Afflictions and Prajna

.,    During the group meditation sitting today, we talked about the themes of affliction and wisdom, and how discovering affliction in itself is a kind of wisdom that doesn't involve seeking wisdom or even substituting wisdom for affliction. I have to admit that I find this teaching hard to practice, much less realize, because I am in the habit if thinking that afflictions need to be removed in order for wisdom to be realized. Part of it has to do with a somewhat Puritan tendency to see that problems need to be stopped on their tracks through some kind of dedication or hard work. We talk about 'overcoming' addictions and attachments the same way that engineers talk about building dams to redirect bodies of water. In this sense, 'wisdom' is viewed as a project or as something that one needs to attain or achieve.
      The other way of viewing wisdom is something that is already inherent in being, but is often not apparent due to the mind moving according to affliction. I used the example tonight of looking at someone else's anger. If I see that person's anger as something that is bad or needs to be avoided, I am often actually creating an affliction myself, and then often projecting that afflicted state onto someone else. If on the other hand I am simply not moved by this expression, I might be able to see that there is no opposition between me and the anger in someone else. In fact, if I take a calm view of the anger and can see that I make so many similar mistakes in my own life, I cannot help but feel compassion, and I am no longer inclined to judge the other person based on my own afflicted states.
   The best way to look at this is to perhaps view affliction as the seeds of future wisdom. If something is causing me suffering now, I only need to look at it a bit longer and realize that it can be faced with a calm and collected mind. Affliction then becomes wisdom when I learn how to observe it in others and start to engage compassionately with it rather than trying to dismiss it or have a defensive view of it. In a sense, the difficulties I have with afflictions become the seeds for future wise actions. But it seems like this can only happen when I am not tightly bound to my afflictions or adamantly against them at the same time.