THE SIX PARAMITAS – SIX METHODS TO BECOME A BODHISATTVA
Master Jun Hong Lu: All of you know about the practice of giving. All of you also know that you should practise morality – you should not tell lies. How would you feel when your child lied to you? You felt sad, didn’t you? This is a child who is the love of your life and here he is telling you lies.
Tolerance is the basic survival criteria of humans. To live in this society, everyone should learn to be tolerant, otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to survive. People are very selfish in this day and age, is it even possible to survive without forbearance? Without this quality, you can’t even make a friend. Is there anyone who is not selfish at your workplace? You know well that this person is extremely selfish and you are also aware that he would turn a blind eye to everything. If you continue to be troubled by him, you may end up having depression.
You know how important diligence is, don’t you? What does meditative concentration mean? Well-cultivated people possess the power of concentration. They are never hasty. When their flight is delayed, they will go, “I can recite one Little House”. Frankly speaking, this is what meditative concentration is about. It means you are able to calm down.
You see people around you complaining, “Why is the train late?”, “What’s wrong with the bus? It’s not here again!”. Take a look at these people, aren’t they stressed up? Look at us, we just carry on with our chanting and waste no time.
Others may make a fuss, but not you. Don’t you think this makes you a better cultivated person? When your parents scold you, they are not well-cultivated. When your parents quarrel, as their child, you are well-cultivated, so you choose to keep quiet, isn’t this meditative concentration? When you are calm, you will be able to differentiate the well-cultivated ones from those who aren’t.
Lastly, in the six paramitas, there is wisdom. Is there any problem that a wise person cannot resolve? Some people are very wise, no matter what they encounter, they will go, “You should go over there”, “You should move this here”, “Push this over there slightly”. This is also wisdom.
For example, you are someone who is extremely generous but is not so good at the other aspects of the six paramitas (patience, calmness, discipline and diligence). If you continue with your practice of giving and avoid all unwholesome deeds, you will surely become a Bodhisattva. When you make it to heaven in the future, you may be named as the Bodhisattva of Giving.
If you are someone without much money, neither are you diligent but, you have one strength, that is, the ability to forbear! Assuming you have been practising patient endurance your entire life, in the end, you become the Bodhisattva of Great Endurance.
In a nutshell, you pick one of these six methods, and assess for yourself, which is the one that resonates with you. Do you feel more confident now?
Source: Master Jun Hong Lu’s Buddhism In Plain Terms (Audio), Episode 21
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