To Mike:

In a message dated 4/29/03 5:25:56 PM, mlnease@... writes:

<< suttas at


http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/study/perfections.html


From his introduction:


In the early centuries after the Buddha's passing away, as Buddhism became a

popular religion, the idea was formalized that there were three paths to

awakening to choose from: the path to awakening as a disciple of a Buddha

(savaka); the path to awakening as a private Buddha (pacceka-buddha), i.e.,

one who attained awakening on his own but was not able to teach the path of

practice to others; and the path to awakening as a Rightly Self-awakened

Buddha (samma sambuddho). The question then arose as to what the differences

between these three paths might be. All Buddhists agreed that the third path

took by far the longest to follow, and that it involved extra perfections

(parami) of character beyond those of the other two paths, but disagreements

arose as to what those perfections might be. The Theravadins, for instance,

specified ten perfections, and organized their Jataka collection so that it

culminated in ten tales, each illustrating one of the perfections. The

Sarvastivadins, on the other hand, specified six perfections, and organized

their Jataka collection accordingly.


I haven't read this piece and don't recall the paramis (perfections) all

appearing together (per se) in the canon.


Good hunting,


mike >>

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Jeff:
Thank-you my good friend Mike, for your fine contribution to this topic. I
thought I would list those Ten Perfections as they appear in the above
website for easy reference. It is interesting to note that 4 of these are
the Bramhaviharas, and there are actually 11 items. It is also reminiscent
of the list describing Bodhichita in Mahayana.

The Ten Perfections

1. Discernment
Good Will
2. Truth
Virtue
Persistence
3. Relinquishment
Generosity
Renunciation
4. Calm
Endurance
Equanimity

Best to all,

layman Jeff