Learn Buddhism: The Six Buddhist Perfections (Paramitas)

What is the practice of Mahayana Buddhists? From Zen to Pure Land, Mahayana Buddhists strive to perfect the Six Perfections or "Paramitas". These are the qualities and virtues of the true nature of an enlightened being like a Buddha or Bodhisattva. Learn what they are and how to apply them to your practice!

Transcript

Welcome to Learn Buddhism,

I'm Alan Pedo.

What makes up an enlightened being?

What are their qualities and virtues?

In Buddhism we call these paramitas or perfections.

In Theravada there are ten perfections and in Mahayana there are six perfections.

The big difference between Theravada and Mahayana is that Theravada does not necessarily focus on these ten perfections as they have in their tradition because they are focused on the path of arhatship.

Although yes there are some that will go on that path towards becoming a bodhisattva.

The path in Mahayana is the path of the bodhisattva that's striving towards becoming a Buddha.

So because of that they focus on the six paramitas or six perfections as a core central part of their practice.

Now things such as the Noble Eightfold Path are still inside Mahayana but because again they are on this path of the bodhisattva they are striving towards becoming a fully awakened being,

A Buddha.

They are focusing on these six perfections as the core of their practice.

What's really interesting about this and something I really love about it is that these as I mentioned are the qualities.

What we see inside a perfected enlightened being but they are used by laypersons and monastics as the path,

As the practice,

As what we're trying to cultivate in everyday life as we strive towards that goal.

So yes these are what we see all together inside a perfected being,

An enlightened being,

But for us we're using it as a path,

A practice that we can work on cultivating that will eventually accumulate in becoming an enlightened being.

Between the two traditions Theravada basically got their ten perfections from the Buddha's past life tales.

So where he was a bodhisattva through many existences and so that's where they got it.

Whereas we see in Mahayana they got that from many of the Mahayana Sutras but because Mahayana is the path of the bodhisattva those Mahayana Sutras are referencing the bodhisattva path and also these perfections that we see in enlightened beings.

So very similar in some ways but they are nuanced in that particular way.

So because this is practiced primarily in Mahayana I'm gonna focus on the six perfections inside this episode.

So what are the six perfections?

They are giving or generosity,

Morality,

Patience,

Diligence or energy,

Meditative concentration,

And prajna wisdom.

So let's go into these and show how you can apply these to your practice and what they mean.

The first one is the perfection of generosity or giving.

So in Mahayana Buddhism we have something called bodhichitta and this is this enlightened mind where we want to aspire to become enlightened for all sentient beings.

It's really the heart of Mahayana Buddhism because it is the path of the bodhisattva and of an enlightened being like a Buddha.

So this is something that we want to cultivate.

How do you cultivate that?

Generosity.

That's why it's number one and you find this inside Theravada as well.

Generosity is this core foundational thing all throughout Buddhism which is wonderful.

So you see a lot of Buddhists around the world,

A lot of lay Buddhists,

Generosity,

The practice of generosity and also the next perfection of morality and conduct is so central to their practice because it's so foundational.

If you don't have this it's gonna be very challenging to really perfect anything else.

So when we see this perfection of generosity it is where we are establishing this bodhichitta.

We're trying to have this aspiration to realize enlightenment not just for ourselves but all sentient beings and this is where we have to really open ourselves up because a lot of times we have this love of self which we're trying to break down in Buddhism and so we want to do things for us not really for anybody else.

So this practice of generosity is helping us break down the love of self and open up really this enlightened heart,

Enlightened mind inside us by giving to others even especially when there's nothing that's going to be given in return.

So this is where you see it as far as a lay person practice giving towards their temple,

Giving to monastics or sometimes special ceremonies for example in that,

Volunteering to other people in your community and life and everything else.

Generosity is not always financial,

It's not always material,

It could even be giving time listening to somebody,

Kind words,

Stuff like that.

Generosity is something that we can practice but we often don't practice.

We think we do but we don't always.

The second Parimita or perfection is this perfection of morality and this really in my opinion goes hand-in-hand with generosity because having generosity is great and this is so foundational but if your morality,

Your conduct isn't there you're losing another foundational piece and so how do we practice this perfection of morality?

