The Six Perfections

The Six Perfections, also known as the Six Paramitas, is the practice of the Bodhisattva Path.

Remember, the word bodhisattva is made up of two words: bodhi, awakened, and sattva, being.

A Bodhisattva is one who works for the liberation of All Beings.

The Six Perfections describe the true nature of a Bodhisattva, that is are our own true nature. If they don't seem to be our true nature, it's because the perfections are obscured by our delusion, our anger, our greed, our fear, and our procrastination.

By cultivating these Six Perfections we bring our true nature into expression.

The Perfection are: Giving, Precepts, Inclusiveness, Diligence, Meditation, and Wisdom.

The First Perfection:

Giving or Dana. Dana Paramita. 

Giving is an essential practice of the Bodhisattva Path.

There are three kinds of giving.

The first is giving material goods. Money. Things.

The second is giving the gift of the Dharma, the Buddha's Teaching. This Teaching is the Practice that liberates us from suffering and delusion.

The third kind of Giving, and perhaps the greatest, is the gift of Non-fear. We should try to understand Giving, Dana Paramita, in this light of non-fear.

This non-fear is the courage to reach out with compassion and love. Not pity and regret—but compassion and love.

The Perfection of Giving has nothing to do with material wealth.

It has to do with generosity and openness and our ability to embrace others with compassion and love.

Dana. Giving. This is the beginning of the Bodhisattva Path. The beginning of the work of liberating All Beings.

Dana is the opening of our hearts and our minds to All.

And that All includes ourselves and Others.

The Second Perfection:

Precepts or Sila. Sila Paramita.

This is the Perfection where we choose to look to the Five Moral Precepts as a guide in our relationship with Everything.

Looking to the Precepts we will do our best to respect and protect Life,

to respect and protect the property of others,

to respect and protect sexual boundaries,

to respect and protect the truth, and

to respect and protect our mind and our body.

We need always keep in mind there are many ways to apply the Five Moral Precepts.

We may approach one situation or individual differently than another. Nothing is carved in stone.

And we apply the Precepts individually, collectively, and globally.

The Third Perfection:

Inclusiveness or Kshanti. Kshanti Paramita.

Kshanti is sometimes translated as forbearance or endurance or even patience.

But the words forbearance and patience can imply we have to suffer to accept things.

This suffering comes when our hearts are small or closed and our minds do not understand.

I once told my first teacher, there was a person in my life that caused me great stress and sorrow. My teacher, a wise Vietnamese monk, explained my suffering came because I wanted this person, this person who caused me sorrow, to be something else.

That person was who they were. No amount of me wanting or hoping was going to change anything. And I have no right to change anyone. Each person is who they are.

After talking with my Teacher and sitting with his words, I realized the person I wanted to change was not causing me sorrow.

My sorrow and stress came from me, from wanting the person to be different.

My Teacher suggested I open my heart.

The Buddha once told his students that a handful of salt dropped into a bowl of water makes the water undrinkable. But the same handful of salt thrown into a river has no effect.

Open our hearts and allow them to be wide and roomy and accepting.

That does not mean we approve or accept the unwholesome.

It means we hold Everyone in love.

The Fourth Perfection:

Diligence or Virya. Virya Paramita.

Virya can be translated as energy, vigor, or effort.

This word is often misunderstood.

It does not mean we have to drive ourselves hard until it hurts.

It does not mean we have to sit for two or three hours each day.

Diligence is wholesome energy.

Thich Nhat Hanh says true diligence is born from joy.

We're not practicing to achieve something better in the future. We're practicing to get in touch with joy and peace in our life today, this moment.

If we practice with the correct attitude, we can realize relief right now.

When we breathe, sit, walk, and observe with awareness we become concentrated and fully in the moment.

We're are able to discover the peace and the wisdom within us.

The Fifth Perfection:

Meditation or Dhyana. Dhyana Paramita.

Dhyana is that word the Chinese pronounce as Ch'an and the Japanese as Zen.

Meditation is the practice of calming and concentrating and looking deeply.

The core Buddhist teaching of impermanence tells us things arise and pass away according to causes and conditions.

We can observe that arising and passing away as we watch or thoughts and emotions during sitting meditation.

Through the practice of meditation we teach our minds how to observe without participating.

We learn to observe without the influence of our opinions and desires and hopes.

The Sixth Perfection:

Wisdom or Prajna. Prajna Paramita.

Many recognize the words Prajna Paramita from the Heart Sutra. 

In the Heart Sutra we say “The Bodhisattva holds on to nothing but Prajna Paramita.”

And again “All Buddhas of past, present, and future, through faith in Prajna Paramita, attain to the highest perfect Enlightenment.”

Wisdom is the foundation and the key to the Practice.

Everything is impermanent.

Everything is without a separate existence.

This knowledge, this wisdom and understanding, helps us experience Reality.

This is the Wisdom free from concepts and ideas and views and opinions.

This Wisdom is within each of us.

The Practice. The Practice of the Buddha-Dharma, the Teachings of the Buddha, help us realize our innate inner Wisdom.