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The Six Pāramitās: How the Bodhisattva Trains

Six trainings, each aimed at one obstacle, and each made whole by wisdom

What are the six perfections (pāramitās) of the bodhisattva?

The six perfections (pāramitās) are the trainings a bodhisattva — someone who aims at awakening for the sake of all beings — takes up: generosity, ethical discipline, patience, joyful effort, meditative concentration and wisdom. In the Tibetan teacher Patrul Rinpoche’s guide to Śāntideva’s Bodhicaryāvatāra, each one is set against a specific obstacle — stinginess, wayward conduct, anger, laziness, distraction and misguided intelligence — and each counts as a “perfection” only when it is joined with wisdom that does not cling to the act. The scheme is a classical teaching, not a tested program; a few modern studies test related practices such as giving and compassion training.

In Mahāyāna Buddhism the person who sets out to awaken for the benefit of everyone, not only for their own release, is called a bodhisattva, and the bodhisattva’s training is summed up in six pāramitās, usually translated “perfections”: generosity (dāna), ethical discipline (śīla), patience (kṣānti), joyful effort (vīrya), meditative concentration (dhyāna) and wisdom (prajñā). The wish to awaken for others is the motive; the six perfections are what that wish looks like when it is lived. The most widely read manual of this path is Śāntideva’s Bodhicaryāvatāra, whose sixth chapter, on patience, is largely about working with anger. The Tibetan master Patrul Rinpoche condensed the whole text into a short meditation guide, The Brightly Shining Sun, and it is the main source here, because it says for each perfection what it works against and how to practise it. The Theravāda tradition keeps its own, partly overlapping list of ten pāramīs, and later Mahāyāna texts extend the six to ten. The practices below follow the texts, and say plainly that the evidence for them is mostly the tradition itself.

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Come si collegano queste pratiche

Every practice on this page trains the same thing from a different side: loosening self-concern so that the wish to benefit others can be acted on. In Patrul Rinpoche’s guide to Śāntideva, each perfection is set against one habit of self-concern — stinginess, careless conduct, anger, laziness, distraction and muddled thinking — and each counts as a perfection only when it is held with non-conceptual wisdom rather than clung to as an achievement. Generosity, discipline, patience and effort work on how you act; concentration settles the mind and turns it toward the equality of self and others; wisdom investigates the self being defended; and patience with yourself keeps the whole training from turning into one more standard to fail.

Why is wisdom the most important of the six perfections in Mahayana Buddhism?

Because in the Mahāyāna presentation wisdom is what turns the other five into perfections. Patrul Rinpoche lists four features each of the six must have, and one of them is being endowed with non-conceptual wisdom. Generosity given while clinging to giver, gift and recipient as solid things is still a good deed, but not yet the perfection of generosity. Wisdom itself is trained by investigating whether the self that feels harmed or praised can be found in the body or mind. At the same time the teaching does not rank wisdom as a replacement: wisdom that never shows itself in giving, restraint and patience is incomplete.

How does the Buddhist perfection of patience help with anger at a specific person?

The sixth chapter of Śāntideva’s Bodhicaryāvatāra sets patience against anger, which it treats as deeply destructive. Patrul Rinpoche’s guide gives three ways to bear harm from others: see the person as driven by their own disturbing emotions, and so as someone to feel compassion for; take the blame on yourself, which he grounds in past karma and in how you are acting now; and recognise that without such people there would be no chance to practise patience at all. Each reframing changes what the anger is about. Patience in this sense is not suppression, and it is not a reason to stay where you are being harmed.

What is the difference between the six paramitas and the ten paramitas?