The Buddha gave us everything so we have things such as the precepts and so the five precepts are very foundational throughout Buddhism because this helps us perfect our morality and conduct.

So precepts,

Yes they are sometimes called rules but really they are rules that we want to take on because we want to become enlightened and so these constraints if you will,

This path on the road is the precepts because without it you could be just working all over the place and going all these different paths so precepts,

Yes they're rules but they're rules that help you because you want to become an enlightened being they help you get to that path.

The five precepts are just the foundational bare-bones if you will precepts but a lot in Mahayana will especially on observance days throughout the month or even during retreats for example they'll take on additional precepts there's the eight precepts so these precepts are a way that we can progress on the path.

Now the monastics they have hundreds of precepts so the five precepts very foundational and very small but very core and important and then you see with the monastics they have even more because they are religious figures and they are all in as I say inside Buddhism they gave up everything and they became monastics but they have precepts because of their status as monastics they have to follow additional rules if you will that help them guide them towards enlightenment.

So when we're looking at this perfection of morality it is as I mentioned in a way was generosity because we are really building up compassion inside us and I'll even go far say loving-kindness as well metta so this is so important because generosity compassion these are core things between the two major branches of Buddhism Theravada and Mahayana and so when laypersons practice which is going to be a lot of their foundational practice in traditional Buddhism this is helping you a lot of times we think oh it must be just meditation you to focus on there's a reason these two are at the very beginning and while my seem simplistic well compassion morality and this generosity why just look at the perfection of morality an enlightened being doesn't have to go I wonder what should the five precepts or hundreds of precepts I need to use for this situation or this encounter or whatever they have perfected it so we are so mired in this everyday existence that that's challenging for us we think we may get it but that's really challenging so we are really shaping ourselves in our minds and our conduct and generosity and everything else that's why they're at the beginning so this enlightened being generous perfection generosity they got it that's natural from this is all these perfections are the true self the true nature of us but we have clouded ourselves from this true nature so we're having to rebuild it basically strip away everything that's keeping us from realizing it so a true enlightened being like a Buddha or Bodhisattva they got the generosity down pat they don't have to think about it it's part of their true nature morality that's part of their true nature they don't have to think about it it's just who they are because they have revealed their true nature that goes to our next one the perfection of patience patience is something we often have little of in our world just because everything's coming at us all the time and our patience is thin or low or sometimes even non-existence but when we're talking about it here inside Buddhism it's this ability to withstand patience patience and so when we're dealing with something that happens to us or maybe with somebody else or even as it relates to the truth of the Buddha's teachings the Dharma we have to have patience so in these everyday situations maybe we're doing with somebody else patience do you have a limited amount of patience a lot of us do maybe drive it on the road somebody cuts you off the patience is cut thin or non-existent or what about a personal hardship that you might have maybe an illness or maybe it could be a financial situation or anything else our patient just gets really really low but what about even the Buddhist truth so we don't want to also accept that we don't want to believe that and that may seem very unusual because you're listening to a Buddhist podcast right and you're like well I'm a Buddhist or I believe in Buddhism but a lot of the truth we don't want to really accept because it maybe it doesn't align with what we believe things such as rebirth or even karma or these different concepts that we have in Buddhism it's like well maybe I believe in this or not and so I don't have the patience to really spend a decade for example trying to understand this I'm gonna do what's easy for me so we do what's easy for us in a personal hardship or maybe easy for us when we're dealing with somebody else and easy for us when we're trying to understand the Buddhist Dharma and so this one's saying you have to perfect this patience because when we are encountering people and ourselves and the Dharma we have to have patience with it because this is something we my analogy I also use this is really extremely dirty crusted over window you can't see outside but you're seeing shadows and assuming right you're spending your Buddhist practice trying to clean that window reveal your true nature true self understand what the truth is and if we don't have the patience for that well we're just going to do what's easy so different ways that works and the most bare-bones way do you accept the Buddha's four noble truths this is foundational in Buddhism these are the truth that Buddha taught us about our existence and essentially how to how to overcome that you know Nirvana and eightfold path and everything else he taught us but it's these truths do we accept those truths right so as Buddhists we do we accept the four noble truths that the Buddha taught we understand Dukkha we understand his suffering that he talked about what how it became what's causing it basically we're then we're seeing there's a path out of this