The Sanskrit word, paramita, means to cross over to the other shore.

Paramita may also be translated as perfection, perfect realization, or reaching beyond limitation.

Through the practice of these six paramitas, we cross over the sea of suffering (samsara) to the shore of happiness and awakening (Nirvana); we cross over from ignorance and delusion to enlightenment.

Each of the six paramitas is an enlightened quality of the heart, a glorious virtue or attribute—the innate seed of perfect realization within us.

The paramitas are the very essence of our true nature. However, since these enlightened qualities of the heart have become obscured by delusion, selfishness, and other karmic tendencies, we must develop these potential qualities and bring them into expression.

In this way, the six paramitas are an inner cultivation, a daily practice for wise, compassionate, loving, and enlightened living.

The paramitas are the six kinds of virtuous practice required for skillfully serving the welfare of others and for the attainment of enlightenment.

The six paramitas are :

1) Generosity
2) Discipline
3) Patience
4) Diligence
5) Meditative Concentration
6) Wisdom

Bodhicitta refers to a state of mind in which the practitioner works for the enlightenment and good of all beings as if it were his own. It can also be defined as the union of compassion and wisdom.

The Buddha said there are twelve links (Nidanas) in the "chain" of Dependent Origination.

Dependent Origination is the Buddhist teaching on how things come to be, are, and cease to be.

According to this teaching, no beings or phenomena exist independently of other beings and phenomena.

The Twelve Links show us how Dependent Origination "works."

Please note that there is no first link. The "numbering" could begin anywhere.

Although they are described in a linear way, in fact each link connects to all the other links.

1) Ignorance (Avidya) 
Avidya means lack of light or lack of understanding.

In Buddhism, "ignorance" usually refers to ignorance of the Four Noble Truths, in particular that life is dukkha (unsatisfactory; suffering).

Ignorance also refers to ignorance of anatman, a teaching that there is no "self" in the sense of a permanent, integral, autonomous being within an individual existence.

What we think of as our self, our personality and ego, are temporary creations of the skandhas.

The twelve links are illustrated in the outer ring of the Bhavachakra (Wheel of Life).

Ignorance is depicted as a blind man or woman.

Ignorance conditions the next link in the chain, volitional action.

2) Volitional Formation (Samskara)
Ignorance links to Samskara, which can be translated volitional action, formation, impulse, motivation, or karma formation.

Out of ignorance, come thoughts, words and actions that sew the seeds of karma. Samskara are the impulses that come before action, and action creates karma.

In the outer ring of the Bhavachakra (Wheel of Life), Samskara usually is illustrated as potters making pots.

Volitional formation conditions the next link, consciousness.

3) Consciousness (Vijnana)
Vijnana usually is translated to mean "consciousness."

In Buddhist teaching, there are many kinds of Vijnana. Very generally, Vijnana is what happens when one of the six faculties (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind) reacts to or becomes aware of one of the six external phenomena (visible form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and ideas and thoughts).

The third link includes all kinds of Vijnana.

In the outer ring of the Bhavachakra (Wheel of Life), Vijnana is represented by a monkey.

A monkey leaps thoughtlessly from one thing to another, easily tempted and distracted by sensations. Monkey's energy pulls us away from ourselves and away from the dharma.

Vijnana conditions the next link, name and form.

4) Name and Form (Nama-rupa)
Nama-rupa is name and form, corporeality and mentality, the joining of the five skandhas into an individual existence. With name and form also come sensory perception.

In the outer ring of the Bhavachakra (Wheel of Life), Nama-rupa is represented by people in a boat, traveling through samsara.

Nama-rupa works together with the next link, faculties and objects, to condition other links.

5) Faculties and Objects (Shadayatana)
The Vijnana, or consciousness, link described above involves the the six faculties or sense organs (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind) and six corresponding external phenomena, or objects (visible form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and ideas and thoughts).

The faculties and their corresponding objects are the Shadayatana.

Of course, the sense organs do not exist separately from the previous link, physical form. If you reflect on the links, you see that each link connects to every other link.

The Bhavachakra (Wheel of Life) illustrates Shadayatana as a house with six windows.

