The Perfection of Patience

Of all the emotions that afflict us, anger is the most destructive — and the most seductive. It arrives with absolute certainty that it is justified, that the situation demands it, that anyone in your position would feel the same way. And in a single flash, it can incinerate virtues accumulated over lifetimes. This is why Gampopa devotes such care to patience (kshanti) — not mere passive endurance, but a spacious, flexible quality of mind that can absorb what arises without being destroyed by it.

Lama Jampa Thaye's note: Think about the nature of anger compared to other afflictions. The mind of desire has a narrowness—wanting to possess something—but there is still some cheerfulness about it, some appreciation of something nice in the world. The mind of anger has nothing redeeming whatsoever. It is entirely hateful, entirely destructive, making an enemy of everything. In the mind of anger there is no room for anything positive—it is an entirely claustrophobic mind. This is why anger is the route to hell: to be reborn in hell is to have the vision of the universe as entirely one's enemy.

As a perfection, patience arises from bodhicitta motivation and is accompanied by the wisdom perspective. We see patience, the patient one, and the object of patience as mutually dependent—lacking intrinsic nature. This makes our patience different from ordinary worldly forbearance.

The Seven Topics

Reflection on the faults and virtues, Definition, classification, Characteristics of each classification, Increase, perfection, and result— These seven comprise the perfection of patience.

I. Reflection on the Faults and Virtues

Faults of Not Having Patience

Even though you may have the practices of generosity and moral ethics, anger will develop if you do not have patience. If anger arises, all the virtues previously accumulated will be destroyed in an instant. The Bodhisattva Basket says:

That which is called anger will destroy the roots of virtues which had been accumulated for hundreds and thousands of kalpas.

Engaging in the Conduct of Bodhisattvas says:

Whatever wholesome deeds, Such as venerating the Buddhas and generosity, That have been amassed over a thousand aeons Will all be destroyed in one moment of anger.

If you do not have patience and hatred enters your mind, it is like a poisonous arrow piercing your heart. You will not experience joy, happiness, or peace. You cannot even sleep well. Engaging in the Conduct of Bodhisattvas says:

My mind will not experience peace If it fosters painful thoughts of hatred. I shall find no joy or happiness, Unable to sleep, I shall feel unsettled.

And:

In brief, there is nobody Who lives happily with anger.

If you do not have patience, a frowning face will manifest and cause friends, relatives, and helpers to become tired and sad with you. Even if you gave them food and wealth, they would not come around you:

By it, friends and relatives are disheartened; Though drawn by my generosity, they will not trust me.

If you do not have patience, the maras will seize you and create obstacles. The Bodhisattva Basket says:

The maras will get you and create obstacles for you if you have the mind of hatred.

Lama Jampa Thaye's note: The maras—obstructive forces—arise in dependence on your disturbing emotions. Your disturbing emotions are the essential internal condition for the maras to manifest in your life. They are attracted by your internal aggression.

If you do not have patience, one of the six paramitas is incomplete, so you cannot achieve enlightenment. The Condensed Perfection of Wisdom Sutra says:

One who has hatred and no patience, how can such a one achieve enlightenment?

All other virtues depend on patience. Without it, you cannot relate to those who need your giving, cannot bear the difficulties of moral discipline, cannot exert yourself in perseverance, cannot sit in meditation, and certainly cannot develop wisdom.

Virtues of Having Patience

On the other hand, if you have patience, it is supreme among all virtues:

There is no evil like hatred, And no fortitude like patience. Thus, I should strive in various ways To meditate on patience.

Lama Jampa Thaye's note: The word translated as "fortitude" is actually "austerity" (ka-tub in Tibetan). Hindu yogins practiced external austerities—sitting in flames, starving themselves—thinking this would build spiritual power. According to the Buddha, such things are useless. But there is one true austerity: developing patience in the face of provocation. There is no worse sin than hatred and no better practice than patience.

If you have patience, even in conventional samsara you will have happiness:

Whoever assiduously overcomes anger Finds happiness now and hereafter.

As Shantideva explains, you cannot remove all the stones from the earth, but by wearing shoes, your feet are protected wherever you go. Similarly, you cannot remove all external difficulties, but by developing internal patience, you are unaffected by provocations.

If you have patience, you will achieve enlightenment. The Meeting of Father and Son Sutra says:

Anger is not the path toward enlightenment. Therefore, if one always meditates on loving-kindness, enlightenment will be produced.

II. Definition

The definition of patience is a feeling of ease. The Bodhisattva Bhumis says:

A mind without confusion and with only a feeling of ease accompanied by compassion—in brief, one should understand this as the definition of a bodhisattva's patience.

Lama Jampa Thaye's note: Patience is a relaxed mind, not agitated, not overreacting. It is easy and fluid, with a "give" that can absorb whatever arises without being disturbed. Spacious, fluid, flexible, unconfused—these are the attributes of patience.

III. Classification

Patience has three classifications:

A. The Patience of Feeling Ease Toward Someone Harmful — Practicing patience by investigating the nature of the harm-doer.

B. The Patience of Accepting Suffering — Practicing patience by investigating the nature of suffering, particularly in dharma practice.

C. Patience in Understanding the Nature of Dharmas — Practicing patience by investigating the true nature of all phenomena as empty.

The first two operate within conventional truth; the third accords with ultimate truth. There is a gradation: the mind that develops patience toward enemies and suffering becomes subtle and supple enough to open to the emptiness of all things.

