Dharma Talks of Düsum Khyenpa • Day Three
29 December 2025
"I'd like to speak about prajna using contemporary language as best I can to make it easy to understand,’’ His Holiness Karmapa began.
The first type of prajna is born from listening. This is knowing what a situation is and being able to identify it.
For example, sometimes when people ignore us, don't recognize us, don't praise us, we feel upset, or get angry. And sometimes when we're doing something very well, and people don't praise us, then we get disappointed. When that happens, what we need to do is study the dharma and the various related issues. Gradually, we can come to understand what lies behind our upset and disappointment, and what it is that makes us angry. What actually is behind it is really within our own mind,
We are hoping for attention when we get upset. That’s about expectation. We need to know it. When we realize that behind this are the three poisons - the afflictions- based on our own hope, expectation, and fear, and that is why our mind is disturbed. This is the prajna born of listening.
The prajna born of contemplation is like analysis and realization. It's good to understand it in this way, Sometimes, when a strong rush of afflictions arises, as when you hear suddenly that someone has deceived you, and you get incredibly angry at them, at that moment, instead of being led by the afflictions, you need to find a way to calm your mind. The first thing is to pause and think. Take a break from thoughts for a minute. Instead, just take a long, deep breath. At that point, look carefully at your anger.
Look at the situation from a different perspective. If you do this, then you can temporarily prevent the afflictions from being too strong, and instead suppress them. Then you won't come under their control.
The prajna-born of contemplation is like analysing and re-examining, thinking in a relaxed way about what the situation really is, so that our minds are not overcome immediately by the afflictions. Doing this is the prajna born of contemplation.
The prajna-born of meditation is turning inwards and becoming habituated to it. When an affliction first arises, we apply our mindfulness. We change the way we are used to thinking, and gradually understand what to apply, so that applying the antidote becomes a habit, a natural reaction or a reflex. It becomes part of your nature. If you're able to apply these new habits, then the benefit is that while previously the afflictions were easy to arise, now it has changed.
For example, you used to think that what you said and thought was true. You acquired this habit but you can gradually change old habits and create new ones. And when you have new habits, no matter what afflictions and thoughts arise, they won't be able to create conflict as they did before. Instead, when an affliction arises, you just let it be, let it go, let it happen. Let it go wherever it goes. It's really important to become habituated to it.
Next, I would like to give an actual example how we can apply these 3 types of prajna, of listening, contemplating, and meditation in our lives.
For example, if we want to do something for our health or fitness, take care of our body, exercise or lead a different type of lifestyle, then we also need the prajna of listening, contemplation, and meditation.
The prajna of listening, for example, is knowing what's happening, learning everything you need to know about exercise and taking care of your health. If we know you should not eat too much sugar and greasy food, that it's hard on your health, this is the first stage of the prajna of listening: gaining knowledge about the topic that you're interested in changing.
The prajna born of contemplation is making the intention to do something. To take an example in terms of diet, health, physical exercise or training, when the craving to eat a lot of junk food comes up, then, "Oh, I know if I eat this, then in the long term, the same difficulty is going to recur." You'll be able to restrain your own mind. Or when we don't want to exercise, we think about the benefits that will arise if we do exercise, in this way, we can motivate ourselves using logic and reasoning to think about the benefits and temporarily change old habits. This is the prajna of contemplation.
The prajna of meditation is when you've done this for a long time regularly, to improve your physical condition, you develop habits.
When it becomes a habit, then you don't have to work hard for it because you know that physically and mentally, you feel better. When you've been practicing, you have more energy, more strength and you enjoy it naturally, you don't really have to push yourself too hard. That is how we use the prajna of listening, contemplation, and meditation.
Now, another thing that I'd like to speak about is that when we talk about prajna we think about whether someone is smart. We mistake being smart for prajna. How I understand this.is that there are basically two different types of prajna. There is smart intelligence, and then there is emotional intelligence.
