[4/29/2022 UPDATE: Zero Pāramitā Challenge provided (to me) for Month 8 / April 2022 yet and 5/23/2022 UPDATE: same thing for the month of May and presumably ongoing unless — barring other possibilities — readers and listeners see a new Pāramitā Challenge from the source and/or a new post/podcast published on IntegratingPresence.com]
Expediency, supreme enlightenment, service to others, purity/wholeness/wholesomeness, (non-)acquisition, (non-)attachment, momentariness, loving-kindness, goodness, (discerning) Dharma, truth, integrity, helping, self-inflation and disparaging others round out the main topics for March 2022, month seven of “The Pāramitā Challenge”. See also Months 1-3, Month four, Month five and Month six.
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.
Other than the thumping touch pad scrolling due to a sensitive mic, only a specific brief note to this month’s challenge to address an omission for the following portion:
We practice the perfect inconceivable roots of goodness, which are difficult to attain, and having supreme understanding of the Buddha’s teaching, which is also difficult to attain
While talking about verifying the authenticity of the version of the Buddha’s teachings in English we have access to today I omitted the relevance of the in-depth investigation and analysis at puredhamma.net particularly the likely significant misinterpretations and distortions of the Pali translations by early European scholars still perpetuated today that continue to color and shape our views and interpretations of the dhamma.
(Past) material for the Pāramitā Challenge is now at https://maba-usa.org/paramita-challenge.
The Pāramīs in Theravāda Buddhism:
- Dāna pāramī: generosity, giving of oneself
- Sīla pāramī: virtue, morality, ethics, proper conduct
- Nekkhamma pāramī: renunciation
- Paññā pāramī: wisdom, discernment
- Viriya pāramī: energy, diligence, vigour, effort
- Khanti pāramī: patience, tolerance, forbearance, acceptance, endurance
- Sacca pāramī: truthfulness, honesty
- Adhiṭṭhāna pāramī : determination, resolution
- Mettā pāramī: goodwill, friendliness, loving-kindness
- 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:
- Dāna pāramitā (दान पारमिता): generosity, giving of oneself (in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese, 布施波羅蜜; in Tibetan, སྦྱིན་པ sbyin-pa)
- Śīla pāramitā (शील पारमिता): virtue, morality, ethics, discipline, proper conduct (持戒波羅蜜; ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས tshul-khrims)
- Kṣānti pāramitā (क्षांति पारमिता): patience, tolerance, forbearance, acceptance, endurance (忍辱波羅蜜; བཟོད་པ bzod-pa)
- Vīrya pāramitā (वीर्य पारमिता): energy, diligence, vigor, effort (精進波羅蜜; བརྩོན་འགྲུས brtson-’grus)
- Dhyāna pāramitā (ध्यान पारमिता): one-pointed(ness) concentration, contemplation (禪定波羅蜜, བསམ་གཏན bsam-gtan)
- Prajñā pāramitā (प्रज्ञा पारमिता): wisdom, insight (般若波羅蜜; ཤེས་རབ shes-rab)
- Upāya pāramitā (उपाय पारमिता): skillful means (方便波羅蜜）
- Praṇidhāna pāramitā (प्राणिधान पारमिता): vow, resolution, aspiration, determination (願波羅蜜）
- Bala pāramitā (बल पारमिता): spiritual power (力波羅蜜）
- Jñāna pāramitā (ज्ञान पारमिता): knowledge (智波羅蜜）
Audio: Pāramitā (Perfections) Challenge: March 2022
Integrating Presence 