Multi-month Pāramitā (Perfections) Challenge For January 2022

[2/17/2022 UPDATE: I just got February’s Challenge and was told it’s now at https://maba-usa.org/paramita-challenge. I’m going to see if I can still complete by the end of February]

Meditation, concentration, contemplation, intoxicating substances, cravings, awakening, wisdom, and future Buddhahood round out the main topics for January 2022, month five of “The Pāramitā Challenge”. See also Months 1-3 and Month 4.

In addition to contemplating topics about the Pāramitās or Perfections, so far, this challenge also includes precepts, the (10 Abodes from the) 52 Stages of the Bodhisattva Path and Bodhisattva vows.

Instructions are to journal contemplations resulting from observed intentions, opportunities, and actions to be generous, moral and ethical while arousing faith in the Triple Gem then seeing where/when confident and where/when in doubt.

Again, I’ve not taken Bodhisattva vows, and so with little instruction in Mahāyāna Buddhism, apart from maybe a smidgen of the zen stuff, there’s the benefit of beginner’s mind is a nice way to put it. I continue to shoot from the hip in this recording and will use a Theravada lens now and again plus plenty of inquiry as I ponder out loud. It may come off at times as criticism, and sometimes it may actually be, but these are mostly solo efforts at summonings what is really meant by the material.

No notes this month other than to mention the missing medical disclaimer for week three: I’m not a medical professional, nor giving medical advice, merely sharing thoughts and musings. Please consult the proper health care personnel before changing any medical regimen.

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The Pāramīs in Theravāda Buddhism:

1. Dāna pāramī: generosity, giving of oneself
2. Sīla pāramī: virtue, morality, ethics, proper conduct
3. Nekkhamma pāramī: renunciation
4. Paññā pāramī: wisdom, discernment
5. Viriya pāramī: energy, diligence, vigour, effort
6. Khanti pāramī: patience, tolerance, forbearance, acceptance, endurance
7. Sacca pāramī: truthfulness, honesty
8. Adhiṭṭhāna pāramī : determination, resolution
9. Mettā pāramī: goodwill, friendliness, loving-kindness
10. Upekkhā pāramī: equanimity, serenity

The Pāramitās in Mahāyāna Buddhism:

The Prajñapāramitā sūtras (प्रज्ञापारमिता सूत्र), and a large number of other Mahāyāna texts list six perfections and the Ten Stages Sutra gives pāramitās 7 – 10:

1. Dāna pāramitā (दान पारमिता): generosity, giving of oneself (in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese, 布施波羅蜜; in Tibetan, སྦྱིན་པ sbyin-pa)
2. Śīla pāramitā (शील पारमिता): virtue, morality, ethics, discipline, proper conduct (持戒波羅蜜; ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས tshul-khrims)
3. Kṣānti pāramitā (क्षांति पारमिता): patience, tolerance, forbearance, acceptance, endurance (忍辱波羅蜜; བཟོད་པ bzod-pa)
4. Vīrya pāramitā (वीर्य पारमिता): energy, diligence, vigor, effort (精進波羅蜜; བརྩོན་འགྲུས brtson-’grus)
5. Dhyāna pāramitā (ध्यान पारमिता): one-pointed(ness) concentration, contemplation (禪定波羅蜜, བསམ་གཏན bsam-gtan)
6. Prajñā pāramitā (प्रज्ञा पारमिता): wisdom, insight (般若波羅蜜; ཤེས་རབ shes-rab)
7. Upāya pāramitā (उपाय पारमिता): skillful means (方便波羅蜜）
8. Praṇidhāna pāramitā (प्राणिधान पारमिता): vow, resolution, aspiration, determination (願波羅蜜）
9. Bala pāramitā (बल पारमिता): spiritual power (力波羅蜜）
10. Jñāna pāramitā (ज्ञान पारमिता): knowledge (智波羅蜜）

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The raw unedited YouTube transcription of this podcast:

welcome to month five of the parameter challenge for january 2022.