Sometimes we have the kind of intelligence that is a strong ability to think in terms of reason and logic. But it's possible that this might be afflicted intelligence. What we really mean is that you're being able to do things, have strong knowledge, and a sense of movement. That's like a high IQ.
But there's another type. There's also emotional intelligence. So if you have a high EQ, it's like being skilled at establishing connections with other people, having leadership ability, and managing our relationships with people. If we're talking about IQ or EQ, the similarity between these two is that neither appear to the inner mind, but instead to the outer material world of things. They're primarily investigating how things work, solving actual difficulties that arise outside.
For example, when scientists investigate the universe and doctors research treatments for diseases, they all rely on logic, experience, knowledge, and so forth.
However, when we're talking about prajna in Buddhism, it's a little different. What prajna is paying attention to, as the glorious Dusum Khyenpa said, is not ordinary intelligence. What we need is the prajna of listening, contemplating, and meditation, which becomes the antidote for the afflictions. Primarily we have to pay attention to our own self. The connection between our self and the world.is what prajna looks at. What prajna investigates is the fundamental questions of our life. For example, what reason do we have to live? What gives meaning to our life? What is the reason we are alive? And understanding what is virtue, what is a misdeed; what is worth pursuing, and what is not worth pursuing.
Prajna is not relying primarily on our knowledge or logic or reasoning, instead, it's turning our attention inwards to investigate what the nature of our body and mind is, and developing our own internal experience.
In brief, being intelligent or smart is a question of whether we have education or logic and see the reactions they make. It’s whether we’re able to work efficiently to achieve short-term goals, and how we can quickly and precisely accomplish a task.
Prajna, however, depends on our own experience and turning our experience inwards. Instead of turning our attention outwards. It's like thinking how we can organize our mind and the long-term goals for our overall well-being. Do we know why we are we doing this task or any task we're doing? What makes it good? What is it best to do?
If we think about this life of ours as a long journey then being intelligent and smart gives us a detailed map that shows us where to go, what the easiest road is, what is the right direction, what equipment we need and what are the facilities. So that is the benefit of smartness. If we get lost. Prajna helps to remain peaceful and stable in our mind. Prajna is not like some capacity, like a tool. Rather, it becomes a fundamental way of deciding how we need to live.
In the Chinese Chan Buddhist tradition, there's a short story that I thought to tell you.
Once there was a very learned scholar, a wise guy, highly educated. He got into a boat to cross the river with a boatman rowing it. The scholar asked him, "Are you literate? Do you know how to write?" And the boatman said, "No, I don't know." The scholar replied ‘’Well, do you know history?" And the boatman said, "No. "And then the scholar said, "Do you know mathematics?" And he said, "No, I don't know that." Then do you know philosophy?" And the boatman shook his head. The wise scholar thought about it, shook his head, and sighed. "If that's the case, then you've lost half of the meaning of your life."
All of a sudden, a violent wind came up, and the tiny boat was about to capsize. And so the boatman asked the scholar, ‘’Do you know how to swim?" The scholar was really terrified. "I don't know how to swim." And the boatman said, "If that's the case, there's a danger that you're going to lose your entire life."
In this story, we've got the scholar, the symbol of intelligence, and the boatman, a symbol of prajna. He knows what to do to protect his own life.
Gathering huge amounts of knowledge is not what we mean by prajna. It means instead, when you get to a really critical situation, being able to understand what you need to do. Prajna gets directly to the point of what our life is. Prajna transcends logic and reasoning. It's pointing the finger at exactly the right spot.
Innate prajna
We have innate prajna and also developed prajna— people with dull and sharp faculties. Drukpa Kunley once said about people’s faculties, that their intelligence is getting stronger, but their faculties are getting weaker. That is a reference to innate prajna.
Some people are very sharp from the beginning and have great faculties. Some people are dull and don't have a lot of prajna. The sharp faculties here refer to our capacity to realize the nature of things.
