Recently I was browsing my library and noticed the Dalai Lama’s book, “Transcendent Wisdom,” his commentary on the Wisdom section of Santideva’s “The Bodhicaryavatara: A Guide to the Buddhist Path to Awakening.” I picked up the Dalai Lama’s book and read it. In the book, the Dalai Lama makes reference to “The Precious Garland, An Epistle to a King” by Ācārya Nāgārjuna. I purchased it and read it. That’s how my system works. Random journeys along various streams, imagining these flowing into the great ocean of the Lotus Sutra.
Sometimes in this randomness I forget that I’ve been on this path before. Back in November 26, 2018, I published a blog post entitled, “The Purpose of a Buddhist Practice,” in which I bemoaned my early Buddhist focus on “my wishes” to the exclusion of all else.
Then in 2021 I read “The Six Perfections: Buddhism and the Cultivation of Character,” Dale Wright’s detailed discussion of Buddhist teachings about six dimensions of human character that require “perfecting” – generosity, morality, tolerance, energy, meditation, and wisdom. I was immediately struck by how much I admired the concept of setting the goal of your practice to perfect these characteristics.
On March 1, 2021, I wrote “On the Way to the Other Shore,” in which I pointed out that twice a year during the spring and fall Equinox, Nichiren Shu officially observes a week of focus on self-improvement guided by the six perfections. The only problem was that at that time in 2021, none of the American sanghas I was familiar with offered such a practice. Only Rev. Igarashi at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church made reference to Paramita Week.
Today is the first day of Higan week, the three days before the equinox and the three days after. And as I mark the occasion I want to offer some quotes from Chapter 5 of “The Precious Garland, An Epistle to a King” by Ācārya Nāgārjuna.
In short, the good qualities that a bodhisattva should develop are generosity, morality, tolerance, heroic effort, concentration, wisdom, loving kindness, and so on. 35
To be generous is to give up one’s wealth; to be moral is to endeavor to help others; tolerance is the abandonment of anger; heroic effort is enthusiasm for virtue. 36
Concentration is unafflicted one-pointedness; wisdom is definitively determining the truths’ meaning. Loving kindness is a state of mind that savors only compassion for all sentient beings. 37
From generosity comes wealth, happiness from morality. From tolerance comes beauty, splendor from heroic effort. Through meditation, one is peaceful, through understanding comes liberation. Compassion is what accomplishes all aims. 38
Through the simultaneous perfection of all these seven, one attains the object of inconceivable wisdom – lordship over the world. 39
The Precious Garland, An Epistle to a King, p78-79
For me, Nichiren Buddhism does not do enough to encourage striving to perfect oneself and benefit others. It shouldn’t just be two weeks out of the year.
Where is the vow encouraged by Nāgārjuna?
As long as there is even some single sentient being somewhere who is not yet free, may I remain (in the world) for that being’s sake, even if I have attained unexcelled awakening. 85