The Ten Perfections--A Useful Framework

For people in the modern world facing the issue of how to practice the Dhamma in daily life, the ten perfections provide a useful framework for how to do it.

When you view life as an opportunity to develop these ten qualities–generosity, virtue, renunciation, discernment, persistence, endurance, truth, determination, good will, and equanimity–you develop a fruitful attitude toward your daily activities so that any skillful activity or relationship, undertaken wisely and in a balanced way, becomes part of the practice.

The perfections also provide one of the few reliable ways of measuring the accomplishments of one’s life. “Accomplishments” in the realm of work and relationships have a way of turning into dust, but perfections of the character, once developed, are dependable and lasting, carrying one over and beyond the vicissitudes of daily living. Thus they deserve to take high priority in the way we plan our lives.

These two facts are reflected in the two etymologies offered for the word perfection (pāramī): They carry one across to the further shore (paraṁ); and they are of foremost (parama) importance in formulating the purpose of one’s life.

This reflection by Ajaan Geoff is from the Study Guides book Ten Perfections: A Study Guide, “Introduction.”