The Womb of the Wise Ones

Recently, a Dhamma friend asked me about the meaning of the Pali term "yoniso manasikara," a phrase that is used many times in the early Buddhist discourses.

The first word is based on “yoni,” which literally means the “womb.” Thus, yoniso is generally understood as referring to “the origins of things” or, as the Pali Text Society dictionary suggests, “down to the foundation.” I think of it as a reference to the deeply creative aspect, that which nourishes coming into being. Similarly, in the Zen tradition, a monastery is sometimes called the “womb of sages,” the place where wise ones are born.

The second word is “manasikara,” which is based on the words for mind and for doing. Thus, manasikara is consideration, or turning one’s attention toward something.

Taken together, these two words are typically translated as “wise attention.” I think of it as “thorough attention to the origins” or as “considering the deep activity of creation.” It has the connotation of attention that can attend to the profound miracle of life.

In practice, yoniso manasikara is attention to the ways in which all moments of experience arise and then cease, attention to the inexorable birth and death that each moment of life truly is. Seeing life this way leads to an experiential understanding of dukkha, of the ways in which life is unsatisfactory. Exactly how this seeing is done depends on the situation, the type of mental states that are present, one's tendencies toward concentration or insight, and other factors. Yet, in the Inspired Utterances, we find the Buddha saying that yoniso manasikara is the one quality that can be most helpful for one who is in training. Simply speaking, you have to find the methods that work for your particular mind, but you can surely benefit from applying wise attention.

So sages are not born only at a monastery. They arise anywhere that yoniso manasikara arises, not in one physical place, but in any place where wise attention is born.