ACKNOWLEDGMENTS; INTRODUCTION; TRADITIONAL BUDDHIST IMAGES OF THE PERFECTION OF GENEROSITY; CRITICAL ASSESSMENT: A CONTEMPORARY PERFECTION OF GENEROSITY; TRADITIONAL BUDDHIST IMAGES OF THE PERFECTION OF MORALITY; CRITICAL ASSESSMENT: A CONTEMPORARY PERFECTION OF MORALITY; TRADITIONAL BUDDHIST IMAGES OF THE PERFECTION OF TOLERANCE; CRITICAL ASSESSMENT: A CONTEMPORARY PERFECTION OF TOLERANCE; TRADITIONAL BUDDHIST IMAGES OF THE PERFECTION OF ENERGY; CRITICAL ASSESSMENT: A CONTEMPORARY PERFECTION OF ENERGY; TRADITIONAL BUDDHIST IMAGES OF THE PERFECTION OF MEDITATION; CRITICAL ASSESSMENT: A CONTEMPORARY PERFECTION OF MEDITATION; TRADITIONAL BUDDHIST IMAGES OF THE PERFECTION OF WISDOM; CRITICAL ASSESSMENT: A CONTEMPORARY PERFECTION OF WISDOM; CONCLUSION; ENDNOTES; REFERENCES

"Dale S. Wright has written a compelling account of one of the world's most ancient - and still-vibrant - models of moral development. The Six Perfections broadens psychology's vision of human excellence." --Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence "'Awakening' (enlightenment) is not enough: whatever we realize needs to be integrated into how we actually live. The most important Buddhist guidelines for self-transformation are the "six perfections." Dale Wright explains how they have been understood in the Buddhist tradition and reflects on what they can mean for us today. The best book on an essential topic." --David R. Loy, author of A Buddhist History of the West and Awareness Bound and Unbound "I cannot remember having enjoyed an exposition of the six transcendent perfections of the bodhisattva as much as this one from Dale Wright. He is careful, precise, lucid, and yet light and humorous. You can actually understand what he is talking about - and it is about the most profound and useful of philosophical anda spiritual journeys. I strongly recommend this book." --Robert A. F. Thurman, Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Buddhism, Columbia University Author of Infinite Life, and Why The Dalai Lama Matters "[An] accessible, scholarly study of Buddhism's six perfections ...[C]learly and convincingly displays the social relevance of Buddhism for contemporary life. Finally, this text is written in an easy-going, very readable, yet scholarly style...Recommended." --Choice

Dale Wright is David B. and Mary H. Gamble Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies and Asian Studies at Occidental College and the author of Philosophical Meditations on Zen Buddhism and, co-edited with Steven Heine, a series of five OUP books on Zen Buddhism.