The Eye Of Wisdom

Human beings have two eyes and two kinds of eye. One kind sees Dhamma and is called the Eye of Wisdom. The other kind sees just material things and is called the Worldly Eye. It is said, that the Dhamma Eye or Eye of Wisdom sees the inner spiritual world and the other Worldly Eye sees the external material world. Both kinds of vision must be wise, or they will blocked from seeing reality and will be distracted by greed, hatred and ignorance. How can vision be wise? This is a key question which we human beings should frequently ask ourselves, for only then will we be prompted to seek an answer. Both the inner spiritual world and external material worlds are equally important, therefore neither of them should be ignored. Both must be treated equally. There is a Zen story which explains this well. Here is the story:

There was once a new monk, who was new to Buddhist study and meditation. One day after a class, he approached a senior monk and asked him, "Brother! A Boddhisattava has a thousand eyes, how many eyes are true?" The senior monk replied, "Only one is true." The new student doubted this and persisted by asking a further question, "Why is only one eye true, brother?" The answer he received was this: "The one true eye is the wisdom that is within each person. Let us consider the actions of a blind man and how he reaches out for this and that without seeing. In the morning, when your alarm clock rings, you switch it off without opening your eyes. Which eye are you and the blind man using?" The new monk answered without hesitation, "Yes, that must be the Eye of Wisdom, brother. I understand now that the Eye of Wisdom is the only one with true vision and this sees all that is about us in the here and now."

This story teaches us that we need to wise up both kinds of vision, so our path in life becomes clear. If we are wise, we can see beyond material things. What we then see can be called the truth. The world is in a muddle now because people don’t use their Eye of Wisdom to view things. People are distracted and deluded by greed, hatred and ignorance. These desires mix them up, or bring them down. People become distressed, depressed, anxious and suffer. These things can be called the darkness of life. Only wisdom will lead the world out of the darkness. Why, then, do people not use it?

Wisdom is the only one brilliant light that can illuminate the whole world.