Shadayatana relates directly to the next link, which is the contact between faculties and objects.

6) Contact (Sparsha)
Sparsha is contact with environment, or the contact with the faculties and object discussed of Shadayatana.

The Wheel of Life illustrates Sparsha with an embracing couple.

The contact of faculties and objects leads to the experience of sensation, which is the next link.

7) Sensation (Vedana)
Vedana is the recognition and experience of sensations. These experiences are pleasurable or painful, which leads to desire and aversion.

The Wheel of Life illustrates Vedana with an arrow piercing an eye to represent sense data piercing the senses.

Sensation conditions the next link, craving.

8) Craving (Trishna)
The second noble truth teaches that Trishna -- thirst, desire or craving -- is the cause of stress or suffering (Dukkha).

If we are not mindful, we are perpetually being jerked around by desire for what we want and aversion of what we don't want.

In this state we heedlessly create karma, which keeps us entangled in the cycle of rebirth.

The Wheel of Life illustrates Trishna with a man drinking beer, usually surrounded with empty bottles.

Desire and aversion condition the next link, clinging.

9) Clinging or Grasping (Upadana)
Upadana is a grasping and clinging mind. We cling to sensual pleasures, mistaken views, external forms and appearances.

Most of all, we cling to ego and a sense of an individual self, a sense reinforced moment-to-moment by our cravings and aversions.

Upadana also represents clinging to a womb and the beginning of rebirth.

The Wheel of Life illustrates Upadana by picturing a monkey, or sometimes a person, reaching for a fruit.

Upadana conditions the next link, becoming.

10) Becoming (Bhava)
Bhava is new becoming, set in motion by the other links.

The Wheel of Life illustrates Bhava by picturing a couple making love or a woman in an advanced state of pregnancy.

Becoming conditions the next link, birth.

11) Birth (Jati)
The cycle of rebirth naturally includes birth.

In the Wheel of Life, a woman in childbirth illustrates Jati.

Birth inevitably leads to old age and death.

12) Old Age and Death (Jara-maranam)
The chain comes to old age and death, or the dissolution of what came to be. The karma of one life sets in motion another life, rooted in ignorance (Avidya). A circle is closed.

In the Wheel of Life, Jara-maranam is illustrated with a corpse.

The Four Noble Truths teach us that the release from the cycle of samsara is possible.

In the resolution of ignorance, volitional formations, craving and grasping, there is liberation from birth and death and the peace of nirvana.

The Buddha taught four foundations of mindfulness which are set out in a progressive order and serve as foundations to discover wisdom and liberation :

1) Mindfulness of body
2) Mindfulness of feelings
3) Mindfulness of mind
4) Mindfulness of mental objects

The mindfulness developed with these practices is always the same : to be aware of what is.

According to the Pali Canon, the four foundations of mindfulness are :

1) Mindfulness of one's body in stillness and in motion.
2) Mindfulness of one's sensory experience as pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral.
3) Mindfulness of one's mental afflictions: desire, anger, and delusion.
4) Mindfulness of all mental contents, including the teachings of the Buddha. Being mindful of the constant changes in one's physical and mental states, one comes to the insight that phenomena are impermanent and there is no self in control.
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The Mahayana doctrine also includes a set of four remembrances:
1) Observe that the body is impure.
2) Observe that all sensory experiences come down to misery.
3) Observe that the mind is constantly changing.
4) Observe that all dharmas have no selves.

The sense bases include two sets of six: six sense organs (or internal sense bases) and six sense objects (or external sense bases).

Based on these six pairs of sense bases, a number of mental factors arise.

The twelve sense bases, that is, the sense organs and their objects are :

1) Eye and Vision
2) Ear and Hearing
3) Nose and Olfaction
4) Tongue and Taste
5) Skin and Touch
6) Mind and Thought

Thus, for instance, when an ear and sound are present, the associated consciousness arises. The arising of these three elements – ear, sound and ear-related consciousness – lead to what is known as "contact" which in turn causes a pleasant or unpleasant or neutral "feeling" or "sensation" to arise. It is from such a sensation that "craving" arises.

