See how the six combine — each one completed by wisdom

Check any single act of giving, restraint or patience against the four features that make it a “perfection” rather than an ordinary good deed.

Por qué funciona

Patrul Rinpoche gives four special features that each of the six must have: its opposing factor has disappeared; it is endowed with wisdom that is non-conceptual; it fulfils others’ wishes; and it helps beings mature. The second feature is what joins them: generosity held without clinging to giver, gift or recipient as solid things is already wisdom at work, and wisdom that never shows itself in giving, restraint and patience is incomplete. The Theravāda treatise on the pāramīs makes a parallel point in its own terms — the perfections are good qualities “accompanied by compassion and skillful means” and untainted by craving, conceit and views.

Cómo hacerlo

1. Pick one good act from your week — a gift, a held tongue, a patient response.
2. Ask of it the four questions: was the opposing habit (stinginess, careless conduct, anger, laziness, distraction, muddled thinking) actually absent?
3. Was I holding it lightly, or clinging to it as my achievement?
4. Did it actually meet a need of the other person, or only my idea of their need?
5. Did it help them, even a little, toward their own good?
6. Notice which question is hardest to answer yes to — that is where the training is for now.

Evidencia

The four special features and the six opposing factors are from Patrul Rinpoche’s guide. Bhikkhu Bodhi’s introduction to Dhammapāla’s treatise compares the lists: the Sanskrit heritage has six perfections, later Mahāyāna texts add four — resolution, skillful means, power and knowledge — to match the ten stages of the bodhisattva’s path, and the Pāli works give a different, partly overlapping ten: giving, virtue, renunciation, wisdom, energy, patience, truthfulness, determination, loving-kindness and equanimity. (anecdotal)

This is a framework for reflection, drawn from the texts; it has not been studied as an intervention.

Fuentes

• Patrul Rinpoche. The Brightly Shining Sun: A Step-by-Step Guide to Meditating on the Bodhicaryāvatāra, trans. Adam Pearcey (2004; revised 2007 and 2019). Lotsawa House.
• Ācariya Dhammapāla. A Treatise on the Pāramīs: From the Commentary to the Cariyāpiṭaka, trans. Bhikkhu Bodhi (The Wheel No. 409/411). Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society; Access to Insight edition, 2005.

Error común

Working through the six as separate self-improvement projects, one after another — in this teaching each is completed only when held with wisdom, so they are six faces of one training rather than six boxes to tick.