Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva
Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva: Verse 30
Without wisdom the five perfections
Are not enough to attain full awakening.
Cultivate wisdom and skill
Free from the three domains — this is the practice of a bodhisattva.
Again, I had to ask Google “What are the five perfections?”
Here’s the response:
- the perfect teacher (Tib. སྟོན་པ་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པ་)
- the perfect teaching (Tib. ཆོས་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པ་)
- the perfect place (Tib. གནས་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པ་)
- the perfect disciples (Tib. འཁོར་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པ་)
- the perfect time (Tib. དུས་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པ་)
The Buddhist idea of wisdom refers to holding a universal perspective on everything we believe is important. Often translated as “emptiness,” haven’t you figured out your own way to think of emptiness? Without a grasp on emptiness, nothing can possibly be perfect.
Geological time is a beginning. One human soul, one cell in one human body, one atom in one mammalian cell, existing for one flicker of a moment before changing in shape, in form, and position. If everything is always changing — then nothing is permanent and emptiness becomes the logical conclusion. When you settle your mind on emptiness, it’s possible to calm down, but only for that tiny flicker of time. It may seem like hours or days, but that’s deceptive
And then, again I turned to Google: “And what are the three domains?”
In Buddhism, there are three realms of existence: The desire realm, the form realm, and the formless realm. Go no further into study; it’s hopeless. Let’s use our common sense. Instead of trying so hard to be high-minded and learned, if we can’t make sense of something walk around it. The world around us with things we like and things we don’t like, the world around us without our various opinions and reactions, and then finally, there’s the universe of constant, timeless change.
Without wisdom and skill, it doesn’t matter if we find ourselves the perfect teacher, delivering the perfect teaching, in a gorgeous perfect place, in the company of perfect followers, at the absolutely perfect time — none of it will help us if we fail to embrace impermanence.
Finding ourselves in the arms of impermanence, isn’t it easier to practice compassion?
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