Borobudur at sunrise · Justine Hong · CC BY 2.0

Buddhism

Tradition·Founded c. 480 BCE·est. ~500 million worldwide

Vedic Religion → Buddhism → 3 branches

Branch
Overview Belief 37How to Live 12Practice 34Stories & Scripture 35Community 10 You × Buddhism Discussion 1
Precept of Buddhism

The perfections.

Generosity, ethics, patience, effort, meditation, wisdom. Six qualities to be developed without limit — where the precepts say what to avoid, these say what to build.

Add to My Beliefs →
What it asksGenerosity, ethics, patience, effort, meditation, wisdom — and in the longer list, skillful means, vow, power and knowledge
Who it bindsAnyone on the bodhisattva path; the framework rather than a rulebook
Where it bitesPatience is the one the texts spend most time on, because it is the one that fails first
Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held

The perfections are the Mahayana's answer to what a bodhisattva actually does for the several eons the path is supposed to take. Six in the standard list, ten in the expanded one, and the ordering is not accidental: generosity first because it is the easiest place to start loosening the grip, wisdom last because without it the other five become mere virtue. The texts spend disproportionate time on patience, which they treat as the hardest and the most easily faked — Shantideva devotes his longest chapter to it, on the grounds that a single flash of anger can undo a great deal of accumulated work.

From the sources — the passages this rests on; concise renderings, cited

If a single flash of anger can destroy the good of a thousand ages, there is no evil like hatred and no practice like patience.

Shantideva, Bodhicaryavatara 6 (rendered)

Why the longest chapter is about the one that fails first.

The same ground, other faiths

claims that share this one's ideas
Many paths, one goal: knowledge, devotion, action, discipline. Hinduism · core tenet Go deeper →
Samayika — forty-eight minutes as a monk. Jainism · rite Go deeper →
Guard the tongue. Judaism Go deeper →
Love of God and neighbor is the whole law. Christianity · core tenet Go deeper →
Your parents have a claim on you. Islam Go deeper →
Nitnem — the daily banis. Sikhism · rite Go deeper →

The conversation

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Where next

← The Eightfold Path.the previous passage in Buddhism The Vinaya. →the next passage in Buddhism Buddhism's How to Live roomback up one layer Propose a change to this passageone button — it routes to the review pool

Numbers count Panfaith activity only — never real-world adherence.

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