Cultivation of Prajna in Chan | There Is No Suffering

From the Chan perspective, prajna has four prerequisites: hearing, practice, reflection-contemplation, and realization. First, you hear and absorb the teachings of Buddhadharma. Second, you practice Chan meditation, and the paramitas (perfections) while interacting with others. With the right attitude and proper practice, your mind will settle and become more focused.

Third, with your mind still and clear, you contemplate the true nature of existence. In this case, contemplation ( guan) is synonymous with reflection and does not mean thinking through an idea analytically. It is in fact, the core of the practice. Practice, in turn, can be diffused practice and focused practice. By diffused practice, I refer to discursive reflection: thinking through concepts and seeing if and how they apply to your life. As you do this, you will absorb the teachings, which will deepen your faith, and eventually, lead to the kind of focused practice that develops when the mind becomes still. Only a focused mind is capable of the kind of reflection-contemplation needed to become keenly and directly aware of your method, your conduct, and the manifold layers of the workings of mind.

Fourth and last comes realization. The Surangama Sutra states that wisdom can manifest out of debate and reasoning, and in both in India and Tibet, there are Buddhist traditions that use dialectical debate to generate wisdom. Other traditions approach wisdom by another path. Although Chan disputes none of these other paths, it espouses methods that can lead to the realization of wisdom through the processes of hearing, practicing,reflecting, and direct realization.

What is this direct realization? The Heart Sutra tells us that Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva “perceived that the five skandhas are empty (of self-nature).” The five skandhas, or ‘aggregates,’ are experiential factors that together, make up what we normally think of as the self. These are form, sensation, perception, volition, and consciousness. The early Buddhist traditions17 diected their philosophical and practical energy toward at realizing the emptiness of the five skandhas and, hence, of sentient beings themselves, since sentient beings are an aggregation of the five skandhas.
When great bodhisattvas successfully cultivate the six paramitas through hearing, practice, and reflecting, prajna will spontaneously arise. When prajna arises, all five skandhas are perceived as empty, and afflictions do not manifest. Reaching full realization of emptiness is the attainment of ‘wisdom of all things,’18 or fundamental wisdom. With the power derived from this fundamental wisdom, bodhisattvas cultivate innumerable paramitas and expedient means to help liberate sentient beings. This functioning aspect of wisdom is called ‘wisdom of the path.’19 or acquired wisdom. To perfectly penetrate and consummate the task of liberating self and others is called ‘wisdom of all aspects.’20

The flash of enlightenment (Sanksrit: sunyata; Chinese: jianxing; Japanese: kensho) that is experienced by ordinary sentient beings is not the realization of great bodhisattvas or buddhas. Even great bodhisattvas who have terminated afflictions still harbor subtle habit-propensities. These forces derive from the residual impressions, or traces, of karmic tendencies stemming from avidya, fundamental ignorance. On the other hand, a buddha is free from emotional afflictions as well as habitual tendencies. Perhaps an analogy will make this clearer: the ignorance of sentient beings is like the clouds obscuring sun and sky. The enlightenment of bodhisattvas is the sky devoid of clouds, but with slight haze still remaining. They see the sky and sun and think their view is clear, but it is not absolutely so. A buddha’s sky is absolutely clear; he also perceives the haze that great bodhisattvas do not yet see.

After fundamental wisdom arises, there is never a moment when a bodhisattva’s acquired wisdom of expedient means is not functioning, for there are innumerable sentient beings in need of a bodhisattva’s help. So, in a sense, fundamental wisdom and acquired wisdom arise simultaneously. Manifesting fundamental wisdom and realizing that the five skandhas are empty also occur simultaneously: when we perceive the five skandhas as empty, fundamental wisdom manifests; when fundamental wisdom manifests, we perceive the five skandhas as empty.

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