Undefended Dharma with Mary Stancavage · Mary Stancavage

The Importance of Wisdom

September 29, 2025·28 min·2 clips

Mary Stancavage explains the ten paramis, qualities like wisdom needed for enlightenment, which the Buddha taught individually.

Mary Stancavage introduces the episode by explaining she teaches at Inside Community of the Desert in Palm Springs, focusing on the paramis, qualities like generosity and wisdom needed for liberation. She clarifies wisdom is not mere knowledge but experiential discernment, citing teacher Martene Batchelor. Stancavage references Ajahn Suchito's book 'Crossing the Flood' to outline three aspects of wisdom: knowledge from listening, wisdom of practice recognizing teachings in life, and wisdom of realization as peaceful knowing. She links wisdom to meditation, noting mindfulness as a direct path to realization, as in Bhikkhu Analyo's book. Stancavage discusses wisdom's role in the Eightfold Path as wise view, tied to understanding the Four Noble Truths. She explains the three characteristics of existence—impermanence, suffering, and no self—using Sylvia Borstein's definitions. Stancavage gives personal examples, like aversion to red-haired Bostonians from a past relationship, to show how wisdom helps recognize conditioned biases. She describes how unwise minds build stories, while wisdom involves curiosity and beginner's mind to disentangle from fixed ideas. Stancavage connects wisdom to compassion, noting they arise together from insight into interconnectedness. She concludes by inviting listeners to pause, question stories, and cultivate wisdom through daily mindfulness, emphasizing its support for other paramis and the path to cessation of suffering.

As heard by us

Wisdom is clear seeing, and suffering grows when resistance turns life into a fight.

The episode treats the paramis as practices to develop on the Buddhist path to liberation, then settles into wisdom as clear seeing rather than a store of facts.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

If you want wisdom without the polish, this is for you.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Undefended Dharma with Mary Stancavage