Prajnaparamita

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Prajnaparamita

Lama Lhundrup

LL2024 TK7

In the journey of a bodhisattava, these different paramitas. And you know these transcendent qualities, liberating qualities called the paramitas. They all have one stem, which is compassion. They all come, come from compassion, whether it’s generosity or whether it’s meditation. Everything is motivated by this compassion. Now, the aim of all of those is to have the deep understanding of reality called prajna, which is wisdom. This wisdom, this deep understanding that will make it possible to live compassion to its full extent. The whole Buddhist path is actually about developing that wisdom. It’s not about developing deep meditative absorption. That’s only a help, a tool to develop that wisdom. Now, prajna, both pronunciations are correct. This wisdom is defined as the finally distinguishing understanding of the nature of our phenomena. Finally, distinguishing means that it knows the world, all phenomena in all its nuances, in all its vari variations, but it doesn’t only know the variations, the multiplicity of phenomena, it knows the very nature of all those phenomena as being empty unsubstantial, process, process, nature. So we could, we could, um, definitely will go into more detail on, on all these points, but having defined wisdom as this finely differentiating understanding of all phenomenon, then let’s make it simpler. There’s two things to know. The nature of the so-called self and the nature of the, so-called other subject and object.

The Four Extremes

And um, with both sides of the dualistic perception, we encounter tendencies. And everybody in the meditator as well as in the non meditating person we encounter normally the first tendency is to say, this exists. You are there. I’m here. And more So I’m here. I have that emotion. I’m angry and my anger is, is eating me up. You know, you see the solidification, me being eaten up by something which is called anger. This is called belief in existence. And this is the normal thing in the world. We believe problems exist. We believe joys exists. We believe a relationship exists. We believe self exists and others. So normally people need to deal with that belief in existence. Now, okay, intellectually, from an analytical point of view, this is quickly taking apart. I mean me, I existing fine. Okay? Am I the same today as I was yesterday?

No, I’m not even the same as I was at the beginning of the sentence. Not even that. Perception changes, the cellular responses change, the hormonal discharges change. I’m aging and so on. Okay, okay. Okay. You have heard about all of that? The so-called me and the so-called other or the rest of the world are changing processes. Everything is process. Okay? There is nothing that can be grasped as the very solid me, the unchanging, even a so-called soul is learning, is experiencing and has joys and sorrows. If a soul is inert, cannot, that means it cannot learn. It’s not me, then me can learn. So it’s changing. Hey, everything is changing. So this is wisdom. Wisdom has this analytical approach to prajna paramita, the transcendent quality of wisdom.

There is this analytical approach until we understand well, yeah, it’s quite absurd to think of me as something stable. And it’s quite absurd to think of the world as something stable. Actually, there’s a proof to the process, nature of the world every day. It’s called dust. Dust shows that the world is changing is, you know, things are disintegrating all the time. Dust everywhere. Yes. Changes against our wishes. Okay? Everything is changing. Very easy analytically to dismantle the belief in existence. Now, when we look into the nature of sensory processes and we can’t find sound, where is that sound now?

Now? No, no.

It God cannot be found. Then we say sound is empty, empty of something solid. And we do the same with the idea of self. Where’s the self? Yeah. Cannot be found. Then we say self is empty of true existence. And then like this, we would do for all the phenomena, we tend to fall into the opposite ideal of non-existence. We say nothing exists. Nothing exists,

No. Uh,

This word is just, it’s just a projection. Nothing exists. I don’t exist. You don’t exist. Yeah. Nihilism. This is the, this is the pitfall of just adhering to the opposite of our previous belief. Since that is not true, the opposite must be true, but the opposite is also not true. Non-existent. Hey, we are talking to each other. If you slap me on the head, I will react. This is not nothing, it is not non-existent. There is something happening, okay? Expedience shows that non-existence is not true. Things do have an effect. We have an effect on each other. Everything has an effect on me. I have an effect on everything else. Okay? So the next philosophical conclusion would be, hmm, existing and non-existing at the same time

That’s illogically absorbed. How can something exist and not exist at the same time? Either it exists, then it is there, I can prove it’s existence or it is not there. And it has been there before and now it’s gone. I can’t find it anymore. But both at the same time is not possible. I’m just trying to convince me that both ways of looking at reality are both somehow they have something for them. Both make sense. But then I see that this combination of the two is just combining opposites. It’s like saying something is black and white at the same time. Hey, combining opposites doesn’t make more sense. If you can’t find the first one, if you can’t find the second one, then combining them doesn’t make more sense than the previous positions. Then you let go and say, okay, it’s neither existing nor non-existing. It’s none of the two. And then if you were clever, you would tell, ask me. But then what are you saying? It’s not this, it’s not a pink elephant. Yeah. And it’s also not a blue bird, whatever, you know, you’re saying it’s not this, not that. But what are you saying about reality? Nothing. It’s a nonsensical statement to say it’s neither existing nor nonexisting.

What has all of that to do with wisdom? Oh, we, we want to know prajna. prajna is one part is about refuting those four positions. These are called the four extremes. There it, it becomes clear. You can refute them and you should spend much more time on it than what I have done. But they, these positions are seen to be untrue. And then prya is not that yet. Wisdom is not taking another standpoint. It is stepping out of all of those wishes to get a grasp on reality and say, reality is like this. It’s like that. No, be happy, be relaxed without any standpoint whatsoever. No point of self, no point of other, no subject, no object, no denial, no affirmation, just being. And you would say that prya prya parameter is unraveling the mystery of life. We begin to understand life beyond the notions of existence and non-existence.

We begin to see the life is unfolding processes. When nothing is solid and everything is influencing everything else. We begin to understand the ungraspable nature of everything at the same time as understanding of how causes, create effects, create results. All of that is one undefinable reality. And this mainstream relaxes the wish to position itself to be someone or something within this field of life. And that’s liberation. Just being without needing to affirm a separateness, a standpoint. So true Pran parameter does not affirm a new standpoint. And however doesn’t say there is no way, no view to see things. There is just a view without identification. So there is a view of everything being of empty and graspable nature. And there is a view, there is a seeing that everything is experienced, that that experience changes due to causes and conditions.

So there is more and more seeing without someone, how to say, grasping at the scene. And this is what needs to be developed. The practice of wisdom is to undermine all these ignorant beliefs about reality through meditation and then to learn how to rest in that simplicity of being without a standpoint. So this open presence where it is very clear, it is very clearly seen that nothing is to be pinpointed, nothing can be grasped. This seeing, which is also called the non seeing. Yeah. This simplicity of knowing, of understanding without solidifying anything. This could be called wisdom. So all meditation of mental, calm. And then inside meditation is to develop this understanding, this non-dual understanding of reality. That’s prajna.