The Six Paramitas - Chan Master Sheng Yen - Part 0 Introduction

 Buddhism can be approached by studying the teachings and by practicing the teachings. It is not always easy to distinguish between the two. Deliberating upon and profoundly discerning the teachings can itself become a way of practice. Similarly, practicing to attain wisdom (prajna) requires stabilizing the mind (samadhi) through understanding the teachings. Study and practice, like prajna and samadhi, are thus intimately connected.

Hinayana and Mahayana

By a hundred years after the Buddha’s nirvana, approximately twenty different schools of Buddhism had arisen and had begun interpreting the teachings in different ways.1 About 400 years later, Mahayana (Great  Vehicle) Buddhism first appeared, and distinguished itself from the earlier schools by referring to them as Hinayana (Small Vehicle).

The term ‘Hinayana’ refers to those Buddhists who mainly practice the Four Noble Truthsi and the Thirty-Seven Aids to Enlightenment2, and ‘Mahayana’ refers to those who also engage in the Six Paramitas and the Four Ways of Gathering Sentient Beings3. However, there is no scriptural basis for this distinction. In fact, the earliest Buddhist scriptures (the nikayas in Pali and the agamas in Sanskrit) encourage the practice of the Four Noble Truths and the Thirty-Seven Aids as well as the Six Paramitas. The early schools did not refer to themselves as Hinayana, and the term can be viewed as derogatory if used by Mahayanists to designate other Buddhists as practitioners of a lesser path.

Nevertheless, upon closer examination, we do see a distinction between the two schools in that Mahayana Buddhism places a greater emphasis on generating a supreme altruistic intention to help others. This aspiration to alleviate the suffering of others without concern for one’s own nirvana is the anuttara (unsurpassed) bodhi-mind.4 While diligently practicing the Dharma, such a practitioner realizes that nirvana is not a blissful, abiding state in which one rejects samsara, the existential realm of suffering. Without rejecting or clinging to nirvana, the bodhisattva vows to return to the world to help sentient beings. This is the correct scope of mind on the Mahayana path. As ideals of this we point to Manjusri, Bodhisattva of Wisdom;  Samantabhadra, Bodhisattva of Great Actions and Great Functions;

Avalokitesvara, Bodhisattva of Compassion; and Ksitigarbha, Bodhisattva of Great Vows. These great bodhisattvas vowed to help sentient beings reach liberation before attaining their own buddhahood. Therefore, if we must make a distinction between Hinayana and Mahayana, it should be based on the bodhisattva’s more expansive scope of mind rather than on methods of practice.

At the time of the Buddha, and after, the idea that the ultimate goal of practice was to transcend this world and attain nirvana was very prevalent among practitioners of Buddhism, and of other paths as well. This idea of transcending the world and abiding in a heavenly realm is also common in many Western spiritual disciplines. To distinguish their own practice from the path of personal liberation, the Mahayana teachers used the term ‘Hinayana.’

Some people, of course, are so attached to the material and sensual delights of this world that they do not want to leave it. Their attitude is “Why would anyone want to leave this wonderful world?” But bodhisattvas realize that even as people immerse themselves in sensual delight, they create unending afflictions for themselves and others. They realize that the world is characterized by inherent suffering, and they wish to end the cycle of suffering for themselves and for others; they have aroused a desire to help others break free from the endless cycle. Realizing they have awoken from false dreams, they want to help others awaken too. This is the proper attitude of bodhisattvas. When we reflect on their sincerity and genuine intentions, we feel quietly touched and grateful.

Practicing the Paramitas

In Sanskrit ‘paramita’ literally means ‘having reached the other shore.’ It also means ‘transcendence,’ or ‘perfection.’ If we exist on the shore of suffering, reaching the other shore would mean leaving suffering behind and becoming enlightened. Hence, transcendence means to become free from mental afflictions, (the causes of suffering) and from suffering itself. The true practice of the paramitas is to be free from self-attachment and selfcherishing. Based on this definition, the Four Noble Truths and the ThirtySeven Aids to Enlightenment can also be considered paramitas, because they accord with the teachings of non-attachment and no self-cherishing. All Buddhist practices can thus be viewed as paramitas as long as they accord with the above principles.

From the Mahayana standpoint, practicing the paramitas is to practice in accordance with selflessness and non-attachment, and for the dual benefit of self and others. Practicing for one’s own benefit is not truly paramita practice. Therefore, when we do not practice to benefit others, whether we practice Hinayana or Mahayana, we are not truly practicing the paramitas.

Except for a few to whom helping others is of primary importance, most people believe in defending and caring for themselves first. Once, after a lecture I gave on the Six Paramitas, a gentleman said to me, “I never entertained ideas of benefiting others, because I am feeble. If I can’t help myself, how can I vow to deliver others? I would be very happy if someone could help me. But it is not possible for me to help others.”

The truth is that when you seek to benefit only yourself, what you can reap is limited. Your own rewards will be greatest when you strive to benefit others.