The six perfections — giving, virtue, patience, energy, meditation and wisdom — are the Sanskrit Mahāyāna list. Bhikkhu Bodhi, introducing Dhammapāla’s Theravāda treatise on the pāramīs, notes that later Mahāyāna texts add four more — resolution, skillful means, power and knowledge — so that the ten perfections line up with the ten stages of the bodhisattva’s path. The Pāli tradition has its own, partly overlapping list of ten: giving, virtue, renunciation, wisdom, energy, patience, truthfulness, determination, loving-kindness and equanimity. The Theravāda treatise defines the pāramīs as good qualities accompanied by compassion and skillful means and untainted by craving, conceit and views — close to the Mahāyāna insistence that each perfection be held with wisdom.

Is joyful effort in Buddhism the same as pushing yourself harder?

No. In Patrul Rinpoche’s guide, vīrya is defined by joy — doing good with enthusiasm and without expecting a result — and one of its six supporting forces is moderation: resting when tired or disheartened in order to continue. Its obstacle is laziness of three kinds: not starting, being busy with less worthwhile things, and self-discouragement. The remedy for the third is encouragement, not pressure, which is why the same tradition offers patience with oneself as part of the path. Pressing urgency on someone who is already discouraged tends to deepen the discouragement.

How does meditation fit into the bodhisattva path alongside ethics and generosity?

In Patrul Rinpoche’s presentation, meditative concentration is the fifth perfection and is not trained in isolation. It begins by setting aside busyness and the craving for praise and reputation, and its main object is the wish for others’ awakening, starting with the meditation on the equality of oneself and others: everyone wants happiness and does not want suffering exactly as you do. The calm that results is meant to make the other perfections easier — less distraction for discipline, less self-concern for generosity and patience — and to prepare the ground for the investigation that wisdom carries out.

Does research show that practising generosity and compassion actually makes people happier?

For related modern practices, partly. In a randomised experiment, people assigned to spend money on others reported more happiness than those assigned to spend it on themselves, and a large registered replication confirmed that when 712 students were randomly assigned to buy for themselves or for a stranger in need, though recalling past prosocial spending made little or no difference. A randomised trial of a nine-week secular compassion training found gains in compassion for others and self-compassion compared with a waitlist. None of these tests the pāramitās themselves, whose stated aim is loosening attachment for the sake of awakening rather than feeling happier.

Come scegliere tra queste?

If you want a concrete starting point, begin with generosity — it is first in the list and the most concrete to begin today. If one relationship keeps setting off your anger, go straight to patience. If you know what you mean to do and keep not doing it, look at ethical discipline when the problem is catching yourself in time, and at joyful effort when the problem is starting at all. If you already meditate, work with concentration as the equality of self and others. If you notice you are defending an image of yourself, turn to wisdom. If you want to see whether your good acts are genuine, use the four questions on how the six combine. And if the ideals have started to feel like a verdict on you, practise patience with yourself before anything else.

Cosa questi approcci non risolvono

Almost all of the support for these practices is the tradition itself: Śāntideva’s text, Patrul Rinpoche’s guide to it, and Theravāda parallels. None of the six perfections has been tested as such in a controlled study. The randomised evidence on this page concerns related modern practices — prosocial spending and a secular compassion program — measured with self-report and over short periods, and the prosocial-spending effect depends on how it is tested. Parts of the teaching rest on beliefs about karma and rebirth that this page does not argue for, and one reframing for patience, taking the blame on oneself, can be harmful if applied to someone being mistreated. Emptiness is interpreted differently across Mahāyāna schools.

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What are the six perfections (pāramitās) of the bodhisattva?

The six perfections (pāramitās) are the trainings a bodhisattva — someone who aims at awakening for the sake of all beings — takes up: generosity, ethical discipline, patience, joyful effort, meditative concentration and wisdom. In the Tibetan teacher Patrul Rinpoche’s guide to Śāntideva’s Bodhicaryāvatāra, each one is set against a specific obstacle — stinginess, wayward conduct, anger, laziness, distraction and misguided intelligence — and each counts as a “perfection” only when it is joined with wisdom that does not cling to the act. The scheme is a classical teaching, not a tested program; a few modern studies test related practices such as giving and compassion training.

