Ten paramitas
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The ten paramitas (Skt. daśa pāramitā; Tib. ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་བཅུ་, parol tu chinpa chu, Wyl. pha rol tu phyin pa bcu) are:
The six paramitas
- Generosity: to cultivate the attitude of generosity.
- Discipline: refraining from harm.
- Patience: the ability not to be perturbed by anything.
- Diligence: to find joy in what is virtuous, positive or wholesome.
- Meditative concentration: not to be distracted.
- Wisdom: the perfect discrimination of phenomena, all knowable things.
plus:
- 7. Skilful means (Skt. upāyakauśalapāramitā; Tib. ཐབས་ལ་མཁས་པ་, tap la khepa, Wyl. thabs la mkhas pa),
- 8. Strength (Skt. balapāramitā; Tib. སྟོབས་, top, Wyl. stobs),
- 9. Aspiration prayers (Skt. praṇidhānapāramitā; Tib. སྨོན་ལམ་, mönlam, Wyl. smon lam) and
- 10. Primordial wisdom (Skt. jñānapāramitā; Tib. ཡེ་ཤེས་, yeshe, Wyl. ye shes).
These last four paramitas are aspects of the sixth paramita—the paramita of wisdom—and are not added to the first six. The way of dividing the paramitas into ten is particularly related to the teachings on the bhumis which describe the progression of a bodhisattva where each of the paramitas are successively perfected on each of the ten bhumis.
In the Samdhinirmochana Sutra, the Buddha explains how the last four paramitas 'assist' the first six.