Five Kinds of Bodhisattva Skill Begin

T1606 explains each of these six in turn, tracing a single path from ordinary confusion through to its final resolution. Delusion is simply the grasping at a perceiving subject and a perceived object as though these were genuinely, separately real. The basis of delusion is what the noble wisdom actually operates on — the false discrimination that consists purely in mistaken mental activity, and it is the presence of this very basis that causes every ordinary, unawakened being to fall into delusion and grasp accordingly. The basis of non-delusion is suchness itself, the very ground on which non-discriminating wisdom depends. Both delusion and non-delusion together names every wholesome dharma born of hearing and the like that accords with supramundane wisdom — still discriminating its object in the manner of delusion, yet already oriented toward, and in accordance with, the non-discriminating wisdom that lies ahead. Non-delusion itself is simply that non-discriminating wisdom, directly. And what flows forth from non-delusion is every wholesome dharma subsequently attained after the noble path itself.

Read in sequence, these six trace the entire arc of a bodhisattva's own relationship to knowing: beginning in ordinary delusion, tracing that delusion back to its own basis in false discrimination, recognizing the basis of non-delusion already present as suchness, passing through a transitional stage where mundane wholesome practice already accords with what lies ahead, arriving at non-discriminating wisdom directly, and finally continuing on in the wholesome activity that flows forth from it. Skill in the object of knowledge means correctly recognizing which of these six any given state of mind actually belongs to.

T1606 identifies the specific practice behind each of the four. Skillful means for ripening sentient beings is the four means of attraction — generosity, kind speech, beneficial conduct, and cooperation — through which beings are drawn in and established in wholesome states. Skillful means for perfecting the qualities of buddhahood is specifically the perfection of wisdom, as a scripture states directly: if a bodhisattva-mahāsattva wishes to perfect generosity and every other perfection, up to and including the wisdom of every kind and mode itself, that bodhisattva should train in the perfection of wisdom — since it is wisdom alone that brings every other quality to its own genuine completion.

Skillful means for swiftly realizing the higher knowledges is the practice of confessing wrongdoing, rejoicing in others' merit, entreating the buddhas to remain and to teach, and dedicating one's own wholesome roots, all carried out across all six watches of day and night, exactly as set forth at length in the Sūtra of Noble Maitreya's Questions. And skillful means for keeping the path from ever breaking off is the non-abiding nirvāṇa itself — since it is precisely this that allows a bodhisattva's own activity, pursued again and again without ever reaching a final, terminal completion, to pervade every world-system in the ten directions, manifesting whatever buddha- or bodhisattva-conduct each situation calls for, without interruption.