Come funziona «Generosity (dāna): give, then notice what you were holding on to»?

Patrul Rinpoche sets generosity against stinginess, and trains it by reflecting on the faults of holding on to one’s body, possessions and past, present and future good deeds, the benefits of giving them, and the reasons they must be given. A note in his guide, from Asaṅga’s commentary on the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra, lists seven attachments that spoil a gift — among them postponing it, being satisfied with a little, and expecting something in return. Giving repeatedly, while noticing which of these is present, loosens the habit of treating what you have as something to defend.

Come funziona «Ethical discipline (śīla): keep watch with mindfulness, vigilance and care»?

Patrul Rinpoche names three means of keeping discipline: conscientiousness, a careful concern for what to take up and what to avoid; mindfulness, not forgetting it; and vigilance, continually checking the state of body, speech and mind. They work as a loop — mindfulness keeps the intention present, vigilance catches the moment you are about to act against it, and conscientiousness recalls why it matters in that moment. Discipline here is less a list of rules than the habit of noticing the moment before the act.

Come funziona «Patience (kṣānti): meet harm without adding anger»?

Śāntideva’s sixth chapter sets patience against anger, which it treats as deeply destructive; Ringu Tulku’s commentary on its opening stanzas is titled “Anger Is the Enemy.” Patrul Rinpoche lists twenty-four situations that call for patience — contempt, harsh words, slander or pain, aimed at you or at those close to you, the good fortune of rivals, and the blocking of what you want — and gives three ways to bear harm from others: see the person as caught in their own disturbing emotions and so an object of compassion; take the blame on yourself, which he grounds in past karma and in how you are acting now; and see that without them there would be no chance to practise patience at all. Each reframing changes what the anger is about, which is what lets it lose its fuel.

Come funziona «Joyful effort (vīrya): find which kind of laziness is in the way»?

Patrul Rinpoche divides the obstacles to effort into three kinds of laziness: the laziness of inactivity, met by remembering impermanence; the laziness of attachment to negative pursuits, met by recalling the joy of practice; and the laziness of self-discouragement, met by encouraging yourself. He then names six supporting forces, including the force of joy — doing good “with joyful enthusiasm,” without expecting a result — and the force of moderation, resting when tired or disheartened in order to continue. Telling the three kinds apart matters because the remedy for one makes another worse: pressing urgency on someone who is already discouraged deepens it.

Come funziona «Meditative concentration (dhyāna): settle the mind, and rest it on the equality of self and others»?

In Patrul Rinpoche’s guide, concentration begins by abandoning what scatters it: habitual busyness, attachment to reward, praise and reputation — answered by contentment with what comes — and thoughts of desire. The main practice he then gives is bodhicitta, the wish for others’ awakening, starting with the meditation on the equality of oneself and others, which he quotes from Bodhicaryāvatāra VIII.90: since all are equal in wanting happiness and not wanting suffering, care for everyone as for yourself. Concentration and the motive of the path are trained together, so a calmer mind is also a less self-centred one.

Come funziona «Wisdom (prajñā): look for the self you are defending»?

Patrul Rinpoche identifies wisdom as recognising, in meditation, that phenomena are empty, and knowing afterwards that they are unreal “like a magical illusion or a dream.” The practice is investigation: ask whether the label “self” applies to the body, to speech, to the mind, or to something else, and whether the body itself is the same as its parts or different. When the search turns up no self established from its own side, the grip of self-concern — which every other perfection has been working against — loosens at its root rather than case by case.

Come funziona «See how the six combine — each one completed by wisdom»?

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.

Come funziona «Practise patience with yourself so the path does not become perfectionism»?

