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 a wrong view (mithyā-dṛṣṭi); cognition with somewhat lighter obscuration by afflictions 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, and the cognitive mind has gained some power of wisdom (prajñā-bala), but it still cannot be called jñāna (wisdom). Jñāna is correct cognition after afflictions no longer obscure the mind. Because there is no obscuration by afflictions, the cognitive mind's cognition carries no afflicted or defiled nature, and its purity is clearly revealed; what it creates is only wholesome karma and pure karma, and it will not create unwholesome karma. At this stage, such wisdom is almost entirely free of error, or has very little error, and is worthy of trust and reliance—only then can it be called jñāna.

When the Buddha was on the verge of parinirvāṇa, He instructed sentient beings of later generations to rely on wisdom (jñāna), not on consciousness. This jñāna is not the jñāna of ordinary wisdom, nor the wisdom of the patience with non-arising (anutpattika-dharma-kṣānti) that arises right after attaining the fruits and awakening to the true mind; rather, it is the wisdom of the patience with the non-arising of dharmas free from obscuration by afflictions, the wisdom that comes after consciousness is transformed into wisdom (āśraya-parāvṛtti), the wisdom of the varieties of paths. Right after attaining the fruits and awakening to the true mind, although one's wisdom is deeper than that of ordinary beings, because it is still obscured by afflictions, the wisdom remains 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 jñāna, so one's understanding of the Dharma can only be called prajñā (wisdom), not jñāna. As long as the outcome has harmful effects, it is not jñāna and cannot be called jñāna; only when the outcome is wholesome is the action a wise move, and only then can it be called jñāna and be relied upon.

Whatever the ordinary being's mind consciousness thinks and contemplates belongs to the nature of consciousness (vijñāna); the discerning and deciding functions that arise relying on the habitual momentum of afflictions all belong to the nature of consciousness—there is no jñāna. Noble ones who have attained the fruits and awakened to the true mind but have not eliminated afflictions have some wisdom in what they think and contemplate; the strengthened power of wisdom of the cognitive mind is called prajñā, but it is not yet jñāna. Broadly speaking, it still falls within the domain of the nature of consciousness and cannot be fully relied upon. Therefore, many people, after studying some Dharma, consider themselves how 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 of the mental factor of conceit (māna). For many people, what they believe to be non-doubt is not really non-doubt either. When wisdom is insufficient, even when doubt exists, one cannot detect it through introspection; what one believes to be fact is often not fact either—it is merely a misjudgment.