To What Degree Must the Cognition of the Mind Consciousness Reach Before It Can Be Called Wisdom?

The cognitive mind's understanding of the Dharma falls into different degrees. Cognition heavily obscured by afflictions is usually wrong view (mithyā-dṛṣṭi); cognition with somewhat lighter afflictive obscuration is sometimes correct, but only correct relative to one's previous mistaken understanding—it is not yet completely correct. Its views have merely been turned somewhat in the right direction; the cognitive mind has gained some power of wisdom (prajñā-bala), but it still cannot be called wisdom (jñāna). Wisdom is correct cognition after afflictions no longer obscure it. Because there is no afflictive obscuration, the cognitive mind's cognition carries no afflictive or defiled nature, and its purity can be clearly revealed; what it creates is only wholesome karma and pure karma, and it will not create unwholesome karma. At this stage, wisdom is almost free of error, or has very little error, and is worthy of trust and reliance—only then can it be called wisdom (jñāna). 

When the Buddha was about to enter parinirvāṇa, He instructed sentient beings of later generations to rely on wisdom, not on consciousness. This wisdom is not the wisdom of ordinary intelligence, nor is it the wisdom of the patience with non-arising that arises right after attaining the fruits or awakening to the true mind; rather, it is the wisdom of the patience with the non-arising of dharmas free from afflictive obscuration—the wisdom that comes after consciousness is transformed into wisdom, the wisdom of the varieties of paths. Right after attaining the fruits or awakening to the true mind, although one's wisdom is deeper than that of ordinary beings, because of afflictive obscuration the wisdom is still rather shallow, and the defilement of the mind is still quite evident; sometimes one may even create some unwholesome karma due to afflictions. This is not yet wisdom, so one's understanding of the Dharma can only be called wisdom in the lesser sense (prajñā), not wisdom (jñāna). Whenever the outcome has a harmful effect, it is not wise and cannot be called wisdom; only when the outcome is wholesome can the action be considered a wise move, can it be called wisdom, and can it be relied upon. 

Whatever ordinary beings' minds think and conceive is all of the nature of consciousness; the discerning and choosing functions that arise relying on the momentum of afflictions all belong to the nature of consciousness, without wisdom. For noble persons who have attained the fruits or awakened to the true mind but have not eliminated afflictions, their thinking carries a certain degree of wisdom; the strengthened power of wisdom of the cognitive mind is called prajñā, but it is not yet jñāna. On the whole it still falls within the category of the nature of consciousness and cannot be fully relied upon. Therefore, many people, after studying some Dharma, think themselves so superior and transcendent—all of this falls within the cognitive range of the nature of consciousness, in which the proportion of error is still very, very large. So do not trust your own mind too much; such self-confidence is almost mistaken trust, the result induced by the mind of arrogance. For many people, what they believe to be non-doubt is not really non-doubt. When wisdom is insufficient, even when there is doubt, one cannot detect it through introspection; what one takes to be fact is often not fact at all—merely a misjudgment.