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This chapter is on the 6 paramitas, but I'm only going to do a few. Paramita means "going to the other shore," so they are transcendent actions that she says are kind of trainings for bodhisattva-hood. Before talking about them, she talks about how an important thing in such training is not to hold too much to fixed ideas, and gives the example of her own teacher, Trungpa Rinpoche, who would spend months teaching a specific ritual precisely and then change things completely, to teach people not to get too attached to fixed ideas.
The 6 paramitas are generosity, discipline, patience, exertion, meditation, and prajna (wisdom).
Starting with generosity: “When we feel inadequate and unworthy, we hoard things. We are so afraid afraid of losing, afraid of feeling even more poverty stricken than we already do. This stinginess is extremely sad. We could look into it and shed a tear that we grasp and cling so fearfully. This holding on causes us to suffer greatly. We wish her comfort, but instead we reinforce aversion, the sense of sin, and feeling that we are a hopeless case.
“The causes of aggression and fear begin to dissolve by themselves when we move past the poverty of holding back. So the basic idea of generosity is to train and thinking figure, to do ourselves the world's biggest favor and stop cultivating our own scheme. The more we experience fundamental richness, the more we can loosen our grip.
“This fundamental richness is available in each moment. The key is to relax: relax to a cloud in the sky, relax to a tiny bird with Gray wings, relax to the sound of the telephone ringing. We can see the simplicity in things as they are ... The journey of generosity is one of connecting with this wealth, cherishing it so profoundly that we are willing to begin to give away whatever blocks it... When one takes a formal bodhisattva vow, one percents a gift to the teacher as a focal point of the ceremony. The guidelines are to give something that's precious, something one finds difficult to part with period I once spent an entire day with a friend who was trying to decide what to give. As soon as he thought of something, his attachment for it would become intense period after a while, he was a nervous wreck. Just the thought of losing even one of his belongings was more than he could bear....
“Giving material goods can help people. If food is needed and we can give it, we do that. If shelter is needed, or books and medicine are needed, and we can give them, we do that. As best we can we can care for whoever needs our care. Nevertheless, the real transformation takes place when we let go of our attachments and give away what we think we can't.
“To dissolve the causes of aggression takes discipline, gentle yet precise discipline. Without the parameter of discipline, we simply don't have the support we need to evolve.... What we discipline is not our badness or our wrongness. What we discipline is any form of potential escape from reality. In other words discipline allows us to be right here and connect with the richness of the moment.... at the outer level, we could think of discipline as a structure, like a 30 minute meditation. Or a two hour class on the Dharma. Probably the best example is the meditation technique. We sit down in a certain position in an Rs faithful to that technique as possible. We Simply put light attention on the out breath over and over through mood swings, through memories, through dramas and boredom. This simple repetitive practice is like inviting our basic richness into our lives. So we follow the instruction just as centuries of meditators have done before.... discipline provides the support to slow down enough and be present enough so that we can live our lives without making a big mess.
“The power of the parameter of patients is that it is the antidote to anger, a way to learn to love and care for whatever we meet on the path. By patience, we do not mean enduring- grin and bear it. In any situation, instead of reacting suddenly, we could chew it, smell it, look at it, and open ourselves to seeing what's there. The opposite of patience is aggression- the desire to jump and move, to push against our lives, to try to fill up space. The journey of patience involves relaxing, opening to what's happening, experiencing a sense of wonder.... One of the ways to practice patience is to do tonglen. When we want to make a sudden move, when we start to speed through life, when we feel we must have resolution, when someone yells at us and we feel insulted, we want to yell back or get even. We want to put out our poison. Instead we can connect with basic human restlessness, basic human aggression, by practicing tonglen for all beings.”
The 6 paramitas are generosity, discipline, patience, exertion, meditation, and prajna (wisdom).
Starting with generosity: “When we feel inadequate and unworthy, we hoard things. We are so afraid afraid of losing, afraid of feeling even more poverty stricken than we already do. This stinginess is extremely sad. We could look into it and shed a tear that we grasp and cling so fearfully. This holding on causes us to suffer greatly. We wish her comfort, but instead we reinforce aversion, the sense of sin, and feeling that we are a hopeless case.
“The causes of aggression and fear begin to dissolve by themselves when we move past the poverty of holding back. So the basic idea of generosity is to train and thinking figure, to do ourselves the world's biggest favor and stop cultivating our own scheme. The more we experience fundamental richness, the more we can loosen our grip.
“This fundamental richness is available in each moment. The key is to relax: relax to a cloud in the sky, relax to a tiny bird with Gray wings, relax to the sound of the telephone ringing. We can see the simplicity in things as they are ... The journey of generosity is one of connecting with this wealth, cherishing it so profoundly that we are willing to begin to give away whatever blocks it... When one takes a formal bodhisattva vow, one percents a gift to the teacher as a focal point of the ceremony. The guidelines are to give something that's precious, something one finds difficult to part with period I once spent an entire day with a friend who was trying to decide what to give. As soon as he thought of something, his attachment for it would become intense period after a while, he was a nervous wreck. Just the thought of losing even one of his belongings was more than he could bear....
“Giving material goods can help people. If food is needed and we can give it, we do that. If shelter is needed, or books and medicine are needed, and we can give them, we do that. As best we can we can care for whoever needs our care. Nevertheless, the real transformation takes place when we let go of our attachments and give away what we think we can't.
“To dissolve the causes of aggression takes discipline, gentle yet precise discipline. Without the parameter of discipline, we simply don't have the support we need to evolve.... What we discipline is not our badness or our wrongness. What we discipline is any form of potential escape from reality. In other words discipline allows us to be right here and connect with the richness of the moment.... at the outer level, we could think of discipline as a structure, like a 30 minute meditation. Or a two hour class on the Dharma. Probably the best example is the meditation technique. We sit down in a certain position in an Rs faithful to that technique as possible. We Simply put light attention on the out breath over and over through mood swings, through memories, through dramas and boredom. This simple repetitive practice is like inviting our basic richness into our lives. So we follow the instruction just as centuries of meditators have done before.... discipline provides the support to slow down enough and be present enough so that we can live our lives without making a big mess.
“The power of the parameter of patients is that it is the antidote to anger, a way to learn to love and care for whatever we meet on the path. By patience, we do not mean enduring- grin and bear it. In any situation, instead of reacting suddenly, we could chew it, smell it, look at it, and open ourselves to seeing what's there. The opposite of patience is aggression- the desire to jump and move, to push against our lives, to try to fill up space. The journey of patience involves relaxing, opening to what's happening, experiencing a sense of wonder.... One of the ways to practice patience is to do tonglen. When we want to make a sudden move, when we start to speed through life, when we feel we must have resolution, when someone yells at us and we feel insulted, we want to yell back or get even. We want to put out our poison. Instead we can connect with basic human restlessness, basic human aggression, by practicing tonglen for all beings.”
