Chapter 5The Six Perfections

Having generated bodhicitta and gained insight into emptiness, the bodhisattva must now engage in the active training that actually leads to buddhahood. These are the six paramitas -- the "perfections" or "transcendent actions" that take the practitioner beyond the shores of samsara.

The word paramita literally means "gone to the other shore." Each perfection, when practiced with the understanding of emptiness and the motivation of bodhicitta, becomes a vehicle for crossing from the confusion of samsaric existence to the freedom of awakening. Without bodhicitta, these six are ordinary virtues. With bodhicitta, they become transcendent.

Tokme Zangpo devotes one verse to each perfection (verses 25-30), creating what is essentially a compressed manual for the entire bodhisattva career.

Verse 25: Generosity

When those who want enlightenment must give even their body, There's no need to mention external things. Therefore without hope for return or any fruition Give generously -- This is the practice of bodhisattvas.

Generosity stands first among the six perfections, and for good reason. It is the most accessible, the most immediately transformative, and the direct antidote to the self-grasping that lies at the root of samsara.

Tokme Zangpo's argument proceeds from the greater to the lesser. Bodhisattvas in the advanced stages of the path give their very bodies for the welfare of others -- this is celebrated throughout the Jataka tales, where the Buddha-to-be offers his flesh to a starving tigress, his eyes to a blind man, his life in countless forms. If the body itself must be given, how much more readily should we part with mere external possessions -- money, food, clothing, time, attention?

The crucial qualifier is "without hope for return or any fruition." True generosity is not a transaction. It is not giving in order to receive -- not giving to build a reputation, not giving to accumulate merit for yourself, not even giving to feel good about your own virtue. All of these motivations, while not entirely unwholesome, contaminate the perfection of giving with self-interest.

The perfection of generosity is, ultimately, a state of mind. As the tradition teaches, the perfection of giving is not the elimination of all poverty in the world. If it were, the buddhas of the past could not have perfected it, since beings still suffer from want. The perfection of giving is the complete willingness to give -- a mind so open and undefended that nothing is held back.

In practice, generosity takes three forms: giving material aid, giving the Dharma (teachings, protection from fear, spiritual guidance), and giving fearlessness (protecting beings from danger). Each of these can be practiced at every level of capacity, from offering a few coins to offering your entire life's work.

Verse 26: Ethical Discipline

Without ethics you can't accomplish your own well-being, So wanting to accomplish others' is laughable. Therefore, without worldly aspirations Safeguard your ethical discipline -- This is the practice of bodhisattvas.

Tokme Zangpo is characteristically blunt. If you cannot manage your own conduct, the idea that you can help others is absurd -- literally laughable.

Ethical discipline is the foundation upon which all other perfections rest. Generosity without ethics can become a form of manipulation. Patience without ethics can become complicity with harm. Meditation without ethics can become spiritual escapism. The entire edifice of the bodhisattva path is built on the ground of moral conduct.

The instruction to practice "without worldly aspirations" is critical. You can maintain ethical discipline for all kinds of worldly reasons: to be respected by your teacher, to appear virtuous in the eyes of your community, to avoid legal consequences, to maintain your reputation. All of these motivations produce some benefit, but they do not constitute the perfection of ethical discipline.

The perfection requires a motivation that transcends worldly concern entirely. You practice ethics because harmful actions create suffering for yourself and others, because positive actions create the conditions for awakening, and because your aspiration is to benefit all beings -- not because of what anyone thinks of you.

Ethical discipline in the bodhisattva tradition encompasses three aspects: the discipline of restraint (avoiding the ten non-virtuous actions), the discipline of gathering virtue (actively cultivating positive qualities), and the discipline of benefiting beings (using every opportunity to serve others). A complete ethical practice includes all three.

Verse 27: Patience

To bodhisattvas who want a wealth of virtue Those who harm are like a precious treasure. Therefore towards all cultivate patience Without hostility -- This is the practice of bodhisattvas.

Patience is perhaps the most counterintuitive of the six perfections. Tokme Zangpo reframes the entire relationship between the practitioner and those who cause harm.

Those who harm you are not obstacles. They are treasures. Without them, how would you practice patience? Without someone to provoke your anger, how would you develop the capacity to meet aggression with equanimity? The person who insults you, cheats you, or betrays you is offering you the most precious opportunity on the bodhisattva path: the chance to grow.

This is not mere reframing or positive thinking. It reflects a deep understanding of how spiritual qualities are developed. Patience cannot be cultivated in comfortable circumstances any more than physical strength can be built without resistance. The gym of patience is the difficult encounter, the unjust situation, the unreasonable person.

Shantideva, whose Bodhisattvacharyavatara deeply influenced Tokme Zangpo, devoted an entire chapter to patience -- the longest in his text. He argued that anger is the single most destructive emotion on the path, capable of destroying in one moment the merit accumulated over eons. Patience is its direct antidote.

