Question

Do you consider any Paramis more important than others?

Answer

They are all very important, however, I suppose since it is Wisdom that helps to purify the mind, and since it is the Compassionate intention that helps us walk the path leading out of suffering – right view, right intention – then I tend to favor Compassion and Wisdom the most - but that's just my personal view. I do think that they all work together because even though these two factors may be most important, oftentimes you need all the other Paramis in order to support them. So it is very difficult to separate all the Paramis from each other just as it is very difficult to separate the eight factors of the Noble Eightfold Path from each other and say that one is more important than the other, because we need all of them. Just like with a movie, there is a star but there is no story without all of the other players.

We do need to understand how they work together. One Parami may be more leading at certain times, but at other times it may not be leading. We have had the experience of seeing that some people, at certain times of their development, find that it may be difficult to open to Wisdom developing practices; however they can handle other types that might be a lot easier such as generosity developing practices. So it really depends on the person and where they are at in that moment, as to which Paramis are more important to focus their attention.

Our apologies if there are any errors in the above text. If anything seems to be wrong or confusing in any way, please feel free to contact the teachers for further clarification.