On the path to awakening, the practice of the perfections (Sanskrit pāramitā and Pāli pāramī) is essential. These central Buddhist practices are taught not only for attaining human happiness or human flourishing and for developing the ideal qualities of a perfected human being but also for achieving the perfectly awakened state of a Buddha. These six practices—generosity, ethical conduct, patience, joyful effort, concentration, and wisdom—are central both to individual awakening and to awakening the world. The perfections are explained individually, but, in practice, they are integrally related. One may emphasize the practice of one perfection at a given time, as bodhisattvas do as they traverse the stages (bhūmi) of the bodhisattva path, but the perfections are not practiced individually in isolation. This chapter discusses the perfections one by one, but it is important to keep in mind that they are indivisibly connected. A major thread in the discussion is to trace the interconnections that exist among the perfections, and the focus that will be used to trace these interconnections is mindfulness.
目次
8.1 Introduction 139 8.2 The Path to Perfection 140 8.3 Perfection by Numbers 142 8.4 The Perfection of Generosity 144 8.5 The Perfection of Ethical Conduct 148 8.6 The Perfection of Patience 151 8.7 The Perfection of Joyful Effort 151 8.8 The Perfection of Concentration 152 8.9 The Perfection of Wisdom 153 8.10 Practicing the Perfections 155 References 156
