On
Pañña
(Discernment - Wisdom)
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On the importance of discrimination (pañña) - the "Wisdom" of the sage.
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In dhamma-vicaya-sambojjhaṅga, the word vicaya is usually translated in Pali as: search，investigation，examination.
But it never includes the underlying meaning of: segregate , select , pick out , cull - as found in TS., ŚBr., and later on MBh.
Bhikkhu Bodhi is the only one to have (quite rightly,) translated dhamma-vicaya-sambojjhaṅga as: "the enlightenment factor of discrimination of states".
But the real meaning of vicaya is "discriminating" ("segregating") and "culling".
For indeed the discrimination of states must be done when one feels.
What kind of feeling is one experiencing? - His, or an external one? - That is the question one must ask himself.
To put it simply; when one sees a Picasso, is it Picasso's feeling that one experiences, or does one experience one's "own" feeling?
What imports? - WHAT we feel, or HOW do we feel (pleasant-unpleasant-Neither,nor)? (SN 12.37) - In other words, what is this "to be felt" feedback, and for what/who?
What can be one's "own" feeling - What can be a somewhat "genuine" own feeling?
Wisdom (pañña/discrimination) is just the outcome of the enlightenment factor of culling (removing the external (usually wrong & bad,) to let the internal rise (right & good)). It is just about knowing that our empty fields of experience (ayatana[ni]) are constantly "attacked" by the external khandhas (see simile of the Vipers (SN 35.238)).
The only "genuine" feeling one can have; comes from the yoni, (the germinal cause) of one's own feelings, that is found in the saṅkhāra nidāna, at the inception of paṭiccasamuppāda. This yoni is kāya, or more precisely breath (assāsapassāsa). And it is good. It is goodness indeed. For if this yoni had been bad at inception; we would not be here now, said Buddha.
So trust this yoni - rely on this yoni. And build (manasikaroti) a feeling from it. And that is one's "own" feeling, coming from one's "own" breath.
However, the escape is also to get away from that yoni. For if the prelude was good, the maturation showed to be disastrously painful (dukkha). This is why it is said by Buddha, to leave that breath aside, at the end of the fourth Jhana.
Paṭiccasamupāda leads inevitabely to dukkha; even if it started with the feeling of goodness, of the first immaterial breath.
Reach back to the yoni - and then break loose.
Know your "self" - know your transient and delusory "atta", through that breath (ānāpānasati) - know your own feeling, that comes directly from that yoni. And liberate your citta (cetovimutti) from the bond of the senses.
Discriminate first between the external & the internal.
Be wise (pañña) through vicaya.
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Pali:
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Vicaya，[fr．vi+ci： see vicinati]
Vicinati[vi+cināti] to investigate，examine，discriminate
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Sanskrit:
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विचय vicaya [act. vici]
विचि vici [vi-√ ci]
- to segregate , select , pick out , cull TS. ŚBr. MBh.
- to divide VS..
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वि vi
- apart, asunder (opp. to [ sam -together)].
(expresses " division " , " distinction ").
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√ चि ci
- to observe , perceive RV.
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