Geshe la's teaching on Wisdom & Method is central not only to Buddhist thought, but to ethical teaching from most philosophical traditions. Simply put, the take-away message is to "practice what you preach."
Things, of course, are never quite that simple, and as we have learned to expect, the Tibetans have worked out in some detail this relationship between what we know and how we manifest what we know. As you may have noticed, Geshe la has also been giving us recently a little more practical advice on how to meditate (count to ten, reverse, count down from ten, and so forth), and these instructions are part and parcel of the larger subject, Wisdom and Method.
But first, how do we work out the relationship between Wisdom and Method? First of all, it is very important to realize that the two exist in a clear relationship. Wisdom, ideally, guides your methods or actions, and your actions in the world are productive and helpful only to the degree that they are consonant with wisdom. The relationship between the two is so close, in fact, that they tend to define and envigorate each other. Stated negatively, the relationship is even clearer: wisdom without method, or intelligence that is not enacted in the world, is simply empty intellectualism, perhaps even a form of vanity, and method devoid of wisdom, or acting in the world without benefit of knowledge about the world's true nature, is either without consequence or destructive. A waste of our time, at least.
So the task we face is to align our actions in the world with our knowledge of the Dharma. As the latter grows, and as our knowledge of how to align the two proceeds, our actions become more effective, more reflective of the truth of the Dharma. Why has Geshe la begun to give more practical advice on meditation? Because it is through meditation that we become familiar with the truths that will fuel our actions. Meditation, as Geshe conceives of it, clarifies, cements, and identifies the union of Wisdom and Method until the two are seen as they truly exist: as two sides of the same coin. Wisdom becomes that which is manifested through effective action, and Method becomes that which manifests the truth of the Dharma, as we currently understand it. The one, if you will, defines the other.
I once heard an enlightened being described simply as someone who is in full possession of a very advanced skill set for applying the truth of the Dharma to our daily lives. In other words, an enlightened being is someone who has fully incorporated Method & Wisdom. That makes sense to me because it removes the mysticism from enlightenment and leaves us with the simple, but extraordinarily difficult task of removing from our own personal repertoires all of those habitual actions and reactions that continue to cause us and others so much suffering. It removes the whole notion of waiting too, which is central to much Western spirituality (see Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot), because we are the only ones who can correct those bad habits, and the work can and should begin now and not tomorrow, or when we arrive in Heaven, or not, or wherever it is we might imagine our journeys to end.
But understanding the relationship between Method and Wisdom is a gradual process. It's involved with study, with meditation, and with expirement, this last quality being consistent with the Buddha's final advice that we must, each of us, work out our own salvations. That no one can do it for us. And finally, after all of the study and meditation is done, we have to assess honestly what is working for us, what is yielding results and increasing our net stores of happiness, and what is not working for us. And this is simply a process of honest experimentation, one that foregrounds, however, the relationship between Method and Wisdom.
Sidney Burris, Tibetan Cultural Institute of Arkansas