To overcome craving and its resultant suffering, one should develop restraint of and insight into the sense bases.

The Buddha's Great Disciple Sariputta shares that the actual suffering associated with sense organs and sense objects is not inherent to these sense bases but is due to the "fetters" (here identified as "craving") that arise when there is contact between a sense organ and sense object.

Buddha states that one abandons the fetters "when one knows and sees ... as impermanent".

It is through the five aggregates that the world is experienced, and nothing is experienced apart from the five aggregates.

The five aggregates are :

1) "Form" or "Matter"
External and internal matter. Externally, "Form" is the physical world. Internally, "Form" includes the material body and the physical sense organs.

2) "Sensation" or "Feeling"
Sensing an object as either pleasant or unpleasant or neutral.

3) Perception", "Conception" or "Cognition"
Register whether an object is recognized or not ( for instance, the sound of a whistle or the shape of a flower ).

4)  "Mental Formations"
All types of mental habits, thoughts, ideas, opinions, prejudices, compulsions, and decisions triggered by an object.

5) "Consciousness" or "Discernment"
The base that supports and discerns all experiences.

Buddhism teaches that harboring the three poisons leads to evil (Akusala) and suffering (Dukkha).

The Three Poisons are :
1) Greed (Lobha)
2) Hate (Dvesha)
3) Ignorance (Moha)

The Eight Worldly Conditions are :

1) Loss
2) Gain
3) Fame
4) Shame
5) Praise
6) Blame
7) Pleasure
8) Pain

These conditions among human beings are inconstant, impermanent, subject to change.

Knowing this, the wise mindful person, ponders these changing conditions. Desirable things don't charm the mind and undesirable ones bring no resistance.

The mindful person neither welcomes these conditions nor rebels against them.

The 'six realms of existence' or the 'six paths of rebirth', are the six main types of birth that beings may have within Buddhist cosmology.

Which state we are born into is driven by our karma - our actions and states of awareness from previous lives.

According to Buddhist teachings, we will endlessly incarnate within these realms until we receive and practice the teachings, and through them break free of the karma that pull us into the six realms, thereby attaining enlightenment.

The six realms are :

1) God Realm (Deva)
Defined by bliss and pleasurable states of all types, this realm is reminiscent of Greek myths about the realm of the gods.

But in Buddhism, this is not an immortal state, and also not the ideal one for attaining liberation. We can become addicted to pleasure here, including meditative bliss, and can become trapped, forgetting to work towards liberation, and falling into lower realms because of this forgetfulness and self-absorption.

2) Demi-God Realm (Asura) 
Also pleasurable, this realm is nevertheless defined by jealousy and competitiveness.

Although a birth here does offer more opportunities for pleasure than a human birth, here we are prone to coveting the pleasures of the Devas, which we can see (just as animals and humans can see each other) .

In this state, we are prone to envy and/or a sense of victimhood - that we are not getting our fair share - and become fixated on evening the score.

3) Human Realm 
A middle realm, our human existence is defined by our ability and free will to experience any state, from blissful to hellish.

It is therefore perfect for attaining enlightenment, because there is just enough suffering to motivate us to seek liberation (unlike in the god realms, where we are easily distracted by pleasure) but not so much that we cannot hear and practice the teachings (unlike in the lower realms, where we are so consumed by our suffering that we cannot practice).

From a human birth, we can cultivate the compassion and wisdom necessary to free ourselves from the entire wheel of samsara.

In this realm we also have the most control over our future births, because we can influence our karma through our choices, whereas in the other realms we generally do not move into another birth until the karma that has brought us there has run its course.

4) Animal Realm 
Within Buddhist cosmology, the animal realm is defined by ignorance, and an inability to think for oneself.

Life is one-dimensional and survival-oriented, with little free will or choice.

5) Hungry Ghost Realm (Preta)
This realm is defined by constant desire and greed.

In this realm, we are so overcome by our desire for more, more, more - whether food, drink, sex, wealth, or even certain emotional states - that we are consumed by it, and cannot focus on anything else.

