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.
Why it works
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.
How to do it
- Pick one good act from your week — a gift, a held tongue, a patient response.
- Ask of it the four questions: was the opposing habit (stinginess, careless conduct, anger, laziness, distraction, muddled thinking) actually absent?
- Was I holding it lightly, or clinging to it as my achievement?
- Did it actually meet a need of the other person, or only my idea of their need?
- Did it help them, even a little, toward their own good?
- Notice which question is hardest to answer yes to — that is where the training is for now.
Evidence
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.
Sources
- 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.
Common mistake
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.
Practice this with IX Coach
More practices for The Six Pāramitās: How the Bodhisattva Trains
- Generosity (dāna): give, then notice what you were holding on to
Practise giving as a training against stinginess — and watch for the quieter attachments that ride along with a gift.
- Ethical discipline (śīla): keep watch with mindfulness, vigilance and care
Hold what you mean to do and not do in mind, check your body, speech and mind as you go, and act on what you notice.
- Patience (kṣānti): meet harm without adding anger
When someone harms or provokes you, work with the anger directly — through compassion for them, honesty about your part, and the chance it gives you to practise.
- Joyful effort (vīrya): find which kind of laziness is in the way
Effort in this tradition is joy in doing good — and its obstacle comes in three kinds, each with its own remedy.
- Meditative concentration (dhyāna): settle the mind, and rest it on the equality of self and others
Clear away busyness and craving for praise, then let the settled mind dwell on the fact that others want happiness exactly as you do.
- Wisdom (prajñā): look for the self you are defending
Investigate whether the “I” that feels harmed, praised or threatened can actually be found in the body or the mind.
- Practise patience with yourself so the path does not become perfectionism
Use the tradition’s own remedies — encouragement, rest, rejoicing — when the ideal of perfection starts turning into a stick.
Related concepts
- Lojong: Tibetan Mind Training
The 59 slogans and their practical application to everyday adversity and compassion
- Tonglen: The Tibetan Practice of Taking and Sending
Moving toward suffering on the breath — Tibetan Buddhism’s radical compassion practice
- Karuṇā: Compassion Meditation in the Theravāda Tradition
The second divine abiding, practised the way the Theravāda commentaries lay it out
- Shamatha: The Buddhist Practice of Calm Abiding
Training the mind to rest: the nine stages and their modern neurological parallels
Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0: cite or embed this practice · more practices graded Practitioner experience