The first verse on the Wisdom Chapter of the beautiful Shantideva’s “A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life” opens with this comment:
“All these branches of the Doctrine the Enlightened Sage expounded for the sake of wisdom. Therefore they must cultivate this wisdom, who wish to have an end of suffering”.
The extent to which we are disjoint with reality, the extent to which we lack wisdom, is the extent to which we suffer and therefore cause harm to others.
The Dalai Lama says there are three main types of Wisdom:
1. Conventional Wisdom: realising the five fields of knowledge - or traditional science;
2. Ultimate Wisdom: realising the mode of substance of phenomena;
3. Wisdom: knowing how to help sentient beings without inadvertently hurting them;
Kundun has also said "The wisdom that is the realisation of emptiness, the true nature of things - this is absolute wisdom."
When Bodhisattva's meditate on emptiness, their aim is mainly to dispel the obstacles to knowledge. In order to do this, it is not enough simply to have an intellectual understanding of the subtle nature of things.
Kundun also says: “It is essential that any spiritual aspirant cultivates a perspective that directly opposes the erroneous belief that grasps onto the concrete existence of things and events.”
The wisdom that dispels these obscurations must be supported by such practices as generosity and the other perfections”
In Buddhism, the altruistic intention to realise enlightenment is the best of all altruistic attitudes. When this altruism is transformed into action you become a bodhisattva engaging in practicing the six perfections: Giving, Ethics, Patience, Perseverance, Concentration and Wisdom.