From the Chan perspective, prajna has four prerequisites: hearing, practice, reflection-contemplation, and realization. First, you hear and absorb the teachings of Buddhadharma. Second, you practice Chan meditation, and the paramitas (perfection) while interacting with others. With the right attitude and proper practice, your mind will settle and become more focused.
Third, with your mind still and clear, you contemplate the true nature of existence. In this case, contemplation (guan) is synonymous with reflection and does not mean thinking through an idea analytically. It is in fact, the core of the practice. Practice, in turn, can be diffused practice and focused practice. By diffused practice, I refer to discursive reflection: thinking through concepts and seeing if and how they apply to your life. As you do this, you will absorb the teachings, which will deepen your faith, and, eventually, lead to the kind of focused practice that develops when the mind becomes still. Only a focused mind is capable of the kind of reflection-contemplation needed to become keenly and directly aware of your method, your conduct, and the manifold layers of the workings of mind.
Fourth and last comes realization. The Surangama Sutra states that wisdom can manifest out of debate and reasoning, and in both India and Tibet, there are Buddhist traditions that use dialectical debate to generate wisdom. Other traditions approach wisdom by another path. Although Chan disputes none of these other paths, it espouses methods that can lead to the realization of wisdom through the processes of hearing, practicing, reflecting, and direct realization.
---Master Sheng Yen---
Note: Prajna is the Sanskrit term translated as 'wisdom', insight into the true nature of Reality.
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