Generosity, ethical discipline, patience, enthusiastic effort, concentration, and wisdom are practiced by Bodhisattvas with the supreme intention of attaining enlightenment for the sake of all living beings. These six are called perfections because they give rise to complete enlightenment-a perfected state in which liberation from disturbing emotions and their seeds, and from obstructions to the knowledge of all phenomena, has been attained.
Practicing the six perfections insures that we will have an excellent body and mind in the future and leads to even more favorable conditions for development than we experience at present. Generosity results in the enjoyment of ample material resources, ethical discipline gives a good rebirth, and patience leads to an attractive appearance and supportive companions. Enthusiastic effort endows us with the ability to complete what we undertake, concentration makes the mind invulnerable to distraction, and through the growth of wisdom we will be capable of discriminating between what should be cultivated and discarded. These six incorporate all of the Buddha's advice on the Bodhisattva way of life and include every practice needed for our own fullest development and for accomplishing the ultimate good of others.

The Six Perfections, Geshe Sonam Rinchen, Snow Lion Publications, Paperback, 1998,
158 pages, $21.95

Geshe Sonam Rinchen was born in Tibet in 1933. He studied at Sera Je Monastery and in 1980 received the Lharmpa Geshe degree. He is currently resident scholar at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharmasla, India, where he teaches Buddhist philosophy and preactice.

Ruth Sonam was born and grew up in Ireland and graduated from Oxford Universty with an M.A. in Modern Languages. She began studying with Geshe Sonam Rinchen in 1978 and has worked as his interpreter since 1983. Among their many works are Atisha's Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment; The Thirty-seven Practices of Bodhisattvas; The Three Principal Aspects of the Path; The Six Perfections; The Bodhisattva Vow; Eight Verses for Training the Mind; and The Heart Sutra.

	Contents: The Six Perfections
	Introduction	7
1.	Generosity	13
2.	Ethical Discipline	27
3.	Patience	43
4.	Enthusiastic Effort	63
5.	Concentration	81
6.	Wisdom	95
	Appendix: The Eighteenth Chapter of Nagarjuna's Treatise on the Middle Way	131
	Tibetan Text	139
	Notes