wisdom & ignorance

The Buddhist scholar monk Bhikkhu Bodhi explains that ignorance is not just an absence of knowledge - “It is an insidious and volatile mental factor incessantly at work inserting itself into every compartment of our inner life. It distorts cognition, dominates volition, and determines the entire tone of our existence.”

Whereas ignorance obscures the true nature of things, wisdom removes the veils of distortion - enabling us to witness a situation in its essential mode of being - through our direct perception and not clouded over by filters and bias. 

burned out utility pole - photo © Igor Podgorny

Training in wisdom is rooted in the development of insight (vipassana-bhavana) - a deep and comprehensive seeing into the nature of existence which fathoms the truth of our being - from our own experience. 

Normally we are immersed in our experience - identified with it so completely that we do not comprehend it. We live it but fail to understand its nature. 

Due to this blindness an experience can be misconstrued - affected by the delusions of permanence, pleasure, and self. 

Of these cognitive distortions, the most insidious and resistant is the delusion of self - the idea that at the core of our being there exists a truly established “I” with which we are essentially identified. 

The Buddha teaches this notion of self is an error - preconceived and lacking reference. Although mostly guesswork the idea of self is not inconsequential. It entails consequences that can be calamitous. 

Because we make the view of self the lookout point from which we survey the world our minds divide everything up into the dualities of “I” and “not I” - what is “mine” and what is “not mine.” 

Trapped in this divisive separation we easily fall victim to the distortion they breed. These urges to grasp and destroy cause to the suffering that inevitably follows. 

Non-resistant behavior that accepts and allows more gracefully can bring the clarity and balance sought when we face challenge and chaos. Only when we know and love ourselves well is this possible. 

Acknowledging myself as much as others, owning my behavior and respecting those of another.