The instruction is "without hostility" -- not suppressed hostility, not controlled hostility, but the genuine absence of ill will. This requires deep practice. It begins with simply not acting on anger, progresses to not speaking from anger, and culminates in the mind itself being free from the arising of hostile intent. This is the perfection.

Verse 28: Joyous Effort

Seeing even Hearers and Solitary Realizers, who accomplish Only their own good, strive as if to put out a fire on their head, For the sake of all beings make enthusiastic effort, The source of all good qualities -- This is the practice of bodhisattvas.

The fourth perfection is often translated as "diligence" or "perseverance," but "joyous effort" captures the essential quality. This is not grim determination or teeth-gritting discipline. It is enthusiastic, even delighted engagement with the work of awakening.

Tokme Zangpo uses a vivid image. Even shravakas and pratyekabuddhas -- practitioners who seek liberation for themselves alone -- practice with such urgency that they would ignore a fire burning on their own heads rather than interrupt their practice. If those with a relatively limited aspiration show such dedication, how much more energy should bodhisattvas bring to the task?

The difference in scope is everything. A shravaka works for personal liberation. A bodhisattva works for the liberation of all beings -- every human, every animal, every hungry ghost, every hell being, every god whose exalted existence will eventually end in a fall. The scale of the aspiration demands a corresponding scale of effort.

Joyous effort is described as having three aspects. The first is armor-like effort -- the willingness to persevere for however long it takes, even if it requires countless lifetimes. The second is the effort of gathering virtue -- actively engaging in positive actions rather than merely avoiding negative ones. The third is the effort of benefiting beings -- tirelessly working for others' welfare.

The enemies of joyous effort are the three types of laziness: the laziness of indolence (preferring comfort and sleep to practice), the laziness of attachment to worldly activities (being too busy with trivialities to practice), and the laziness of self-deprecation (believing you are incapable of attaining awakening). Each must be recognized and overcome.

Verse 29: Concentration

Understanding that disturbing emotions are destroyed By special insight with calm abiding, Cultivate concentration which surpasses The four formless absorptions -- This is the practice of bodhisattvas.

The fifth perfection is meditative concentration -- the capacity to place the mind on any chosen object and hold it there with stability and clarity.

Tokme Zangpo specifies that this concentration must unite two qualities: shamatha (calm abiding, zhi gnas) and vipashyana (special insight, lhag mthong). Shamatha alone -- the ability to rest the mind in single-pointed stillness -- is shared with non-Buddhist meditative traditions and can lead to rebirth in the formless realms of infinite space, infinite consciousness, nothingness, and neither-perception-nor-non-perception. These are extraordinarily refined states of meditative absorption, but they do not uproot the afflictions. When the karma that produced them is exhausted, the meditator falls back into lower states.

The concentration Tokme Zangpo prescribes "surpasses the four formless absorptions" because it is joined with special insight -- the penetrating wisdom that sees the true nature of phenomena. When the stable mind of shamatha is united with the clear seeing of vipashyana, the result is a concentration that does not merely suppress disturbing emotions but destroys them at their root.

This is the key distinction. Ordinary concentration is like placing a stone on top of grass -- the grass (disturbing emotions) is pressed down temporarily but will spring back the moment the stone is removed. The concentration joined with insight is like pulling the grass up by its roots.

In practical terms, this means that meditation practice should not aim merely at tranquility. Peace of mind is valuable, but it is not the goal. The goal is the clear-seeing that arises when a stable mind turns its attention to the nature of reality.

Verse 30: Wisdom

Since the five perfections without wisdom Cannot bring perfect enlightenment, Along with skillful means cultivate the wisdom Which does not conceive the three spheres as real -- This is the practice of bodhisattvas.

The sixth perfection is wisdom -- and it is the one that transforms all the others from ordinary virtues into transcendent perfections.

Tokme Zangpo states it plainly: without wisdom, the other five perfections cannot bring perfect enlightenment. You can be the most generous, ethical, patient, diligent, and concentrated practitioner in the world, and you will still not attain buddhahood if you lack the wisdom that penetrates to the ultimate nature of reality.

This wisdom is specifically described as "not conceiving the three spheres as real." The three spheres ('khor gsum) refer to the agent (the one performing the action), the object (the one receiving it), and the action itself. In the case of generosity, for example, the three spheres are the giver, the recipient, and the act of giving. Ordinary generosity conceives of these as three inherently existing, separate entities. Wisdom recognizes that all three are empty of inherent existence -- they arise interdependently, like reflections in a mirror.

The verse also specifies that wisdom must be "along with skillful means." This is a crucial pairing. Wisdom without compassion and skillful means becomes dry and detached -- a philosophical understanding that does not engage with the world. Skillful means without wisdom becomes blind activity that, however well-intentioned, lacks the penetrating clarity needed to truly help beings. The bodhisattva path requires both wings, and it is the union of the two that carries the practitioner to perfect buddhahood.

This is why wisdom is traditionally placed last among the six perfections. It is not that it is practiced only after the others are complete -- in fact, it should inform every practice from the very beginning. It is placed last because it is the culmination, the perfection that makes all other perfections perfect.