Wisdom that has gone beyond: Prajna

Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly edit of Wikipedia entry prajna

The Perfection of Wisdom, Prajnaparamita, personified in East Java, Indonesia

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In Europe Wisdom is worshipped as "Sophia"

Prajñā (Sanskrit) or paññā (Pāli), is a Buddhist term translated as "wisdom," "knowledge," or "understanding."

It is described in Buddhist commentaries (tika) as comprehending and penetrating the true nature of phenomena.

In the context of Buddhist meditation, it is the ability to fathom the Three Characteristics of All Things, that they are anicca (impermanent), dukkha (unsatisfactory), and anattā (impersonal).

Mahāyāna Buddhist texts describe it as the understanding of śūnyatā ("emptiness," which is another way of conceiving of the impersonal nature of things).

It is part of the Threefold Training in Buddhism and is one of the Ten Perfections (pāramīs) of Theravada Buddhism and one of the six pāramitās of Mahāyāna.

Etymology

Prajñā is often translated as "wisdom" but according to Buddhist bioethics scholar Damien Keown, it is closer in meaning to "insight," "non-discriminating knowledge," or "intuitive apprehension" [1].

Jñā can be translated as "consciousness," "knowledge," or "understanding" [Web 1]. Pra is an intensifier that can be translated as "higher," "greater," "supreme," or "premium" [Web 2] or "being born or springing up" [2], referring to a spontaneous type of knowing [2] -- such as intuitive comprehension.

Pali scholars T. W. Rhys Davids and William Stede define prajñā or paññā as "intelligence, comprising all the higher faculties of cognition" and "intellect as conversant with general truths" [3].

Goddess Sophia in Bulgaria, Europe

British Buddhist monk and Pāli scholar Ven. Ñāṇamoli translates prajñā and paññā as "understanding," specifically the "state of understanding."

Ven. Ñāṇamoli notes that the Pāli language makes a distinction between the "state of understanding" (paññā) and the "act of understanding" (pajānana) in a way different than English does [4].

Role in Buddhist traditions

Paññā is the fourth virtue of Ten Perfections found in late canonical (Khuddaka Nikāya) and Theravāda commentary and the sixth of the six Mahāyāna perfections [5, 6].

It is the third level of the Threefold Training in Buddhism consisting of virtue, stillness, and wisdom (sīla, samādhi, and paññā) [3].

Theravada Buddhism

Theravada Buddhist commentator Acariya Dhammapala describes paññā as the comprehension of the characteristics of phenomena (all compounded things) with skillful means [7, 8].

Dhammapala states that paññā has the attribute of penetrating the true nature of phenomena [7].  Abhidharma commentaries relate that there are three types of paññā [9, 10, 11]. More