Wisdom, the fourth parami or emanation of an Awakened Being, is not accumulated by long periods of study or linear thinking, or attained by amassing power.  We’ve all met people who are intelligent and powerful, and yet not wise.

The heart discovers wisdom when, through direct reflection and experience, it rests in the inexorably changing nature of the seasons of life.  Wisdom knows truly and deeply that we are given pleasure and pain, gain and loss, praise and blame, fame and disrepute, so lets go of struggle, resting the heart.  Thus, it discerns what is universally true in all circumstances—the difficult and painful, the beautiful and joyful.

This parami of wisdom comes to life with “don’t know mind” seeing the eternal laws—that the only constant is change, and that the quality of our heart creates how the world will be—that if we act from anger, hatred and vengeance, that will be returned to us, and if we act with love and compassion, that will grow in us. Wisdom knows that sorrow is caused by grasping, anger, fear and confusion and that true happiness grows from generosity, loving kindness, patience and spaciousness. The heart of wisdom sees and responds lovingly, fearlessly and appropriately.  Knowing our interdependence, it responds to suffering with compassion; to happiness with joy; it provides medicine for the sick, food for the hungry, and acts and speaks out against injustice, with love and kindness.

The wise awakened heart lives fully and dies unconfused, in peace.

With metta,
Gina Sharpe
Guiding Teacher