Having taken stock of our situation, our next logical consideration should be what to do about it. This has been answered succinctly in two lines from the Abhidharmakosa, by the great Indian sage Vasubandhu: “One who abides in moral conduct and applies himself to study and reflection should then become assiduous in the practice of meditation.”

Let us take this as a guideline for what to do about being human, and hence both beset by problems and blessed with opportunities for liberation. The Enlightened One and all the authentic great teachers throughout the centuries have taught that, to be a genuine follower of Mahayana Buddhism, you should awaken within yourself an enlightened attitude. Through love and compassion for all living beings, you will develop the unshakable, sincere resolve to strive for their highest good. Since that can only be achieved by your own attainment of buddhahood, this resolve shapes and guides your efforts on the spiritual path. One who has this intent at heart will not wish to deceive beings by failing to help them through right practice. Hence the sincere Mahayanist will train in the six perfections not because they are nice, but because their accomplishment is a natural outflow and expression of bodhicitta, the resolve to win enlightenment for the sake of others.

The bodhisattva, or follower of the Mahayana path, understands that to fulfill his resolve he needs both merit and wisdom. He must acquire merit to purify former accumulations of unwholesome karma and to attune the mind to the stages of holiness, while wisdom is required to see things as they really are and to escape the various forms of bondage. Hence the six perfections are a natural expression of the bodhisattva’s resolve. His or her training in giving, patience, and moral conduct is the method whereby merit is accumulated. According to most teachers, the fifth paramita, meditation, is also included in the accumulation of merit, while the sixth, wisdom, constitutes the bodhisattva’s accumulation of wisdom itself. Since the fourth paramita—diligence, or vigor—is required in the development of both merit and wisdom, it belongs to both categories. It is through diligence alone that you will succeed in accumulating merit through the first four paramitas, and likewise through diligence alone that you develop the insight whereby you acquire transcendent gnosis, or wisdom.

Thus, as the sutras agree, it is through the bodhisattva’s training in the six paramitas that he acquires the two essential elements that constitute enlightenment, namely, transcendent merit and transcendent wisdom. Wisdom is paramount because it guides a person in the other perfections of giving, patience, morality, diligence, and meditation. Wisdom prevents his getting caught up in them and treating them as real, or as ends in themselves.

Informed by transcendent wisdom, which has no object, the first five virtues go beyond merely producing good fortune and happiness in relation to their objects (for example, the giver, gift, and recipient) and become truly meritorious: they, too, become transcendent, and their merit then results only in the attainment of total liberation. It is transcendent wisdom alone that enables them to move beyond the limitations of worldly virtue.

Just as a great bird flying through space requires two wings to remain aloft, so the bodhisattva requires both merit and wisdom to keep him spiritually aloft, free from bondage in samsara yet eschewing nirvana out of his compassion for beings. The bodhisattva remains spiritually alive and active through his accumulation of these two transcendent factors. The direct result is, as the sutras tell us, attainment of the bodies of buddhahood. These include the two form bodies—the nirmanakaya, or illusory body, and the sambhogakaya, or communication body—and the dharmakaya, or body of reality (also called the body of transcendent gnosis). The form bodies result from the accumulation of transcendent merit, while the body of reality is the result of the bodhisattva’s accumulation of insight.

As you train in these six paramitas, with the resolve to attain buddhahood and the intent to devote yourself to the practice of meditation, seek out learned teachers of the Dharma for explanations of the stages and doctrines of the path, and for instructions on how to practice. Also try to receive tantric empowerments from qualified teachers, thereby gaining the direct blessings of the bodhisattvas, Buddhist deities, and lineage of enlightened masters. All these influences help to strengthen your efforts to practice steadily in the face of distractions, defilements, and obstacles, within and without. You will be able to obtain experience of the Path with Its Result much more quickly if you rely on spiritual friends and spiritual factors.


© 2003 by Victoria R.M. Scott and Michael E. Roche.