The Mutual Determination of the Six Transcendences

The six transcendences illuminate one another.
To understand any one of them completely, a spiritual genius must see how they mutually include, mutually differentiate, mutually teach, and mutually give rise to one another.

They include one another.
Giving fearlessness requires morality and tolerance, for without restraint and patience one cannot truly protect another.
Giving the teaching requires contemplation and wisdom, for only a calm mind and a clear seeing can reveal the Dharma.
Both kinds of giving require effort, for nothing in the path unfolds without the energy to bring it alive.
And morality itself requires all the other transcendences, for restraint is strengthened by generosity, patience, effort, concentration, and insight.

Each transcendence appears within all the rest when their functions interpenetrate.

They differentiate one another.
Generosity has six forms:
the generosity of giving,
the generosity expressed through moral restraint,
the generosity expressed as tolerance,
the generosity of effort,
the generosity of contemplation,
and the generosity of wisdom —
for each transcendence can take on the flavor of all the others.
The same sixfold pattern can be traced for morality, tolerance, effort, contemplation, and wisdom.

Each transcendence becomes a prism through which the others shine.

They teach one another.
Whenever a scripture speaks on generosity, it also implicitly teaches tolerance, effort, concentration, and insight.
Where morality is explained, generosity hides within it;
where wisdom is explained, concentration and patience unfold inside it.
The teachings of the path weave through one another like threads in the same cloth.

They give rise to one another.
Generosity supports morality, for one indifferent to wealth finds restraint natural and unforced.
Morality supports generosity, because one who stands firmly in vows relinquishes possessions and self-interest with ease.
Morality also gives rise to tolerance, effort, contemplation, and wisdom.
The morality that embraces virtuous practices becomes the foundation of all six transcendences, and each transcendence in turn becomes the causal support for the others.

Thus the six transcendences form a single living system:
each one completes the others,
each one requires the others,
each one radiates the others.

To understand any one of them is to stand in view of the whole path.