Part Two · The Six and Ten Perfections

Part One set up the ground and the ruler of the bodhisattva's mastery: signed in the vow, not the fruit; measured by amassing, not by severing. But "amassing the two provisions" was still empty—merit and wisdom are two names, and names cannot be amassed; what can be amassed are deeds, done and done again. This part fills that empty word "amass" with concrete deeds.

The shape the canon gives the two provisions to take hold of is called the six perfections—giving, morality, patience, vigour, meditation, and wisdom; and above the six the treatises open out a tenfold set, adding skillful means, vow, power, and knowledge. Two chapters here: the first says how the six are the shape of the bodhisattva's mastery, and not six unrelated good deeds; the second says what the four added perfections are, and how the ten disclose themselves ground by ground along the ten grounds.

The hinge of this part must be set out first, to forestall a misreading. The six perfections are most easily read as "six things worth doing"—a list exhorting goodness, no different from the generosity, rule-keeping, and patience the world already prizes. Read so, the six lose their thread to "the bodhisattva's mastery." This part reconnects the thread: what makes the six "perfections"—pāramitā, crossing to the far shore—and not merely goods of this shore turns on two things. One, prajñā is their guide: apart from prajñā the five are like blind men with no one to lead them, only bounded worldly goods; with prajñā guiding, they "cross over" into mastery. Two, from the first they face toward beings: giving is giving to others, patience is patience with others—the mastery is legible in how it benefits beings. With these two, the six are one shape of mastery, not six scattered virtues.

Into the first chapter: how are the six the shape of the bodhisattva's mastery, and not just six good things?