When you get into a situation, it involves the capacity to realize the nature of the situation and understand its real point. It transcends logic and reasoning. You have to be able to look at things directly and clearly. It's not only thinking with reasoning and logic. Instead, realization means that whatever's happening, inside your mind becomes clearer and clearer. It's like opening the eye of the mind.
For example, when we talk about the nature of emptiness, and about subject and object, it's like a building with a bridge between the two. When that happens, it becomes like a pith instruction.
We talk about the mother and child luminosity recognizing each other. What does this mean? It's like the feeling between a mother and her child.
When the child was born, it grew up with its mother. Between the mother and child, there's a natural mutual understanding. The child doesn't need to say anything and the mother doesn't need to either. They know what each other wants. They know without saying. because they know each other, naturally, directly.
Recognizing the mother and child luminosity is basically the same. For example, within the Chan Buddhist tradition, (not only in Chinese, also in Japan and Korea and in Vietnam) there’s a very popular lineage and within the lineage, there are several early patriarchs. One of them is the sixth patriarch, Huai Nang, who was illiterate. He didn't know how to read or write. Even though he was illiterate he was indisputably recognized as a great accomplished master. Looked at from the outside, there was no way to know he was a great knowledge holder, much less a great accomplished master. His master was the fifth patriarch of the Chan tradition.
At night that patriarch would call him to come alone to his room, and he would talk in between midnight and early morning, teaching him the Diamond Sutra. When he reached a state that abides nowhere and lets the mind arise, Huai Nang suddenly achieved realization.
So therefore, realizing the nature by sharp faculties and that kind of prajna does not mean that you necessarily have to be a scholar or have education. If you have strong innate prajna, then you naturally have the capacity to realize the nature of mind,
These days on the internet, there's a term, ‘a smart person.’ When we meet a smart person, what we think is, "Oh, boy, they're really smart." "They're incredibly intelligent." But when you meet someone who has realization, someone who actually has prajna, we think,’Oh, now that's how it is’. This is really how it is.
Now I've spoken about prajna, I'd like to add the six qualities said by the Dharma Lord Dusum Khenpa, required to achieve the unexcelled state of a buddha. The first is faith, the second is prajna, and the third one is compassion. Without faith, you will not enter the Dharma or practice it. There's no way you can even talk about Dharma. If you don't have prajna, you won't be able to liberate yourself from samsara, because without prajna, you cannot realize either impermanence, emptiness, or the Four Noble Truths.
Without compassion, you will not be able to achieve buddhahood. You won't even seek buddhahood, because you first have to possess the wish to achieve it. That's what we call bodhicitta. In order to develop bodhicitta, you absolutely must have compassion.
As Dusum Khenpo wrote: " You might have great prajna, but without compassion, it will not help. Thus, compassion is important."
The White Lotus of True Dharma says:
"There is one quality that if you have it, all qualities are in the palm of your hand. What is it? It is great compassion. If someone has compassion, they can reach heaven's level of enlightenment."
The King of Samadhi Sutra says:
"Can one achieve unexcelled enlightenment with one quality?"
The Buddha replied:
"There is one excellent unexcelled quality. It is great compassion."
In order to practice the Dharma, we need great compassion, which is like the head when you practice, If you don't have hands, you can still do things, but if you don't have a head, you cannot. Compassion is like the head.
Now, this is talked about in the White Lotus of True Dharma.
It spread widely in China, Japan, and other places, although not in Tibet,
The King of Samadhi Sutra is the principal scriptural source for the Mahamudra teachings and our own lineage, the Dakpo Kagyu. They're considered extremely important teachings.
When staying in Chang and Gyatang, the 10th Karmapa, Choying Dorje, gave teachings on both the White Lotus of True Dharma as well as the King of Samadhi Sutra.