this one deals with right concentration for the first week

from sn45.a and what is right concentration

there’s a case where a monk quite withdrawn from sensuality withdrawn from unskillful mental quality enters and

remains in the first genre rapture and pleasure born from withdrawal

accompanied by directed thought and evaluation with distilling of directed thoughts and evaluation he enters and

remains in the second genre rapture and pleasure born of composure unification of

awareness free from directed thought and evaluation internal assurance

with the fading of rapture he remains equanimous mindful and alert

and senses pleasure with the body he enters and remains in the third genre of

which the noble ones declare equanimous and mindful he is

equanimous and mindful he has a pleasant abiding with the abandoning of pleasure and pain

as with the earlier disappearance of elation and distress he enters and

remains in the fourth jhana purity of equanimity and mindfulness neither

pleasure nor pain this is called right concentration so for the first week

of this month is from the 10 parameters

and the doctrine of mere consciousness are also translated as discourse on the

perfection of consciousness only number five meditation and contemplation

then the commentary says meditation is of three kinds meditation leading to

samadhi meditation leading to the unfoldment of supernatural powers

and three meditation leading to the successful accomplishment of great tasks

so it’s interesting i find that these are condensed into these categories the first one leading to samadhi

which the above reading jhana is more of a

an absorption state and samadhi

is kind of like the maybe the outcome of this

or all the genres could be lumped under samadhi perhaps interpreted in

different ways like samata is a practice that leads to samadhi

and of course in this description it doesn’t distinguish right samadhi from

somebody that’s not right or right concentration from wrong concentration

but with that inclusion of right samadhi right concentration that one i’m pretty

much in agreement with number two meditation leading to the information of supernatural powers

out of all the different things meditation can be used for it’s interesting how that one has its own

category and today’s standard most people would consider that superstitious or

folklore wise tale or legends mythology

i’m gonna have to disagree with the purely scientific standard

that’s been said on that which takes anything that it can’t explain off the table pretty much

but we’ll just leave it at that for now and number three meditation leading to the successful accomplishment of great

tasks i think that’s pretty much can lump everything else together under that i

guess but it’s really pretty vague i mean what is a great task to begin with

and should we just be doing meditation for another task like a you know tying your shoes brushing your teeth and what

makes a task great wouldn’t that vary from person to person and this notion of accomplishment

well most things in life it’s ongoing and there’s really no completion

to a lot of things in one way at least overall i mean one completion of one task might

open up something that needs to be done with another task and vice versa

or something might need maintaining what we once thought was a complete task

but anyway so here’s some other things that i feel meditation and contemplation can be used

for the first and foremost is truth so being able to better see and know

distinguish truth discriminate what’s true and what’s not discern

what’s true and what’s not especially the four noble truths the truths of the four noble truths the truth part of them

suffering the cause of suffering that cessation of suffering is possible and then the way leading towards that

cessation again we can use meditation to see and know things

it’s kind of like maybe more drilling down on what truth is when we can see and know it

investigation so we can use contemplation and meditation to investigate certain things through a

line of questioning inquiry just digging into causes and conditions

of things consciousness exploration some people use meditation to explore

consciousness and then we have mundane things like relaxation calm

some people meditate for a cognitive advantage or for therapeutic reasons therapy

health pleasantness maybe people meditate just out of curiosity see what it’s about some

people use it as a space for visualization some people meditate to invite more balance and

well-being into their lives some people would even do it for a silly purpose of wanting to make an impression

on someone just like just about anything else in life some people have a devotion to it and

use it as a healing modality so there’s just a few other things that

meditation and contemplation can be used for i guess

you could lump some of those under somebody or successful accomplishment of great task

but there it is and that’s week one of month five

week two of month five of the parameter challenge january 2022

this is from the six perfections and their subdivisions from the sutra on

understanding the profound and esoteric doctrine

five meditation slash concentration the three subdivisions are meditation of

abiding in happiness which counteracts all the suffering of passion because it

is non-discriminative tranquil very tranquil and irreproachable second one

is the meditation that engenders functions and virtues three meditation that

engenders benefit for sentient beings so i guess we’ll start at the first one here meditation of abiding in happiness

