enough time and follow certain procedures. In this sense, it seems to provide us with
a promising outlook concerning human growth.
The six kinds of practiceIf the Consciousness-only School is regarded as a psychology that facilitates human
growth and self-transcendence, the theory of the six kinds of practice (sat pƗramitƗ
) would be the practical part of the psychology.
PƗramitƗ (often translated as the ‘perfections’) is the practice of accomplishment
or of going beyond ordinary suffering. Vexing passions and Enlightenment are
respectively compared with this shore and that shore of the river. So paramita means
to cross to from the shore of vexing passions to the shore of Enlightenment. The six
perfections are stressed not only in the Yogacara School but also in Buddhism in
general.
The first of these, generosity (dƗnƗ-pƗramitƗ) must be fundamentally
distinguished from donation in the ordinary sense in which the donator and the
donated are separate from each other. In the Buddhist outlook, the self and others
are originally one and only different aspects of the same reality. Donation as a
paramitah is practiced so that the student may realize this truth. Just as water that
happens to be in different places tends to be one when it flows from high to low, so
donation in the Buddhist sense takes place like a natural phenomenon. It is training
for developing the wisdom of equality.
The second practice, ethical discipline (ĞƯla-pƗramitƗ), does not mean to passively
observe imposed injunctions but to strive for the goal of Enlightenment that the
student spontaneously chose. It involves doing what is necessary and not doing what
is not necessary in regard to the ethical training. It presupposes some autonomy before
heteronomy.
The third practice, patience (kƗnti-pƗramitƗ), refers to the acceptance and
equanimity that allow one to be present with all of one’s feelings moment to moment.
It is also fundamentally different from patience in the ordinary sense that presupposes
the separation of the self from the outer world. It is the attitude in living that develops
from the deep recognition that the world is not at the individual’s disposal, therefore
full of disappointments.
The fourth practice, diligence (vƯrya-pƗramitƗ), is understood in our everyday
language as making effort, but should more deeply mean a basic posture in human
life in which one spends every day as discipline without being idle, knowing that our
life is limited, on the one hand, and that it offers us the possibility of developing deep
concentration and mindfulness, on the other.
The fifth practice, meditation (dhyƗna-pƗramitƗ), is especially indispensable for
attaining Enlightenment or Emptiness. It must be stressed here that merely
intellectual knowledge of Buddhist concepts alone never amounts to the experience
of what is meant by them.
The sixth practice, wisdom (prajñƗ-pƗramitƗ) is both the means and the goal of
discipline. It involves the transformation of the deep structure through the discipline
226 THE CONSCIOUSNESS-ONLY
SCHOOL