Generally speaking, there are two types of Mahayana sutras: those that accord with and are accessible to the shravaka or common vehicles, such as the Mother of the Victorious Ones (Prajñāpāramitā), and those that are exclusively Mahayana and fully express its distinctive features. The White Lotus of True Dharma expresses the distinctive, uncommon Mahayana view. Similarly, The Ornament of Liberation is distinct from other teachings on the stages of the path in its connection to the White Lotus sutra. It begins with buddha nature and teaches that nirvana other than the non-abiding nirvana that does not dwell in either samsara or peace is not true nirvana—such points demonstrate how it fully expresses the distinctive formulation of the uncommon Mahayana.
The reason we say that great compassion is extremely important is why we use the term "Mahayana." It is not primarily based on the philosophical view. It is based on our capacity to bear responsibility. That is what makes it Mahayana, that capacity to bear responsibility which comes from our altruistic commitment to sacrifice our self for others.
For example, if someone is called a good person, we're not talking about their education or their training. Primarily we're talking about, whether they have a good heart. Do they have an altruistic attitude? That's what we identify as a good person.
In the same way, Mahayana depends upon our intention. Similarly, with compassion, we first have to have the intention to achieve enlightenment. That's bodhicitta. It is not merely an aspiration to achieve buddhahood for yourself. Instead, we think, “I must achieve this state for the sake of all sentient beings, from the very beginning.” Only then is it bodhicitta. The very purpose of accomplishing the state of buddhahood is to be able to benefit all sentient beings. If you don't have that wish to achieve buddhahood, then there's no point to achieve buddhahood. In that case, the nirvana of the shravakas and the pratyekabuddhas would be fine. They have achieved excellent benefit for themselves. What it comes down to is whether we have a real loving attitude for all sentient beings in our mind or not.
Gampopa said in his excellent and beautiful talks that in order to achieve buddhahood, the cause is bodhicitta. What is the cause for bodhicitta to develop in our mind stream? We must first meditate on compassion and train our mind in loving-kindness, the wish for all sentient beings to be happy. When we have fully trained the mind in compassion and loving-kindness, then it's impossible for bodhicitta not to arise in your mind stream.
The Ornament of the Sutra says,
"The root is planted in uncontrived compassion.from the depths of our mind.’’
When we develop genuine loving-kindness in our mind, we are able to develop uncontrived compassion. There's no other way to arouse bodhicitta.
There's no way we can achieve it if we have only self-interest. Self-interest is the cause of all great suffering.
If we don't have loving-kindness, compassion, and bodhicitta, then no matter what we do, it will not actually benefit others. If our long-term goal is based on self-interest and we try to benefit others, it’s just self-oriented mental engagement. The glorious Chandrakirti also said, in Entering the Middle Way:
Compassion alone is accepted to be the seed of the Buddha's perfect harvest.
Water to grow it, and its ripening will be long-enjoyed.
So I will therefore praise compassion first.
Instead of praising the buddhas and bodhisattvas, he praises great compassion, because compassion is like the seed. Similarly, the qualities of the bodhisattvas developed because of compassion. So, compassion is like watering crops. To sum it up if you want to achieve the state of buddhahood, spontaneously and unceasingly until samsara has been emptied, first comes the desire for great compassion,
Of course, it's easy to say. But how do we develop it in our body, in our mind stream?
The way I think about developing faith, prajna and compassion is that arousing compassion is actually a little bit difficult. Prajna is a little bit more difficult than faith, and compassion is actually even more difficult than prajna.,
Compassion arises from observing the suffering of sentient beings. Observing sentient beings of all kinds arouses compassion. There's no one who doesn't experience suffering. All are experiencing countless sufferings, great and small.
If we abandon self-interest and instead consider the suffering of other sentient beings, gradually we will be able to arouse compassion. There's plenty of opportunity to do this, to take responsibility for others’ suffering
Think about it. Gradually we will develop compassion and it will grow and grow inside our being.