which counteracts all the suffering of passion because it is

non-discriminative tranquil very tranquil and irreproachable so obviously abiding in

happiness is a wonderful thing but what about those times when it doesn’t really seem

possible to abide in happiness then what well can we even look at that as an

opportunity to have a better knowing and understanding of happiness and the suffering of passion not too

fond of this either just on a technical note that well what about passion for the dhamma passion for

meditation and concentration what about wholesome desires and then non-discriminative

well actually we need discrimination in the sense of discernment to be able to

tell what is even happiness and what’s not happiness what’s passion what’s not passion and tranquility is a very

admirable quality as long as it’s balanced and not overly tranquil docile when efforts needed and

irreproachable almost seems like in i’ll just leave that for now speak to that so

much but the point here being if we’re if we’re happy and we’re in happiness then there’s really no need to chase our

tail chase tail too for some i suppose looking to

gratify certain urges when beings oftentimes think that one thing will

make them happy but they’re actually doing things that are completely counter

to their happiness so number two the meditation that engenders functions and

virtues here’s this word in gender again so functions and virtues it seems like

virtues are included in precepts sila samadi panya sila being ethics

ethics seem more foundational than meditation bringing about ethics

although they can for me personally i wasn’t really even able to see my non-ethical conduct and that from

others even until i started meditation at least see it where it really struck

chord and resonated connected all the dots and knew the impact and seeing and

knowing that ethics are for our happiness not our constraint

constraint in and of itself for constrains sake in functions

i think most meditation has some kind of function but what kind of

function is it bringing about or not bringing about what counter function does it have surely most everything is

done for a reason meditations exception so meditation that engenders benefits

for sentient beings this is pretty much straightforward however it seems like

benefits and wanting to help other people i don’t know what so much that has to do with meditation specifically

it’s an aid and being a benefit to sentient beings but meditation bringing about that in and of itself i think

maybe meditation can allow us to see the truth more clearly and seeing that once

our needs are taken care of and that we’re all interconnected that it just

makes sense to then be a benefit to sentient beings and this would just happen naturally in

most kinds of meditations i suppose unless you’re doing some kind of dark sorcery or

service to self practices and that’s week two of month five for the parameter

challenge this is week three of the parameter challenge for month 5

january 2022 this week deals with intoxicants including alcoholic

beverages recreational drugs from the 58 bodhisattva vows number five don’t sell

or consume consume alcoholic beverages or other recreational drugs

if you yourself sell alcohol or you encourage others to do so then herein are the causes of selling alcohol the

conditions for selling alcohol the methods of selling out on the act of selling alcohol all kinds of alcohol

should not be sold as consumption of alcohol leads to the commission of other crimes instead bodhisattva should give

rise to penetrating wisdom and all sentient beings if on the other hand they lead sentient beings into distorted

states of mind by selling them alcohol this is a bodhisattva project offense

so it’s different than the fifth lay precept of i undertake the training rule to abstain from alcoholic drinker drugs

that are an opportunity for heedlessness it’s interesting that’s an opportunity for heatlessness

it’s presumed that the but so there’s some commentary here about you know the fine line between

medication and recreational use i’ll come back to that

and this is an interesting thing from the uh chinese agama da16 and also

cinco my sanskrit is pretty poor discourse too

singular chinese buddhism argues the reasoning for non-intoxicating non-intoxication

based on the loss of reputation the commentary on the five signs of decay is applicable to one who transgresses the

precepts the five signs are listed as the following one although they seek wealth it does not come to them two

although they get something they waste it three they are not respected by their social group before they they’re bad

reputation spreads five when they die they enter the hells also

and this is commentary on the fifth precept from the brahmanet sutra

actually i’ll just read the sutra and not the commentary the fifth major precept prohibits dealing and

intoxicants a disciple of the buddha must not himself deal on any type of intoxicate whatsoever encourage others

to do so or involve himself in the causes conditions methods or karma of dealing and intoxicants for

intoxicants are the causes and conditions for all manners of offense a bodhisattva should influence all beings

to give rise to bright penetrating wisdom if instead he influences beings to give right to upside down thinking he

thereby commits a bodhisattva project offense so i’ll just jump right into my

own personal experience with this um i started drinking alcohol before it was even

legal so that was not so good i won’t go into details beyond that

other than to say i quit drinking in 2013.