It is analogous to the state of an addict, in which getting the next 'fix' trumps all other concerns.

In this state, we cannot practice the teachings because we cannot focus on anything other than our wants.

6) Hell Realm (Naraka) 
This realm is defined by hatred and rage, and by defining all other beings as enemies.

Within this realm, there is no opportunity for compassion or desire for the teachings to arise, as all our momentum goes toward fighting others, and suffering the consequences.

Depictions of this realm in various Buddhist schools is very similar to those found in other religions, with fiery torments.

But within Buddhist cosmology this state, like all the others, is not permanent. Instead, when the negative karma that brought us here has run out, we will be reborn into another realm, with the possibility of working towards a human birth again.

The three marks of existence according to the Buddha are :

1) Impermanence (Anicca)
2) Suffering (Dukkha)
3) No-self (Anatta)

According to the Buddha, everything in the physical world (and everything in the phenomenology of psychology) is marked by these three universal marks (characteristics):

1) Impermanence (Anicca)
This refers not only to the fact that all conditioned things eventually cease to exist, but also that all conditioned things are in a constant state of flux. (Visualize a leaf growing on a tree. It dies and falls off the tree but is soon replaced by a new leaf.)

2) Suffering (Dukkha)
Nothing found in the physical world or even the psychological realm can bring lasting deep satisfaction.

3) No-self (Anatta)
Anatta is used in the suttas both as a noun and as a predicative adjective to denote that phenomena are not, or are without, a permanent self, to describe any and all composite, consubstantial, phenomenal and temporal things, from the macrocosmic to microcosmic, be it matter pertaining to the physical body or the cosmos at large, as well as any and all mental machinations, which are impermanent.

To become a Buddhist is to take refuge in the Three Jewels, also called the Three Treasures.

The Three Jewels are the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.

Ch'an Master Sheng-Yen said, "The genuine Three Jewels, in essence, are none other than the enlightened Buddha nature that is already inside you."

"Taking refuge in the Buddha, we learn to transform anger into compassion; taking refuge in the Dharma, we learn to transform delusion into wisdom; taking refuge in the Sangha, we learn to transform desire into generosity."

1) I Take Refuge in the Buddha
Bikkhu Bodhi wrote that taking refuge in the Buddha is not merely taking refuge in his "concrete particularity. ... When we go for refuge to the Buddha we resort to him as the supreme embodiment of purity, wisdom and compassion, the peerless teacher who can guide us to safety out of the perilous ocean of samsara."

In Mahayana Buddhism, while "Buddha" may refer to the historical Buddha, called Shakyamuni Buddha, "Buddha" also refers to "Buddha-nature," the absolute, unconditioned nature of all things. While "Buddha" may be a person who has awakened to enlightenment, "Buddha" might also refer to enlightenment itself (Bodhi).

2) I Take Refuge in the Dharma
Studying the Buddha's teachings -- one definition of dharma -- is important, but to take refuge in the Dharma is much more than just trust and acceptance of teachings.

It's also trusting your practice of Buddhism, whether regular meditation and regular chanting. It's about trusting mindfulness, the present moment, right here, not putting faith in something far away.

Robert Thurman said,"Dharma is our own reality that we seek to understand fully, to open to fully. Dharma, therefore, also consists of those methods and the teaching of those methods that are the arts and sciences which enable us to open ourselves. The practices that we do, which will open us, which follow those teachings, which implement them in our lives, in our practice, and in our performance, which deploy those arts-they are also Dharma."

3) I Take Refuge in the Sangha
The importance of sangha cannot be overestimated. Trying to achieve enlightenment by yourself and only for yourself is like trying to walk uphill during a mudslide.

Opening yourself to others, supporting and being supported, is critical to loosening the fetters of ego and selfishness.

"The sangha is the community of people who have the perfect right to cut through your trips and feed you with their wisdom, as well as the perfect right to demonstrate their own neurosis and be seen through by you. The companionship within the Sangha is a kind of clean friendship-—without expectation, without demand, but at the same time, fulfilling."

By taking refuge in the Sangha, we become the refuge. This is the path of the Buddhas.