An ideal called “perfection” invites being measured against it. Patrul Rinpoche’s guide builds in the counterweights: self-discouragement is named as a kind of laziness, answered by encouraging yourself and building confidence; the force of moderation means resting when tired or disheartened; the force of joy means celebrating the good you do; and rejoicing in the good done by others is one of the favourable factors for the bodhisattva’s aspiration. Harsh self-judgement drains the joy that, in this teaching, is effort’s fuel — so being patient with your own slowness is part of the path, not a break from it.

Why is wisdom the most important of the six perfections in Mahayana Buddhism?

Because in the Mahāyāna presentation wisdom is what turns the other five into perfections. Patrul Rinpoche lists four features each of the six must have, and one of them is being endowed with non-conceptual wisdom. Generosity given while clinging to giver, gift and recipient as solid things is still a good deed, but not yet the perfection of generosity. Wisdom itself is trained by investigating whether the self that feels harmed or praised can be found in the body or mind. At the same time the teaching does not rank wisdom as a replacement: wisdom that never shows itself in giving, restraint and patience is incomplete.

How does the Buddhist perfection of patience help with anger at a specific person?

The sixth chapter of Śāntideva’s Bodhicaryāvatāra sets patience against anger, which it treats as deeply destructive. Patrul Rinpoche’s guide gives three ways to bear harm from others: see the person as driven by their own disturbing emotions, and so as someone to feel compassion for; take the blame on yourself, which he grounds in past karma and in how you are acting now; and recognise that without such people there would be no chance to practise patience at all. Each reframing changes what the anger is about. Patience in this sense is not suppression, and it is not a reason to stay where you are being harmed.

What is the difference between the six paramitas and the ten paramitas?

The six perfections — giving, virtue, patience, energy, meditation and wisdom — are the Sanskrit Mahāyāna list. Bhikkhu Bodhi, introducing Dhammapāla’s Theravāda treatise on the pāramīs, notes that later Mahāyāna texts add four more — resolution, skillful means, power and knowledge — so that the ten perfections line up with the ten stages of the bodhisattva’s path. The Pāli tradition has its own, partly overlapping list of ten: giving, virtue, renunciation, wisdom, energy, patience, truthfulness, determination, loving-kindness and equanimity. The Theravāda treatise defines the pāramīs as good qualities accompanied by compassion and skillful means and untainted by craving, conceit and views — close to the Mahāyāna insistence that each perfection be held with wisdom.

Is joyful effort in Buddhism the same as pushing yourself harder?

No. In Patrul Rinpoche’s guide, vīrya is defined by joy — doing good with enthusiasm and without expecting a result — and one of its six supporting forces is moderation: resting when tired or disheartened in order to continue. Its obstacle is laziness of three kinds: not starting, being busy with less worthwhile things, and self-discouragement. The remedy for the third is encouragement, not pressure, which is why the same tradition offers patience with oneself as part of the path. Pressing urgency on someone who is already discouraged tends to deepen the discouragement.

How does meditation fit into the bodhisattva path alongside ethics and generosity?

In Patrul Rinpoche’s presentation, meditative concentration is the fifth perfection and is not trained in isolation. It begins by setting aside busyness and the craving for praise and reputation, and its main object is the wish for others’ awakening, starting with the meditation on the equality of oneself and others: everyone wants happiness and does not want suffering exactly as you do. The calm that results is meant to make the other perfections easier — less distraction for discipline, less self-concern for generosity and patience — and to prepare the ground for the investigation that wisdom carries out.

Does research show that practising generosity and compassion actually makes people happier?

For related modern practices, partly. In a randomised experiment, people assigned to spend money on others reported more happiness than those assigned to spend it on themselves, and a large registered replication confirmed that when 712 students were randomly assigned to buy for themselves or for a stranger in need, though recalling past prosocial spending made little or no difference. A randomised trial of a nine-week secular compassion training found gains in compassion for others and self-compassion compared with a waitlist. None of these tests the pāramitās themselves, whose stated aim is loosening attachment for the sake of awakening rather than feeling happier.

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