Ven. K. L. Dhammajoti

The fundamental aim of the Buddha’s teachings––Buddhist education––is the attainment of Wisdom (paññā/prajñā) that lead to the transcendence of the existential unsatisfactoriness of  saṃsāra. This is the true aim of the Dhamma/Dharmaas education. All the subsequent genuine Buddhist traditions that flowed out from the perfect Wisdom attained in the Buddha’s Enlightenment accord with this aim. Bāhiya’s story in the Pāli Udāna well illustrates this. Living a simple life of non-attachment, Bāhiya came to (and was made to) understand that he had become an arahant. But advised by a devatā, he realized his erroneous understanding; and finally practising pure awareness as instructed by the Buddha, he attained his liberation. His earlier conceptual understanding was mistaken, though convincing; practising wholeheartedly according to the Buddha’s instruction, he finally achieved liberating insight (Wisdom). In brief, spiritual insight is possible only through a radical transformation of our consciousness, not through conceptual knowledge. And this requires, in particular, meditative praxis and deep commitment. The same emphasis is consistently found in the doctrines of the Prajñāpāramitāand Yogācāra traditions. The former distinguishes the uniquely new prajñāpāramitādoctrine from the Śrāvaka-yāna and Pratyekabuddha-yāna by the “Equipoise of non-cling to all dharmas (sarvadharma-aparigṛhīto nama samādhiḥ)”, and states that “so long as the Vajra-like samādhi has not been acquired, [the bodhisattva] does not attain the All-mode Knowledge (sarva-ākāra-jñatā; i.e. Perfect Wisdom)”; the latter teaches the culmination of all spiritual training in the “transformation of the support-basis (āśraya-parāvṛtti)”––essentially, the revolutionary transformation, through meditative praxis, of our ordinary mode of consciousness into Wisdom. In all these traditions, the requisites for such a radical transformation are clear: firm resolution for True Enlightenment/Wisdom, receptivity to higher possibilities in the unfoldment of human potentials, meditation, and compassion.

Moreover, the distinctive stress is discernible that while ethical and meditative praxis are undoubtedly essential, true Wisdom cannot be achieved unless, to begin with, there is proper aspiration and commitment––not just intellectual acknowledgement––for its attainment. It is from this perspective that we should understand such statement as that in the Ratnakūṭa, one of the earliest Mahāyāna sūtras, that “the śrāvaka, even though accomplished in all ethical training, ascetic practices and samādhi (sarvaśīlaśikṣā-dhutaguṇa-samādhi-samanvāgata), will never be fully enlightened.” Rather than defensively reacting to such proposition, we should humbly appreciate its stress that no truly “wisdom-oriented education” (theme of this conference) is possible unless our emotion and volition are also deeply involved at the deepest, existential level––going far beyond the domain of mere ordinary intellectual learning. Accordingly, Mahāyāna stresses the need for the bodhicitta, and the perfection of prajñā through the perfection of karuṇā. Indeed, for modern Buddhists considering a “Wisdom-oriented education” system, there is a lot to learn from the ancient Buddhist traditions.