Paramitas study

Becoming an oasis in a world on fire - 

Weaving the Paramitas into the Tapestry of our Lives

What the world needs now is love, sweet love

It's the only thing that there's just too little of

What the world needs now is love, sweet love

No not just for some oh, but just for everyone

Burt Bacharach

The world is in a state of distress, literally on fire in some places, full of heated anger, disharmony, and division.  We see the suffering that results from believing the delusion of separateness and the way that the self-centered dream creates nightmares for others.  In witnessing so much chaos and heartbreak, our survival instincts can kick in, compelling us to respond with rage and protest or to turn away from the turmoil or numb ourselves or collapse into a state of despair.  The Bodhisattva vow is a commitment to be led by vow and not jerked around by our reactions to the moment.  The lived expression of that vow is the cultivation and embodiment of six qualities, known in the tradition as paramitas [perfections]—generosity, ethical discipline, patience, effort, meditation, and wisdom— which can be offered to the world as a liberating, cooling balm.  To study the paramitas is to discover that they are not a set of individual and separate qualities, but facets of compassionate, relational presence.

“What do I need to do to express, develop, and sustain compassion? And the answer is, practice the six practices: generosity, morality, patience, energy, meditation, and wisdom. That’s the way to develop compassion.”

—Norman Fischer

Join us for an exploration of how the cultivation of these six qualities allow us to be a force for balance, harmony, compassion, and love as we meet a world that is reeling from imbalance, disharmony, separation, and fear.  Just as the embodied expression of these qualities is relational, this course will be a weaving together of multiple Sanghas, stewarded by leaders from Appamada Zen Community, Awakening Together Zen Community, Just This Zen Community, and Open Door Zen Community and supported by our Guiding Teacher, Flint Sparks.    

Depending on your relationship to reading and learning, please choose from the list below the book(s) you are drawn to, to accompany you during our time together.

• Deep Hope: Zen Guidance for Staying Steadfast When the World Seems Hopeless by Diane Eshin Rizzetto 

• Entering the Mind of Buddha: Zen and the Six Heroic Practices of Bodhisattvas by Tenshin Reb Anderson

• The Practice of Perfection: The Paramitas from a Zen Buddhist Perspective by Robert Aitken (out of print - only available used)

• The Six Perfections: Buddhism and the Cultivation of Character by Dale Wright

• The World Could Be Otherwise: Imagination and the Bodhisattva Path by Norman Fischer

Other resources for learning and reflection will be shared throughout the course of study.