you can be free of suffering this Dukkha and that's through the Buddha's path so we have to accept that and this path it's like going on a very long journey to another city at night which that's your headlights on it that patience has to be there for this long journey it's not going to happen tomorrow so when we are realizing all these truths you're gonna feel uncomfortable and we want to cling crave and attach ourselves to things that we already believe in or feels right to us in situations in the Buddhist truth and with our situations and so because of that we have to understand that just like that dirty window analogy or dirty mirror whatever you want to call whichever one you want to use we have to understand we are confused about what we see and so Buddhism we call this ignorance and resulting delusion of it and I'm referring there to the three fires or three poisons in Buddhism which is something we are trying to put out because that is part of our practice and that's where we have this clinging and craving attachment we have agreed if you will we have this anger and hatred because we realize the true nature of the world we can't cling and crave the things to always make us feel this way or believe in this permanence which doesn't exist impermanence rules in Buddhism so we get angry mad you know at resulting things that occur naturally but we don't understand it that way and that results in this ignorance of the Buddhist truth and resulting delusion and an analogy I give for that is just imagine you're driving on the wrong side of road but you believe it's the right side of the road well you might get a little bit down the road but could you be involved in a major accident yeah absolutely negative fact of course yourself and others but to you you're living in this state of delusion because of the ignorance of the truth in this case this analogy is the truth of how we drive on the road safely and correctly and so it results in these actions but to you like how did I get into this action why did this occur this is wrong but you were in a delusional state believing this is right but you haven't been exposed to the truth and so that's why in Buddhism the Buddhist Dharma is exposing it to the truth which is uncomfortable these teachings are uncomfortable because we've been living so long in this clouded illusionary existence in the cycle of rebirth and so because of that it's gonna take time we have to have patience then there's a perfection of diligence or energy whichever one you want to call it and this is where we are do you want to become enlightened right you know is it just like well I'll do it when I can or yeah you know that would be great you know but I really want to go see this movie or something where is your diligence at where is your energy at you know does driving an hour or a couple hours to a temple seem like oh that's too much or is that exciting to you it's like I can't wait to get there so I can be around monastics I can learn I can practice right or you know instead of reading this Dharma teaching or attended an online for example if you're not in your temple and an online Dharma session is that really an inconvenience to you like where are you putting your your energy towards where is your diligence in this effort towards becoming enlightened so you have to become essentially courageous you have to have courage which sounds a little unusual right but you have to have courage because this is a scary path it's a wonderful path but to us in our illusionary world and our clouded you know ignorant delusional mind we see this a lot of times that's not really comfortable I don't really like that but we have to be courageous have this courage to press forward on the path towards enlightenment because your mind can make you believe what makes you feel comfortable so if your mind does not want to be tamed or controlled it wants to be in charge you think you're in charge but your mind is actually in charge and it's taking you all over the place and that's not your true self so when we challenge that it's going to feel very uncomfortable and so that's where courage is so important so that's why we have this perfection of diligence energy to get us to keep us on this path then we have the perfection of meditative concentration and this is where you traditionally or in your mind you think of Oh city meditation right well what we're talking about here is concentration so city meditation is just one form of concentration we have everything from chanting recitation which is extremely popular where we maybe recite or chant the name of a Buddha such as Amitama Buddha the Buddha in pure line Buddhism which is very popular or you're doing visualization or the traditional city meditation or maybe walking meditation all of these things are concentration inside Buddhism because what we're trying to get to here is Samadhi we're trying to get to this single pointed goal of concentration which is extremely challenging extremely challenging that's why we have techniques inside Buddhism where we're trying to calm the mind we're trying to settle the mind to so we can get towards direct insight which I'll talk about we want to get to wisdom but we have to work on this concentration meditative concentration so the practice of chanting recitation visualization even sitting meditation and walking meditation these are all techniques we have that help us get to the last perfection which is this perfection of wisdom which we call prajna and so prajna paramita is what you're likely going to hear it as it's this perfection of wisdom and what are we talking about here so and our last one we're doing this meditative concentration we're trying to get to that that's Samadhi we're trying to get to a single pointed concentration right because we're trying to settle calm tame this mind because the mind's trying to keep us from enlightenment it doesn't want to be controlled it's having fun right now it's allowing us to do whatever it wants to it's in charge and so we are prisoners in the cycle of