For wisdom — to awaken our “inner treasure” — we need sharpness (analytical meditation) and steadiness (single-pointed concentration meditation) for it to be fruitful.
Namely samatha (शमथ, Tib. ཞི་གནས་) and vipassanā (विपश्यना, Tib. ལྷག་མཐོང་). A doctor can be very wise, but if he is not focused, it’s not effective! Just like a candle light: bright (stronger light) and stable (no flickering).
Therefore, the two attitudes needed to grow wisdom: mindfulness (དྲན་པ་) — remembering the object, staying present — and introspection (ཤེས་བཞིན་) — monitoring, checking if you wandered. These two decides how grounded you are in what you do and your thinking.
There are three levels to mindfulness and introspection: one to manage physical actions, one for verbal actions and one for mental actions.
The training of mindfulness and introspection to manage physical and verbal actions → discipline.
The harder is the training of mindfulness and introspection to manage mental actions.
| Quality | Training Required |
|---|---|
| steadiness | morality (śīla, शील, Tib. ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་) and meditative concentration (samādhi, Skt. समाधि Tib. ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་) |
| brightness | wisdom (prajñā, प्रज्ञा, Tib. ཤེས་རབ་) |
So these trainings are split into 3 baskets (Tipiṭaka, त्रिपिटक, Tib. སྡེ་སྣོད་གསུམ་), three sets of teachings:
| Training | Basket (Piṭaka) |
|---|---|
| Morality | Vinaya |
| Meditative Concentration | Sutta |
| Wisdom | Abhidhamma |