i used to be the guy who would go out and be able to drink all night and then tell other people what they did when they

blacked out i’d wake up most times without any kind of hangover

and so there wasn’t much incentive to stop drinking and it was in certain cultures

and that i was in part of the culture of the the people i hung out with

very accepted there’s a big brewery here in town was anheuser-busch now in bev and just

kind of built into the culture where i grew up where i’ve lived in missouri

when i finally got into meditation though it didn’t take too long probably less than a year before

just drinking one beer i started to get hung over for almost a whole day sometimes even longer

than that just from a single beer i mean it was wild how much it changed so i’m like what is the point

of this why even bother so i just quit now going back to

some things i want to address in this um it does seem like selling alcoholic beverages and

consuming you know there’s this whole thing like well you know well drug

dealers they’re the one that should get more time in jail but if there wasn’t a demand for the drugs and wouldn’t they

even be around to sell the drugs so it’s all kind of interdependent and then you have the whole kind of culture and

society built around this you know well do you attend an event that’s been sponsored by

alcohol or drug money or what about the hidden money laundering around drugs

in alcohol probably not alcohol so much since it’s legal which doesn’t really seem to make it much

better and you know alcohol by itself isn’t there’s nothing really wrong in and of

itself that i know of it’s just that other than it leads to it makes the other precepts more

likely to be broken like i’m sure we’ve all been around somebody that’s had a few too many drinks and they’ll probably

say something they’re horrified at mortified when they’re sober right or they might

engage in certain behaviors lying stealing cheating misusing sexual energy is on

and on right harming physical mental emotional for some reason it just seems

more likely when alcohol’s thrown in the mix for some people though it helps them

unwind at least a little bit in the short term but then where does that leave in the long term you know do they

need more and more they start getting into this thing like oh i can just have one and then some people can’t have one

but then there’s people social drinking and you can have one but if you start drinking with them well they can’t have

one they have to have more and more and more but then there’s the opposite thing of like you go to a cocktail party and

you’re not drinking right or you go around people and sometimes they they’re like what’s wrong with you why aren’t

you drinking so that’s another interesting dynamic with this so the

medicinal use of alcohol and certain

substances chemical substances substances that are designed and created for therapeutic use you know this is a

whole huge rabbit hole some of these pharmaceutical drugs have

therapeutic use great therapeutic use a lot of them have side effects too that

lead on to other being prescribed other drugs some are

good short-term but not long-term um and then you get into

the hallucinogenic drugs that are now being considered for therapeutic use by

licensed physicians you know it’s it’s interesting because it used to be certain shamans would

administer these drugs because they would spend their whole life engaging in

ceremony and study and administering these

psychedelics to people who needed treatment for various things

and now they’re considering i guess letting medical doctors prescribe these for

therapeutic means and i wonder what kind of training is involved in that

and how that would compare to a say a shaman there’s a lot that goes into it

then we get something as simple as or maybe not as cannabis and certain people’s reactions

to it and certain people’s response therapeutic responses to it got

different legalities around that obviously we all know this so lots of

research and study recommend and then paying attention to one’s own experience

on and off these if they’re being prescribed or looking into as alternatives

so many studies to consult so many experts to consult and talk to

but don’t overlook your own experience when and if these come into play

looking for markers and reference points within

one’s own use and then also it depends on certain causes and conditions throughout one’s