rebirth due to that and the actions that result from it so those three fires right three fires three poison we want to eliminate those but your mind is fueling those so we want to get to the single point of concentration so we can get to prajna paramita the perfection of wisdom because wisdom and there's going to be in this project is going to be just defined in many different ways and I hope I do it justice here but this is where we fundamentally not intellectually but fundamentally understand the true nature of things so when the Buddha became enlightened he was right there he got through all these things he's the number five is the perfection of meditative concentration right he's meditating right but he's not missing just to meditate he's trying to get to prajna paramita because this is where he fundamentally understands think this is where you become enlightened and in his case also became to Buddha because right now we believe in the idea of selfness permanent unchanging independent self and this is really the cause for all these issues in our world and a focus in Buddhism because we want to strip away that illusionary false belief because the Buddha says no you know everything is changing everything is impermanent and everything is interdependent upon each other it's this illusion that we have that we believe we are permanent unchanging independent that's the false self that's the illusion right and so that what causes the three fires and all this this chain reaction right so when he was able to get to prajna paramita this project this wisdom was of the true nature of the world and fundamentally it's about dependent origination loosely cause and effect but he understood deeply at that point about impermanence is this and just dependent origination and how everything comes into being and goes out of being and transforms all these different things this is our true self a true existence and so we need to get to this prajna and when we try to just try to think of this intellectually very very challenging because I mean we have this belief in self like as I mentioned and and the belief in something called dualism you know we are just believing in this world that we're in and so you sometimes hear in Buddhism oh it's an illusionary world holographic world and stuff like that and getting Bryce's ideas in our minds of what that means but what they're trying to say is yes our world is a projection of our mind but yes you can feel your desk you can feel yourself you can feel the the computer and the phone that you have in your hand right all these things exist but our perceptions and our interpretation and beliefs and reactions based upon them is this projection we're doing this this illusion this world that we're creating based upon that because he's senses that we have these things are just feeding into us but when we have prajna that all goes away so just like so hard to got to my when he became the Buddha transformed into the Buddha here he when he encounters people and everything else all these perfections are evident right because he's now this enlightened bead so no longer is he affected or impacted or or conditioned in any way where Hugo oh I believe they're talking bad about me or I am gonna feel good or bad about this or I'm gonna react this way it's all gone because his true self true nature is there and that's what we're trying to get and so prajna paramita is this accumulation of all these other parameters together but you can't just go I'm just gonna focus on maybe just a meditative concentration impression parmeeta portion the other ones although the fall into place when we get there doesn't work that way they all build upon each other and we practice them as lay Buddhist in different ways you know you may be better at the patient's portion than I would be another person be better at the meditative concentration portion then you and me might be but we working on all these to our capabilities and we're continuing forward and practicing them so for most Buddhists they're really focusing on that generosity and the morality and also that compassion that's just core to those that is where we see them there because that's very challenging for us to really develop these perfections it really really is because we're just wired in this world so working on those is a core thing even the Buddha said that's really important so it's not like well Buddha said just meditate he said no this this is important can pass compassion generosity loving kindness that's important like your conduct immorality he made that a very key point that that is important for not just laypersons but also monastics so it's not all it's just about that city meditation but as you've learned each one of these not only build upon each other but they are showing that true nature of a lion being which we want to get to so don't go well I'm just gonna do the city meditation focus on all of these as well and you can do that through many different ways that's why the monastic community the temples are so important to us we can practice generosity with them we can have patience there we can have the diligence there with the meditative concentration all these different the prajna paramita right the prajna we can get that or help get towards that point through learning with wisdom and assets there could be a class or maybe we're reading a book or it's part of a Dharma service different ways and it looks all sometimes cultural or maybe it sometimes looks like oh that's just a ceremony it's all skillful ways to help us develop the paramitas these six parameters which is amazing and wonderful because all of us in Mahayana Buddhism we're on this path of the bodhisattva so the Mahayana path is a bodhisattva path towards becoming a Buddha and so these paramitas are central to us do you have any questions about the six parameters I'd love to hear back from you you can send me a message from my website alanpedo.

Com you can leave me a message on social media and I look forward to talking with you in our next episode thank you