The Six Transcendental Perfections

For three countless aeons Buddha Sakyamuni was occupied with nothing other than cultivating the motivation of bodhicitta and practising the six transcendental perfections. This practice alone led him to the attainment of perfect enlightenment. All the vast teachings of the Buddha are included within this central practice of the bodhisattva, cultivating the motivation of bodhicitta and practising the six transcendental perfections. The six transcendental perfections are generosity, discipline, patience, diligence, meditation, and knowledge.Generosity:The practice of generosity has the aim of cutting through all fixations and attachments such as clinging to the body, to material wealth and enjoyments, and finally even to whatever spiritual merit you may have accumulated. In order to practice generosity, you must develop a generous mindset. With a generous mindset you are able to give away things that you are fond of, things you really wish to possess, as well as things that you truly need. To merely give up something that you neither like nor need is not what is meant by a generous mindset.If your practice of generosity is embraced with the recognition of non-conceptual wisdom, then only can it truly be called ‘transcendental’ generosity. If your practice of generosity lacks the recognition of non-conceptual wisdom, it is still only conventional generosity. Enlightenment is only possible through the quality of transcendence. Transcendence means ‘to go beyond samsara’, ‘to go beyond ego-clinging’, ‘to go beyond worldly thinking’. In order to attain enlightenment, one must include the recognition of non-conceptual wisdom in the application of all six perfections. Then only are they ‘transcendental perfections’.Discipline:Discipline means giving up all fixation on non-virtue. Due to our afflictions and our habitual patterns, we often react and behave in non-virtuous ways. Discipline is nothing other than letting go of fixating on negative thoughts, emotions and patterns. Instead, you make the firm resolve, “I will not allow myself to stray into non-virtuous actions of body, speech, and mind.” For instance, the thought, “I hate that person and I will hit him”, is a mental fixation on a negative emotion. Discipline means learning how to release this negativity.Patience:If afflictions and negative patterns arise in your mind and you do not act them out, you are practicing patience. For instance, anger may arise in your mind, causing you to think, “I want to harm this person.” However, if you refrain from acting on this fixation, on this negative impulse, you are practicing patience. Furthermore, patience means to actually release all fixation on the varieties of mental turmoil. You release your grasping at anger, greed, arrogance, jealousy, suffering, anxiety, and so forth. Finally, only if your practice is grounded in the recognition of non-conceptual wisdom may it truly be called ‘transcendental patience’.Diligence:Diligence means to endeavor joyously in virtue, to be happy to practice virtue. Diligence involves overcoming fixation on the lazy mind which fails to practice virtue, which fails to practice Dharma. Grounding your practice of diligence in the recognition of non-conceptual wisdom, it becomes ‘transcendental diligence’. Whenever you engage in study, contemplation, and meditation or any other virtuous action, you should undertake these tasks in a happy and inspired frame of mind. If you practice the Dharma when your mind is tainted by afflictions, you will only create non-virtue.Meditation:Meditation means letting go of all fixations which involve being caught up in distraction. The state of meditation refers to an undistracted mind, which is also a centred and relaxed state of mind. People are very attached to distractions. They must keep their minds occupied with something and find themselves unable to leave the mind in its natural state. When your meditation is grounded in the recognition of non-conceptual wisdom, then only can it truly be called ‘transcendental meditation’.Meditation here mainly refers to the two types of meditation practice: samatha´, which means ‘calm abiding´, and ´vipasyana’, which means ‘clear insight’. The beginner first trains his mind in ´calm abiding´, free from analysis and mental distinctions. Once he has attained a certain stability in ‘calm abiding’, he then applies his knowledge of the Dharma to this state and sees the nature of the truth.Knowledge:The perfect bodhisattva has the knowledge and wisdom which enable him to maintain the recognition of the Buddha nature while he continues to practice generosity, discipline, patience, diligence, and meditation. Bodhisattvas are able to acquire this knowledge through studying, contemplating, and meditating according to the teachings of the Buddha. They apply this knowledge to all the other five perfections. Only by bringing the recognition of the Buddha nature, of profound emptiness, into the practice of the perfections do they become ‘transcendental’.Knowledge in this case means ‘transcendental knowledge’. This knowledge goes far beyond the knowledge of what is visible and tangible via sensory perception alone. Rather, it is the knowledge that is able to recognize the Buddha nature, profound emptiness, non-conceptual wisdom. Within the recognition of non-conceptual wisdom, all thoughts, fixations, and attachments are naturally absent. This recognition must be applied to every situation in life. This recognition, the true meaning of transcendental knowledge, must be applied to the practice of each of the first five perfections. ‘Transcendental’ literally means ‘gone beyond’.Transcendental knowledge is a knowledge that has gone beyond ego-clinging and ignorance. The knowledge that has recognized egolessness is transcendental knowledge. Genuine transcendence is only gained from the first bodhisattva level onward.