas:
The Six Perfections

Part Five: Wisdom (Prajna)

by Jozen Jonathon Fielder

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The Six Perfections, or Paramitas, are guides for practitioners on the Bodhisattva path. By developing these qualities, we can transcend our concept of self and reach the other shore – Enlightenment. The Six Paramitas, or transcendent Perfections, are generosity, ethical conduct, patience, diligence, meditation, and wisdom.

Here, we will focus on Prajna, commonly translated as wisdom.

Prajna is the practice of wisdom and discernment. It involves developing insight into the nature of reality and seeing things as they truly are. Wisdom includes an understanding of the Buddhist teachings such as compassion, impermanence, non-self, and the interconnectedness of all phenomena. Prajna also involves transcending ignorance and delusion to gain insight into the ultimate truth.

Prajna is not just intellectual knowledge, but a deep, intuitive insight into the true nature of reality. It involves understanding things as they truly are, beyond appearances or conceptual thinking.

Prajna is the wisdom that allows us to see impermanence, suffering and no-self, known as the Three Marks of Existence. Realizing these deeply through direct experience is essential for our awakening in Zen.

According to the Chan Master Sheng Yen, “Prajna is an essential part of Buddhadharma.” Shakyamuni Buddha said that even if one practices all the principles of enlightenment, without the guidance of prajna, one is really not practicing Buddhadharma.”

The cultivation of Prajna helps us to discern the precepts, to understand the Four Noble Truths and apply the Noble Eightfold Path in our lives. Prajna actually guides the first two steps of the path – Right View and Right Intention. It is these first two steps that provide the foundation for the rest of the path.

Prajna in Mahayana Buddhism and Zen

In the Mahayana traditions and Zen, Prajna becomes even more central, especially in the teachings of the Prajnaparamita (Perfection of Wisdom) sutras, which teach the realization of sunyata (emptiness), or the understanding that all phenomena are empty of inherent existence. This is considered the highest form of wisdom.

In our Hollow Bones morning service, we chant the Great Wisdom Heart Sutra, where Avalokitesvara experienced the clear deep truth of the transcendent wisdom of meditative awareness. He

clearly saw that all of the images, thoughts, feelings and emotional states of ego mind are empty of any permanent self-nature. Once he realized this, he immediately transcended mental confusion and ego suffering and told Shariputra, “Remember that all manifested forms are no other than this emptiness. Emptiness is no other than all these manifested forms. Form is exactly emptiness, emptiness is exactly form. All of our thoughts, feelings, concepts, conscious states and volitional actions are also like this. We must remember that even spiritual life and practice are fundamentally empty.

Later in the Heart Sutra, we are told the Bodhisattvas (Awakened Ones) rely on Prajnaparamita with no hinderances in the mind. No hindrances in the mind is the essence of Zen. Understanding and embodying this is Prajna.

So Prajna is:

The wisdom that permeates reality
Essential for liberation from suffering
Developed through ethical living, meditation, and direct insight
Deepened by understanding impermanence, suffering, non-self, and emptiness

At Hollow Bones, we can develop Prajna by studying and living the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path, by studying and applying the Precepts and the Five Practice Mirrors in our lives. We can deepen our awareness of the nature of reality through the Mondo Zen process or in Dokusan with a Roshi or Daisan with a Hollow Bones priest. And next time you chant the Heart Sutra in the morning service, don’t chant by rote. Meditate deeply on the meaning of the words because Prajna is not just knowing. It is seeing clearly and directly, in a way that transforms how we live.