The Ten Perfections

This recording of a 10-session workshop entitled The Ten Perfections was made in Montreal’s West Island, Winter 2004

The original Pali 'parami' or Sanskrit 'paramita,' which literally means 'gone-beyond,' is commonly translated as 'Perfection,' a word that unfortunately draws more attention to the religious connotations of Buddhism than to its practical purpose as a waking up to the realities of life.
     Waking up to what? We're locked up not in jail but in the cyclic maze of the dualistic mind. We entrap ourselves through self-defensive games that maintain our illusory credentials. One of those games is the hope for perfection – a state of permanent happiness, perhaps even sainthood – so beware of your preconceptions.
     The ten perfections are meant as an antidote, but they may just as easily lead us back into the maze. The Buddha himself couldn't determine how people heard his message, and not everyone got it. Even the deepest wisdom can be hijacked by the self-important mind and put to its own trivial ends. That’s why, I refer to the ten paramis in these recordings in various ways, to discourage the impression that any idea is set in stone and to recall the core Buddhist spirit of open enquiry.
     The gone-beyond (parami) is the quality of having so thoroughly integrated a practice that it becomes an instinctive reflex. These ten aren't separate qualities or sequential steps, but a mosaic of the reflective life. Formal meditation may take place in ideal conditions of calm and quiet, but that's just practice. The real challenge is to bring clarity to the rest of our lives at work and at play. Whether or not you sit in silence every day, this sort of on-your-feet mind-training is crucial, for life presents us with a simple choice either you train the mind, or it will lead you back into the maze with its never-ending dualistic chatter.
     The Buddhist notion of emptiness is frequently misunderstood, but its essence is simple. We are intimately connected to the world that sustains our bodies, and to the shared culture that sustains our minds, emotions and spirit. Language and discursive thought give the impression that we and everything we love, hate and own is intrinsically disconnected and that we're free to pick, choose and control our lives. That impression is just us mistaking our description of life for life itself. By abandoning our preconceptions we rediscover with newborn clarity that life is seamless, and 'I' is just an abstraction. Likewise, these ten 'perfections' are interrelated, interdependent transient states of mind. In practicing one we practice all ten, and reap the benefits in every aspect of life.