Under this category we share Paramita Project articles with you.
In Monday’s post, I shared the first four of eight qualities Shantideva lists that prevent us from employing skillful means. They are: confusion, distraction, being too easily influenced by others, and complacency. The next four are: Procrastinating Lacking Discipline to Break Bad Patterns Fearfulness Worldliness Procrastination…
In his classic book The Way of the Bodhisattva, Shantideva lists eight qualities that can limit our potential. This list is a collection of feelings, experiences, or reactions that prevent us from employing skillful means. Because the list is both long and heavy (meaning it asks…
Buddhist tradition lists four samgraha-vastu, or virtuous attributes, that every bodhisattva using skillful means employs. These methods of guidance show us the way. They are: Beneficial Speech: Beneficial speech communicates affection. The words intend loving care, or kindness. These words benefit both the hearer and the…
On Buddhist altars, you will often see three figures: the Sakyamuni Buddha in the center, Manjushri, the wisdom bodhisattva, on one side, and Samantabhadra, the compassionate action bodhisattva, on the other. Like all spiritual iconography, this conveys something important. In this case, it depicts the strength…
The oldest list of paramitas include only six: generosity, discipline, patience, heroic perseverance, meditation, and wisdom. In Mahayana Buddhism, four more paramitas were added. These final four are seen as virtues, of course, but more specifically they are means by which we apply the first six…
In this final post on practicing prajna, wisdom, I want to talk about wisdom as being transcendent. We have to be careful though, because transcendence does not mean other-worldly, as if we have to somehow remove ourselves from the here and now in order to obtain…
As humans, we constantly create perceptions. Many, if not most, of these perceptions are false. When a perception is correct, it’s called wisdom. Wise perception is the art of discerning what is true. One way we can practice wise perception is by becoming more aware of…
Of wisdom’s many qualities, the most prevalent description is that it brings light. To be more specific, it doesn’t just bring light; it is light. Wisdom has been described as our inner sun. It provides light and warmth to our lives and circumstances. It illuminates our…
I’m currently reading The Other Shore, Thich Nhat Hanh’s commentary on the Heart Sutra. The Heart Sutra, which includes the well-known phrase “form is emptiness; emptiness is form,” calls us to forget ourselves. This, for Westerners, is problematic and disturbing, because we often define our entire…
In my last post on wisdom, I shared an easy, accessible way to practice wisdom: read wise words daily. Today, I want to talk about the second step of that practice: be mindful of your media diet. This second step is harder, and usually met with…
