This website is the home of The Four Noble Truths on the web.

Six Perfections

• “Integrate the six perfections with your job. It is the practice of relative bodhicitta. Practice generosity. Do your job ethically – honestly, sincerely. It will benefit the country. Make your boss happy.”
• When mind is free from attachment and aversion, then you can practice the six perfections.
• Great love and compassion must be present in the mind.
• This is engaging bodhicitta. It is not just wish. It is actually going to destination.
• Ability to engage depends on training in aspiration bodhicitta.
• Why did the buddha teach the six perfections? We need resources to practice, so he taught generosity. But even nagas have wealth. He taught discipline to be born human. When we practice, afflictions will arise. So he taught patience. We need diligence to continue practice. Then comes calm-abiding and wisdom.
• Bodhicitta is like the sun. The six perfections are like the rays of the sun. They spontaneously manifest out of bodhicitta. For example, a mother loves her child. She wants to give to her child - this is generosity. She does not want to harm her child - this is discipline. She does not respond to her child in anger - this is patience. These three are the causes of happiness in the higher realms: abundance, human birth, and good companions. She is always mindful of her child - this is diligence. She has unceasing love and compassion for her child - this is meditative concentration. There is something lacking in a mother’s love for her child. The love the bodhisattvas have for sentient beings is free from partiality - this is wisdom.
• How to accomplish welfare of beings? Through the practice of the six perfections.