The Six Perfections : Buddhism and the Cultivation of Character

A lucid, accessible, and inspiring guide to the six perfections--a set of Buddhist teachings designed to transform human character through the perfection of generosity, morality, tolerance, energy, meditation, and wisdom. Drawing on essential Mahayana texts, Dale Wright shows how these teachings were understood and practiced in the Buddha''s time and how they can be adapted to contemporary life in a global society.

Here is a lucid, accessible, and inspiring guide to the six perfections--Buddhist teachings about six dimensions of human character that require "perfecting": generosity, morality, tolerance, energy, meditation, and wisdom. Drawing on the Diamond Sutra, the Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom, and other essential Mahayana texts, Dale Wright shows how these teachings were understood and practiced in classical Mahayana Buddhism and how they can be adapted to contemporary life in a global society. What would the perfection of generosity look like today, for example? What would it mean to give with neither ulterior motives nor naiveté? Devoting a separate chapter to each of the six perfections, Wright combines sophisticated analysis with real-life applications. Buddhists have always stressed self-cultivation, the uniquely human freedom that opens the possibility of shaping the kind of life we will live and the kind of person we will become. For those interested in ideals of human character and practices of self-cultivation, The Six Perfections offers invaluable guidance.