Paramita (Sanskrit) [from
param beyond +
ita gone from the verbal root
i to go] Gone or crossed to the other shore; derivatively, virtue or perfection. The paramitas vary in number according to the Buddhist school: some quoting six, others seven or ten; but they are the glorious or transcendental virtues -- the keys to the portals of jnana (wisdom). Blavatsky gives these seven keys as (VS 47-8):
1) dana "the key of charity and love immortal";
2) sila (good character), "the key of Harmony in word and act, the key that counterbalances the cause and the effect, and leaves no further room for Karmic action";
3) kshanti, "patience sweet, that nought can ruffle";
4) viraga, "indifference to pleasure and to pain, illusion conquered, truth alone perceived";
5) virya (strength, power), "the dauntless energy that fights its way to the supernal TRUTH, out of the mire of lies terrestrial";
6) dhyana (profound spiritual-intellectual contemplation, with utter detachment from all objects of sense and of a lower mental character), human consciousness in the higher reaches of this state becomes purely buddhic, with the summit of the manas acting as vehicle for the retention of what the percipient consciousness experiences; once the golden gate of dhyana is opened, the pathway stretching thence leads towards the realm of "Sat eternal"; and
7) prajna (understanding, wisdom), that part of the mind that functions when active as the vehicle of the higher self; "the key to which makes of man a god, creating him a Bodhisattva, son of the Dhyanis."
to be continue "
Paramita2 "
These are the six virtues, or "perfections," that the bodhisattva perfects during his development. They are: generosity, discipline, patience, energy, meditation (
jhana) and wisdom (
prajna). The fifth paramita is meditation, or jhana. It refers to the attainment of the four levels of jhana in which non-duality is experienced. The sixth paramita is that of supreme wisdom (prajna).