As a simple example, if you seize all the wealth in your own family—from brothers, sisters, parents, spouse or children—how will you survive in that household? Conversely, if you are careful and considerate of your family members, they will be appreciative and reciprocate. Your family will become very happy and harmonious. Therefore, Buddhism espouses benefiting others as the first step on your path to liberation. The Six Paramitas are precisely the means to do this.

What then are the Six Paramitas? They are: generosity (dana), morality (sila), patience (ksanti), diligence (virya), meditation (dhyana), and wisdom (prajna). Their purpose is to eradicate the two types of self-attachment, to sever the two types of death, and to transcend the ocean of suffering.

Self-Attachment

What are the two types of self-attachment? First is attachment to one’s own body, the extension of which is our concept of life span. The five skandhas5—the material and mental factors that together lead to our sense of self—are the fundamental source of our vexations and afflictions. To break away from this self through practicing the Six Paramitas is to give rise to wisdom that will sever the attachment to one’s physical body. Eradicating this kind of selfattachment means transcending our illusions about the world.

The second type of self-attachment is aversion to the afflictions and sufferings of worldly existence. Eradicating this type of self-attachment means transcending our aversion to the phenomenal world, and no longer fearing the cycle of birth and death.

Death

What are the two types of death? First is the physical death that ordinary people experience as they migrate through samsara (the cycle of birth and death). The second type of death consists of the stages of transformation on the bodhisattva path. There are ten such stages, or bhumis6, that a bodhisattva traverses on the way to buddhahood. Bodhisattvas experience samsara, but their death is not the ordinary physical death mentioned above.

It is rather, the death of progressively subtler layers of attachment that are shed as great bodhisattvas progress through the bhumis8, transforming their own merit and virtue, and finally attaining the dharmakaya, the body of reality, perfect buddhahood. The tenth and last stage is the complete fulfillment of all practices and realizations; thereafter transformation death will not recur. In accordance with the ten bhumis, bodhisattvas practice the Ten Paramitas.9 Thus, when you generate bodhi-mind, the altruistic mind of benefiting others, you benefit yourself as well.

1 Of the schools of early Buddhism, only one still is still prominent, the Theravadin, concentrated mostly in Southeast Asia.

2 At his first sermon after his enlightenment, the Buddha expounded the Four Noble Truths (Pali: Dhammacakka-pattavana Sutta). They are the truth of suffering, the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the way out of suffering by means of the Eightfold Noble Path, which consists of right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right meditation.

3 The Thirty-Seven Aids to Enlightenment, the bodhipakshika-dharma (‘things pertaining to enlightenment’), are divided into seven groups:

1) The Four Foundations of Mindfulness (satipatthana): mindfulness of breath, mindfulness of feeling, mindfulness of mind, and mindfulness of mental objects (dharmas).

2) The Four Perfect Exertions (samyak-prahanani): to avoid unwholesome acts not yet committed; to cease unwholesome acts already committed; to engage in wholesome acts not yet done; to continue wholesome acts already engaged in.

3) The Four Roads to Samadhi Power (riddhipada): concentration of intention, of effort, of mind, and of daring.

4) The Five Mental Faculties (indriya) of faith, effort, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom.

5) The Five Corresponding Powers (bala) of faith, effort, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom.

6) The Seven Factors of Enlightenment (bodhyanga): mindfulness, knowing between right and wrong, exertion in practice, delight in the teachings, purification of the passions, equanimity, and non-discrimination.

7) The Eightfold Noble Path (ashtangika-marga). See endnote no. 2.

4 Also known as the four immeasurable and outwardly radiant states of mind (brahma-viharas) cultivated by the bodhisattva: loving-kindness to all beings (maitri), compassion to those in suffering (karuna), joy in the liberation of others from suffering (mudita), and equanimity (non-discrimination) to all beings, whether friends or foes (upeksha).

5 Bodhi-mind (bodhicitta) in the narrow sense is the initial arousal of the aspiration to enlightenment experienced by the incipient bodhisattva. Coincident with the aspiration to enlightenment, the bodhisattva also vows to help sentient beings even before achieving self-enlightenment. More broadly, bodhi-mind also refers to ‘awakened mind,’ or enlightenment.

6 The fives skandhas (‘heaps’ or ‘aggregates’) are the constituents of a sentient being: form, sensation, perception, volition, and consciousness. The first skandha, form, is the material factor, the other four are the mental factors.

7 The ten bhumis, or transformation stages of the bodhisattva path to buddhahood, are described in various sutras, among them the Dashabhumika-sutra. At the first bhumi, the bodhisattva has aroused the aspiration to enlightenment (bodhicitta) and takes the bodhisattva vows. At the tenth and final stage, the bodhisattva attains complete enlightenment and is identified with the dharmakaya, the transcendent buddha-nature.

8 At his first sermon after his enlightenment, the Buddha expounded the Four Noble Truths (Pali: Dhammacakka-pattavana Sutta). They are the truth of suffering, the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the way out of suffering by means of the Eightfold Noble Path, which consists of right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right meditation.