Jnana is healing knowledge.
While learning about this tenth and final paramita, the word knowledge is regularly used to translate it. The reason so many Western writers use other translations (like awakened awareness) is because for us, knowledge is so riddled with complications. Knowledge can be disembodied knowing, which is the opposite of what jnana intends. So this week, I’ve been thinking about how we can hold onto the concept of knowledge and place it in a context that would honor the intent.
The word “healing” continues to show up in my search. In the same way doctors use what they know to bring healing to patients, jnana brings healing to those who embody it. Can we understand this paramita as healing knowledge?
If jnana describes the perfection of knowledge, then it points to knowledge that is most wisely applied. Knowledge that builds up. Knowledge that brings harmony and goodness. And I’m reminded, of course, that in Greek, perfection means wholeness. Not “exactly right-strictly this way” but whole and complete. True.
When knowledge is whole, it is also healing. When we think of all the times humanity has chosen wrongly, it’s when we have used knowledge to bring about harm or destruction. Knowledge contains power, and power can be used either for good or for evil.
I see so many places in our world right now where knowledge is being used for evil. Or where knowledge is being suppressed in a way that is harming our healing. As I’ve prayed and mourned over what’s happening at the border, over climate change, I can’t help but feel that one of our primary problems is that we are hiding from the truth. And, like the now-cliche line from A Few Good Men, maybe it’s because we think we can’t handle it.
But we can.
Awakened awareness, healing knowledge, already resides within us. We can choose to listen. We can decide to move toward its healing, and bring that healing to bear upon our world.
The question isn’t whether we can. It’s whether we will.
This post is part of the Paramita Project, where I’m practicing one paramita each month. Read all my posts on the tenth and final paramita, jnana, here.
