“Consciousness (namshé) is impermanent.
Wisdom (yeshé) is permanent. རྣམ་ཤེས་ནི་མི་རྟག་པའོ། ། ཡེ་ཤེས་ནི་རྟག་པའོ། །”
–Buddha Shakyamuni, Questions of Sāgaramati Sutra (Sāgaramatiparipṛcchā Sūtra)
In Buddhism it is considered essential for a Buddhist practitioner to generate two accumulations (sambhāradvaya; ཚོགས་གཉིས་, tsoknyi) merit (བསོད་ནམས་, sönam) and wisdom in order to be able to progress on the path, meet qualified teachers, study, practice and realisations and so on. Both merit and wisdom are necessary for spiritual progress. They are not separate paths, but rather interdependent aspects of the Buddhist path.
Without these, a practitioner could spend years attending teachings or in retreat but not see any progress. The worst case scenario, is when someone has neither much merit nor wisdom, and so they can spend years in Dharma centres, retreats or personal practice and not only no progress, but potentially going backwards and more egoism, arrogance and wrong views.
Here is a brief explanation of the second main accumulation of wisdom, and the difference between Wisdom (Prajñā/Sherab) and Primordial Awareness (Jñāna/Yeshe).
Wisdom (Jñanasambhāra)
The Sutra practice of accumulation of wisdom is generally about studying and meditating on the nature of reality and mind as being empty of inherent existence, lacking any kind of independent self or other, and the emptiness of conditioned appearances. This is called sherab in Tibetan ( ཤེས་རབ་), the sixth of the six paramitas, defined as the precise discernment of all phenomena and appearances, the translation of the Sanskrit word, Prajñā which means Special/Excellent (rab) Knowing/Insight (she-).
However, in some Buddhist schools, particularly Mahayana, Vajrayana Yogacara or Shentong proponents, assert that the accumulation of wisdom also means accumulation of study and realisation of jñāna ( ཡེ་ཤེས་, yeshe) This is part of wisdom but disctinct from sherab as it is considered to be primordially present and one of the qualities of Buddhahood.
As I wrote in my Introduction to the book Tāranātha’s Commentary on the Heart Sutra, even though the primordial awareness/empty-of-other view is not taught explicitly in the Heart Sutra, it is according to Taranatha and others, taught implicitly. The deeper essence/heart within the heart of sherab , let us say! Thus the difference between sherab and yeshe is very subtle and slight. One could say that yeshe is the most natural state of our awareness or mind, which is naked, unstained, uncontrived and completely ordinary. Continually present but not recognized. Developing special insight (sherab) brings about the recognition, but they are not two separate things.”
Accumulating wisdom, is also part of the six paramitas, and without wisdom informing the other paramitas, one cannot accumulate merit that effectively either. Merit without wisdom leads to good results but can also lead to bad results if there is no wisdom in it, and it is being done for worldly or egoistic reasons.
So, it is generally considered better to accumulate them both at the same time. The ultimate “accumulation” is the understanding and realisation of the inseparable union of merit (bliss/compassion) and wisdom (emptiness/awareness), which once realised is the primordial awareness yeshe manifesting.
The way to check if we are developing wisdom or not is how “seriously” we take things, events or people. Do we have a very strong sense of self and other? Do we easily take offence or irritated when people say or do things we do not like?
That is not to say one does not care at all about anything though, as Guru Padmasambhava taught, one should never sacrifice conduct to the view, and nor should one sacrifice the view to conduct! They mutually support and improve each other.
See short video reel explaining this topic here:
Merit