What level of cognition must the conscious mind attain before it can be called wisdom?

The cognitive mind's understanding of the Dharma is divided into different degrees. Cognition heavily obscured by afflictions is usually a wrong view/false view (mithyā-dṛṣṭi); cognition with slightly lighter afflictive obstruction (kleśāvaraṇa) 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 wisdom (jñāna). Wisdom (jñāna) is correct cognition after the afflictive obstructions are gone; because there is no afflictive obstruction, the cognitive mind's cognition carries no afflictive or defiled nature, and its purity is clearly revealed. What it creates are all wholesome karmas and pure karmas, 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 on the verge of parinirvāṇa, He instructed sentient beings of later generations to rely on wisdom (jñāna), not on consciousness. This wisdom is not the wisdom of ordinary intelligence, nor is it the wisdom of the acceptance of non-arising that arises right after attaining the fruits and seeing the mind; rather, it is the wisdom of the acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas (anutpattika-dharma-kṣānti) free from afflictive obstruction, the wisdom that comes after transforming consciousness into wisdom (āśraya-parāvṛtti), the wisdom of the varieties of paths. Right after attaining the fruits and seeing the mind, although one's wisdom is deeper than that of ordinary beings, because of afflictive obstruction, the wisdom is still rather shallow, and the defilement of the mind-ground is still quite evident; sometimes one may even create some unwholesome karma due to afflictions. This is not yet wisdom (jñāna), so one's understanding of the Dharma can only be called wisdom (prajñā), not wisdom (jñāna). As long as the outcome has harmful effects, it is not wise and cannot be called wisdom (jñāna); only when the results are all wholesome is the action a wise move, and only then can it be called wisdom (jñāna) and be relied upon.

Whatever the ordinary being's mind consciousness deliberates and thinks belongs to the nature of consciousness; the discernment and decision-making functions that arise depending on the inertia of afflictions all belong to the nature of consciousness, without wisdom (jñāna). For noble persons who have attained the fruits and seen the mind but have not eradicated afflictions, their thinking carries a certain degree of wisdom; the strengthened power of wisdom (prajñā-bala) of the cognitive mind is called wisdom (prajñā), but it is not yet wisdom (jñāna). On the whole it still falls within the domain of the nature of consciousness and cannot be fully relied upon. Therefore, many people, after learning some Dharma, consider themselves how superior and transcendent—all of this falls within the cognitive range of the nature of consciousness, and 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, a result induced by the mental factor of conceit. For many people, what they themselves consider to be non-doubt is not really non-doubt either; when wisdom is insufficient, even when there is doubt, one cannot detect it through introspection, and what one takes to be fact is often not fact at all—merely a misjudgment.