life where one substance at one point in life might have had a different effect

then compared to maybe 20 30 years later when certain things have changed fairly

significantly the easy guideline though is if you do not need these or can abstain from

them then it’s easier just to put them aside unless this is a really interesting topic to to jump into and

study for one there’s really some clear-cut substances

that really have no beneficial use whatsoever that’s pretty easy and the alcohol thing

if you don’t see it as an issue for one’s spiritual practice then

there’s probably a lot less likely chance that you’ll even consider stopping alcohol

but if you can see or when you see and know it for yourself then it’s an easier choice to

make of course meditation helps a lot with that but at the very least

just considering the fact that hey maybe down the road i might be open to

abstaining from alcohol and seeing what the effects might be like on my spiritual practice my obtainment of

knowledge and wisdom progress my long-term happiness the long-term

happiness of others and just have to try it out for yourself but it seems like that

initial kernel of curiosity or faith needs to be present for such a chance

like that to even occur down the road and that’s month five of the parameter

challenge week three january 2022 week four

with month five the parameter challenge for january 2022

this is from the 50s to bodhisattva stages the 10 abodes stages

11 through 20 focus on stages 8 through 10. so i don’t know the numbering there

what’s going on but anyway number eight the abode of the true child number nine

the abode of the dharma prince number ten the abode of illustration so number eight the abode of the true child we

abide in being born into the buddha family letting go of worldly cravings

and instead we abide where deluded views do not arise and where awakening does

not cease number nine the abode of the dharma prince we abide in producing wisdom in accordance with the buddha’s

teachings and being assured of becoming a buddha in the future number 10 the abode of lustration we

abide in being able to view the principles of signlessness and emptiness

so number a to the abode of the true child abiding and being bored into the buddha family letting go of worldly

cravings and instead we abide where deluded views do not arise and where awakening does not cease it’s actually

quite beautiful awakening does not cease it’s awakening upon awakening so being

born into a buddha family this is the first i’ve heard of that term it’s quite lovely too

without having any real idea what this means since i’ve never heard it before to me it would mean

wherever one takes birth there’s interest in the buddha at least if not

full awakening realizing full awakening and buddhahood the path to get there so

this would also mean to me associated associating with like minds immersion into

truth and the culture around truth and reality and also around the heart qualities kindness compassion rejoicing

inequanimity wisdom these things are leading to release so

letting go of worldly cravings that’s pretty obvious right we think we get something that will satisfy

our sense desires and then you know there’s a type of happiness in that but where does it end it just goes on and on

and on and when you know what happens when we can’t get it well then we do things to get more things satiated and

sometimes not for our own benefit in others but then beating ourselves up over this fact

isn’t going to help much either needs to be strategy and lots of love involved lots of kindness and compassion towards

ourselves and others seeing the world suffer in this way or seeing only the minuscule happiness

that things involved with worldly cravings can bring compared to the beautiful fruit of the dharma the

buddha dharma truth and reality and instead we abide where deluded views do not arise and we’re awakening

awakening does not cease well the deluded views there are plenty of those and

i’m no exception for that this is where wisdom comes in in discernment to know what view

is going to lead towards our happiness and others happiness in the long term and what’s not this is

where teachers and friends can come in to give a check to this

study and practice of course can develop right view right view at the start and then

along the path all the other pack path factors in forming

right view so i don’t know what stage it’s going to be when diluted views don’t arise i mean a

diluted view can arise and we can know it and not have to

give it any more energy power credence beyond that it’s really when we don’t

see the deluded views whether it become a problem but then again if we see a view and know it’s diluted

then that’s more right view than it is wrong view so the big question on that is how how do

we abide where deluded views do not arise closest thing i could come up with

right now would be immersing yourself in a in sangha which is not just

practitioners who are interested in the same type of things as these but also in the

kindness and the fruit of our practice and the heart qualities that we can show ourselves and others or even just the

intent of that to begin with but of course intent is not

enough on its own right thought right speech right action have to follow through with that

