The Six Transcendent Perfections...


 May all beings be happy. May they live in safety and joy.... As a mother watches over her child, willing to risk her own life to protect her only child, so with a boundless heart... cherish all living beings, suffusing the whole world with unobstructed loving kindness... During all your waking hours, may you remain mindful of this heart and this way of living that is the best in the world. - Shakyamuni Buddha


In Mahayana Buddhism, the bodhisattva practices the six paramitas, or transcendent perfections. These are a path to enlightenment, the fruition of the bodhisattva way, and a means to benefit sentient beings. They are transcendent because the subject, object, and practice of the perfections are all free of self, which is known as the threefold purity.

1. Generosity (dana)

You give without expecting anything in return, the essence of nonattachment.

2. Discipline (sila)

You joyfully practice the dharma in everything you do.

3. Patience (ksanti)

You are free of aggression and maintain your equilibrium in the midst of samara’s confusion.

4. Exertion (virya)

You work hard because you delight in the path and appreciate virtue. Overcoming laziness, you never give up.

5. Meditation (dhyana)

Body and mind synchronized, you cut distraction and tame your mind with one-pointed mindfulness.

6. Wisdom (prajna)

You develop the “superior know-ledge” of both ultimate reality (shunyata, emptiness) and relative phenomena. As prajna cuts through mistaken beliefs about reality, compassion naturally arises.

You don’t have to be perfect to practice the perfections. Because each of the paramitas is the antidote to a particular obstacle—generosity overcomes stinginess, etc.—you can practice them now as the step-by-step path to your own bodhisattvahood.

SOURCE

Comments

Top Posts

More Epstein COVERUPS & Israel DEPORTS Comedians...

How Colonialism Made European Workers Richer | Richard Wolff & Michael Hudson...

The Nerd Reich": Author Gil Durán on Big Tech Fascism, Peter Thiel, JD Vance & the War on Democracy...

Will Israel Become a Global Pariah? | Richard Wolff & Michael Hudson...

White professor sends A SCALDING WARNING to White America on how Trump is a PUNISHMEMT & curse...

Revisiting Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman’s' Presumption of Innocence until Proven Guilty......

Coming Together is a Two Way Street

Why MAGA Loved Andrew Tate...

What is behind progressives’ national success?...

The Story of Woody Guthrie’s Fight with Trump and a Ukulele Play-Along...