Paramita – Wisdom 4

When we typically think of “wisdom,” we usually think of having a lot of knowledge and being able to understand many concepts. However, as it relates to our spiritual practice, Wisdom means having the ability to see things as they truly are, in their true nature.

This is something that cannot be realized just by reading books, going to lectures, or watching YouTube videos. Although some study and understanding will help us on the path, this vision of wisdom is based in our experience, not in the amount of knowledge we have. This is why we practice, both sitting practice and practice in our daily life. We are looking for the intimate experience of seeing how we experience the world in a very direct way, without the filter of our habitual ways of thinking about things.

One of the ways we can experience this type of Wisdom is through the body. The body is often experienced as just the vehicle for getting our head (mind) through life. As such, there is much of our day, when we are caught in the comings and goings of mental thought, when we even forget we have a body. Often, we aren’t aware of our body until we reach the end of the day and realize how fatigued our body has become, or until we experience an injury that limits the use of our body. Forgetting about the body and not respecting it can have negative consequences that may build up over time. So, we want to work to become more aware of the body. In addition to practices like yoga, or tai chi, or other body and movement-based practices, we can use our meditation practice to become more aware and open to the wisdom of the body.

How does becoming aware of the body help us in our practice? The body has its own storehouse of wisdom. If you think about it carefully, you realize that the body is where all of our experience is recorded. The body holds our memories, our emotions, and all our patterns of thinking and reacting. There is no “experience recorder” in the sky that keeps all this information. It is all right here, with us in each and every moment. This is Good! Because it gives us something to work with in our spiritual practice each and every moment of the day.

In order to access the Wisdom of the body, we have to allow the body to express itself in its own way. Our Compassionate Awareness of Feelings practice is one very effective way we can work with what arises in the body and allow it to show us it’s wisdom. Here is what John Makransky says about this practice in his book Awakening Through Love.

Intense, stressful aspects of our daily lives trigger many difficult feelings in us. Many of us seek to avoid unpleasant feelings by trying to distract ourselves from them, or by trying to suppress them. But by seeking to avoid or suppress feelings, over time, we tighten up inside, which manifests as physical tightness. This inner stress and tightness make it difficult to open to the qualities we cultivate in all of our practices – qualities of openness, kindness, compassion, equanimity, and wisdom. Such stress and tightness also make it difficult to be present to other people in an open-hearted way.

[This practice] shows us that we don’t have to avoid or suppress our feelings and reactions. Instead, we can become compassionately present to all the feelings, in a way that helps them relax, settle, and find their own place – ultimately a place of deep inner healing and releasing. In essence, we learn to become more at home with our feelings. This transforms our ways of being with others, since our ability to be present to our own feelings with kindness and compassion is what enables us to be present to other people and their feelings in the same way.