Wisdom is the fourth Parami or quality of an Awakened Being. Wisdom is not something we accumulate over long periods of study. Nor is wisdom the same as power. We’ve all met people who are intelligent and powerful, but by no means wise. Wisdom is available to us, through direct reflection and experience.

We discover wisdom when our hearts come to rest with the inexorably changing nature of the seasons of life. Wisdom knows truly and deeply that we are given gifts of joy and of sorrow in our life, so lets go of struggle and rests the heart in them. It discovers what is universally true in all the changing circumstances of life—the difficult and painful, the beautiful and joyful.

This quality of wisdom comes to life with “don’t know mind” and thus sees the eternal laws—that everything changes, and that what is in our hearts creates how the world will be–that if we act with 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 happiness grows from generosity, loving kindness, spaciousness and openness. Wisdom sees and responds lovingly, fearlessly and appropriately—seeing sorrow, it responds with compassion; seeing happiness, it responds with joy; it provides medicine for the sick and food for the hungry, and acts and speaks out against injustice, with kindness.

With wisdom, the awakened heart lives fully and die unconfused, in peace.