Walking in Wisdom
– a path of view, meditation and action –
by Tarchin Hearn
In Buddhism, wisdom is not a knowledge of ultimate facts or truth but an ever deepening process of understanding, life enhancing connectivity, and communion.
In this sense, wisdom is living.
Not something we have,
but something we do.
It is the fundamental ground that we are.
We radically intermingle; cells and organs, minds and bodies, creatures and communities, beings and environments, the so called animate and the so called inanimate.
Cells live together as organs. They are affected by the activity of organs while organs are affected by the activities of cells. Minds are shaping and crafting bodies, while bodies facilitate the manifesting of minds. Creatures determine communities while communities shape creatures. Beings affect their environments while environments affect the beings that make them up. Animate is affecting inanimate as, simultaneously, inanimate is shaping animate. This is a broad and all-encompassing view.
Learning the art of embracing this multi-leveled dynamic of interpenetrating realms and times; learning the art of participating in this; engaging with this; and being this; and so unfolding the potentialities inherent in this; – is to master the craft of meditation – the way of inclusive integration.
Maturing this craft, until it perfumes all activities of body, speech and mind, permeating every aspect of relating, so that the hint of wholeness is everywhere revealed, is the fruition of this work. Collaboration, symbiosis, compassion’s play unceasing – this is the action
Wisdom, meditation/integration, wholesome relating;
view, meditation, action;
ecology, meditation and living dharma;
base, path and fruition;
prajna, samadhi and sila;
different ways of naming a single wondrous path.
A primordially immanent budding,
this living truth,
this community of ever evolving balance and ineffable mystery,
this middle way,
this eight-noble-fold path,
may we see it, learn it and live it
. . . AH!
You might view the above as a description of ‘what is’ with the idea that it is something we are, or should be, working towards. I suspect this would be a form of conceit. After all, life’s story is an unfinished work in progress. I prefer to see my description as simply part of the effort of unfolding this moment, the work that I need to do now, a work that needs to be done at this point in history. It is not intended as a grand answer or delineation of the ultimate state of affairs. Rather, it is part of the process of energizing our living today – a step on a journey of deepening understanding, deepening life enhancing connectivity and deepening communion. This is surely wisdom walking in wisdom.