Ten paramitas
The ten paramitas (Skt. daśa pāramitā; Tib. ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་བཅུ་, Wyl. pha rol tu phyin pa bcu) are:
The six paramitas
- Generosity (Skt. dāna; Tib. སྦྱིན་པ་, jinpa): to cultivate the attitude of generosity.
- Discipline (Skt. śīla; Tib. ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་, tsultrim): refraining from harm.
- Patience (Skt. kṣānti; Tib. བཟོད་པ་, zöpa): the ability not to be perturbed by anything.
- Diligence (Skt. vīrya; Tib. བརྩོན་འགྲུས་, tsöndrü): to find joy in what is virtuous, positive or wholesome.
- Meditative concentration (Skt. dhyāna; Tib. བསམ་གཏན་, samten): not to be distracted.
- Wisdom (Skt. prajñā; Tib. ཤེས་རབ་, sherab): the perfect discrimination of phenomena, all knowable things.
plus:
- 7. Skilful means (Skt. upāyakauśalapāramitā; Tib. ཐབས་ལ་མཁས་པ་, tap la khepa; Wyl. thabs la mkhas pa),
- 8. Strength (Skt. balapāramitā; Tib. སྟོབས་, top; Wyl. stobs),
- 9. Aspiration prayers (Skt. praṇidhānapāramitā; Tib. སྨོན་ལམ་, mönlam; Wyl. smon lam) and
- 10. Primordial wisdom (Skt. jñānapāramitā; Tib. ཡེ་ཤེས་, yeshe; Wyl. ye shes).
These last four paramitas are aspects of the sixth paramita—the paramita of wisdom—and are not added to the first six. The way of dividing the paramitas into ten is particularly related to the teachings on the bhumis which describe the progression of a bodhisattva where each of the paramitas are successively perfected on each of the ten bhumis.
Source
ten paramitas
十波羅蜜 (Jpn ju-haramitsu or jipparamitsu )
Ten kinds of practice carried out by bodhisattvas for their own enlightenment as well as for the enlightenment of other people. The ten paramitas are the six paramitas (almsgiving, keeping the precepts, forbearance, assiduousness, meditation, and the obtaining of wisdom)—plus the paramitas of expedient means, the vow, power, and knowledge. The paramita of expedient means is to make full use of skillful means to benefit other people, and the paramita of the vow is to pledge to lead other people to enlightenment. The paramita of power is the power of practice, and the paramita of knowledge, the perfection of knowledge for the purpose of leading other people to enlightenment. These four practices are regarded as auxiliary to the six paramitas.
See also; six paramitas.
Source
- 1. Giving or generosity
- 2. Virtue, ethics, morality
- 3. Renunciation, letting go, not grasping
- 4. Wisdom and insight
- 5. Energy, vigour, vitality, diligence
- 6. Patience or forbearance
- 7. Truthfulness
- 8. Resolution, determination, intention
- 9. Kindness, love, friendliness
- 10. Equanimity
