To Light a Thousand Lamps - The Theosophical Society

The Pāramitās / 139
The fifth pāramitā is vīrya, ‘‘vigor,’’ courage, resolution;
the will and energy to stand staunch for what is true, and as
strenuously oppose what is false. One proficient in vīrya is
indefatigable in thought and deed. With the sixth, dhyāna,
‘‘meditation,’’ profound contemplation, emptying oneself of
all that is less than the highest, comes a natural awakening
of latent powers, to culminate eventually in oneness with
the essence of Being.
Finally, the seventh, prajñā, ‘‘enlightenment, wisdom’’
— ‘‘the key to which makes of man a god, creating him a
bodhisattva, son of the Dhyānis.’’ We will have become
‘‘god from mortal,’’ as the Orphic candidate describes this
sacred moment of the seventh initiation when transcendence
and immanence become one.
Full mastery of the pāramitās, however enumerated, is
naturally a long-term process, yet diligently seeking to practice
them has the merit of producing more immediate benefits
without risk of short-circuiting the psyche. The very
decision to begin has a transforming e¤ect on our attitude
and outlook, and also on our relationship with others.
Could we assess our ordinary selves from the vantage point
of our wiser self, we would realize that a subtle, inner awakening
is steadily in process; too subtle for us to graph, but
cumulative in its e¤ect on our present and future karma.
We do not have to be ‘‘advanced’’ spiritually before consciously
making the daily choices that distinguish the
bodhisattva path from the pratyeka path. As we faithfully
try to live these pāramitās, not only will we be nearer to
realization of the universal brotherhood we all long for, but
we shall be following the way of the Compassionate Ones.