Cattāri Brahmavihārā

The paramis or spiritual perfections have deeply resonated with me since I first discovered them. I believe my initial contact with the idea of spiritual perfections was through the Mahayana paramitas of which there are six (in traditional Theravada there are 10 paramis). Some people (most notably a good friend) have taken issue with the fact that they are post-canonical and are never enumerated by the Lord Buddha himself. To these objections I have no rebuttal and my only defense in my continued fascination with them is simply the fact that each time I come back to them (almost always in the course of difficult events in my daily life) I find that they serve me well in keeping my thoughts, words and deeds in line with the Dhamma. I’ll provide a an excerpt below to give an idea of what the paramis are for those who don’t know but, if you find it fruitful, I would recommend looking up the term on accesstoinsight.com when you get a chance.

“How many qualities are there, Lord, issuing in Buddhahood?”

“There are, Saariputta, ten qualities issuing in Buddhahood. What are the ten? Giving, Saariputta, is a quality issuing in Buddhahood. Virtue, renunciation, wisdom, energy, patience, truthfulness, determination, loving-kindness, and equanimity are qualities issuing in Buddhahood.

Source: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/bodhi/wheel409.html