otherwise it’s just right intent or maybe not even i don’t know where awakening does not cease

abiding where awakening does not cease so awakening may into higher and higher

levels deeper and deeper levels broader and broader levels more expanded and

expanded levels of awakening and of course this word is being used a lot now

obviously it’s like a dream a dream might seem so real but then when we wake

up out of it we realize that that was a different state of consciousness a different something

different from waking consciousness and so there’s the possibility to awaken

within the dream as well lucidity throughout every moment and

greater and greater lucidity ongoing number nine the abode of the dharma

prince this is the first i’ve heard of this term dharma prince we abide in producing

wisdom in accordance with the buddhist teaching and being assured of becoming a buddha in the future

so this is not like being promised eternal life in heaven to me this means being

part of this being assured of becoming a buddha in the future ties in with this thing of buddha nature

so given you know i guess it has to be hypothetically here speaking that given the process of rebirth

have to just consider that for hypothetical postulations that if there’s rebirth of sorts then

eventually after eons and eons of time statistically speaking

given one doesn’t go into a fall system or a fall cycle or devastation

then the longer time goes on the greater chance of becoming a buddha if on the

path right realizing full complete total awakening

we look at the jataka tales of the buddhas past lives eons and eons but if there is no

discernible beginning no discernible in two cycles of time and that plays a huge

role in this and also answers a bunch of metaphysical questions or not answers then but kind of puts them to rest then

back to the first part of this we abide in producing wisdom in accordance with the buddha’s teaching it’s interesting

abiding in producing the wisdom so this implies like a an activity

something has to be done in accordance with the buddha’s teachings wisdom so it’s interesting um

i guess wisdom is not just wisdom i don’t know i would like examples of wisdom that aren’t in accordance with

the buddhist teaching i guess maybe if you’re considering wisdom like something like

wise guys in the mafia or something i don’t really consider that wisdom being a wise guy but what does that mean what

are you wise about wisdom as far as i know is information into knowledge and then using knowledge in one’s life to

know for oneself the application of knowledge and of course this is where it needs to

be balanced with the hard qualities otherwise can wisdom can get cold hard brittle

even if we know that when we’re wise we help not ourselves but others as well not

only ourselves i mean wisdom is the antidote to ignorance where this whole

mess is a mess so number 10 the abode of illustration

we abide in being able to view the principles of signlessness and emptiness

it’s interesting here this word lustration doesn’t happen too much it’s

even looking it up here it says rare purification by expiratory sacrifice

ceremonial washing or some other ritual actions a soul illustrated in the

baptismal waters so it’s interesting this is used in the context of buddhism even though the

buddha redefines certain terms of his day another word here you don’t

hear it very often e-x-p-i-a-t-o-r-y expiratory i guess we abide in being

able to view the principles of signlessness and emptiness so these have been talked about on the last

month’s parameter challenge so if you haven’t listened to that you can go back and listen to that but basically

signlessness is the gate of liberation to the first mark of existence first

characteristic of existence ever um and that is a nietzsche i like the translation of

inconstancy that in the long run nothing will stay constant and emptiness is the

liberation gate of not-self so it’s a very another complex teaching that i

don’t need to go into here and i went into depth on emptiness in the last month like i say but just really briefly

here we abide in being able to view the principles so this is just being able to view the

principles and being there so it doesn’t say there’s a really an understanding or

a realization or even abiding in those but just the

ability to view the principles so are the principles different than

signlessness itself and emptiness itself is there anything in addition to the principles of these things and are there

other ways to approach the principles than than viewing them kind of nitpicky

points here oh and then the ability so you know can there just be a realization

without an ability or does ability need to be ongoing once realization has been

complete and finalized i don’t know the answer to any of these i don’t even know if they’re worth asking but there they

are and of course you know what are these principles of signlessness and emptiness

they’re liberating is there a tendency towards one over the other and the third one missing here is

wishlessness i think that’s gonna do it for this month january 2022 the fifth month of

the parameetha challenge