IV. Characteristics of Each Classification

A. Patience Toward Harm-Doers

Practice patience toward those who bring you and your relatives obstacles by beating, criticizing, hating, and abusing you. What does it mean to practice patience? Not being disturbed, not retaliating, and not holding resentment in the mind.

Important clarification from Lama Jampa Thaye: This teaching is for training one's own mind to prevent developing aggression. Do not confuse it with denying that harm occurs or with failing to protect victims.

Ultimately, there is no aggressor and no victim because no phenomena have intrinsic nature. But in conventional truth, there is suffering, and beings do harm each other. We must protect victims, console them, and help prevent future harm. Buddha himself tended to sick monks—he did not say "there is no sickness, ultimately everything is empty."

This teaching is for us to uproot our grasping at the idea of enemy. If we carry obsession with enemy, we can never develop compassion—and then even the aggressors are left unprotected from their own evil-doing.

Shantideva's Nine Investigations

According to Shantideva, you should investigate:

1. That Those Who Harm You Have No Freedom

Take someone like Devadatta, who had no freedom to avoid harm due to the power of hatred. When hatred is present, one has no power not to dislike its object. Since that person has no control—being maddened by their disturbing emotions—there is no reason to retaliate.

Hence, everything is governed by other factors And in this way nothing governs itself. Having understood this, I should not become angry With phenomena that are like apparitions.

We see the harm-doer as part of a network of causes and conditions that has overpowered them. We do not project onto them the idea that they are intrinsically evil, which would mean they could never change.

2. That This Harm Is the Fault of Your Own Karma

In previous lives, I have harmed others in the same way I am now experiencing harm. Since this is the ripening of my own negative karma, there is no reason to retaliate.

Previously I must have caused similar harm To other sentient beings. Therefore, it is right for this harm to be returned To me who is the cause of injury to others.

Note: This teaching is for training one's own mind. Do not use it unskilfully with others who are suffering—they need immediate compassionate response, not philosophy.

3. That This Harm Is the Fault of Your Body

If I did not have this body, the other person would not have a target. My own karmic formations and ignorance gave me this body. Since having a body is the reason I receive harm, there is no reason to retaliate.

Both the weapon and my body Are the causes of my suffering. Since he gave rise to the weapon and I to the body, With whom should I be angry?

4. That This Harm Is the Fault of Your Mind

I do not regard this body as something that can easily tolerate others' harm; instead, I hold it as fragile and precious. Because I grasp at this body as the locus of myself, I take everything that happens to it extra seriously. Since the harm is caused by my mental grasping, there is no reason to retaliate.

If in blind attachment I cling To this suffering abscess of a human form Which cannot bear to be touched, With whom should I be angry when it is hurt?

5. That Both Have Equal Faults

Should one person ignorantly do wrong And another ignorantly become angry with him, Who would be at fault? And who would be without fault?

All of us are dominated by ignorance. We are both faulty, both responsible for this situation. Therefore, be cautious when attributing faults and practice patience.

6. The Benefit One Receives

If I practice patience with a harmful one, my evil deeds will be purified. I will perfect the accumulations and attain enlightenment. Therefore, this person who harms me is in reality a great benefactor.

In dependence upon them I purify many evils By patiently accepting the harms that they cause.

This is a win-win-win situation: purifying past aggression, gathering merit, and leading to Buddhahood—all by choosing not to respond with anger.

7. Feeling Gratitude

Without the harmful one, I cannot practice patience. Without patience, enlightenment is impossible. Therefore, this harmful person is a Dharma friend to whom I am grateful.

I should be happy to have an enemy For he assists me in my conduct of awakening. And because I am able to practice patience with him He is worthy of being given The very first fruits of my patience, For in this way he is the cause of it.

Lama Jampa Thaye's note: Friends who are kind to us do not stretch us. They comfort and reassure but do not help us develop the openness that difficult people provide. The enemy has given you something that kind friends cannot.

8. That All the Buddhas Are Pleased

Sentient beings are like children of the Buddha. To the extent we develop patience toward them instead of aggression, we please the Buddhas and act in harmony with their mind.

Furthermore, what way is there to repay the Buddhas Who grant immeasurable benefit And who befriend the world without pretension, Other than by pleasing sentient beings?

9. That It Brings Great Beneficial Effects

For many who have pleased them Have thereby reached perfection.

The Five Perceptions from the Bodhisattva Bhumis

The Bodhisattva Bhumis offers five additional methods:

1. Perception of Feeling Close — This harmful being has been your parent, relative, or teacher in other lifetimes and has given you countless benefits. Therefore, it is not reasonable to retaliate for this temporary harm.

2. Perception of Interdependence — The person who harms you is dependent on conditions, just a projected phenomenon. There is no self, no sentient being, no person who beats or criticizes—only interdependent appearances.

3. Perception of Impermanence — All sentient beings are impermanent and subject to death. There is no need to retaliate since they will die naturally. As Shantideva says, warriors who kill on battlefields are just killing corpses—everyone dies anyway.

4. Perception of Suffering — All sentient beings are tortured by the three types of suffering. I should dispel their suffering, not add to it. Seeing their suffering, I practice patience.

5. Perception of Fully Embracing Sentient Beings — When I cultivated bodhicitta, I did it for all sentient beings without exception. I cannot now exclude difficult people from my patience.

B. Patience in Accepting Suffering

With a mind of joy, and without self-pity, voluntarily accept the suffering of practice leading toward enlightenment. The Bodhisattva Bhumis says:

...voluntarily accepting the eight different types of hardship like the suffering related to places.

Lama Jampa Thaye's note: We might think, "I joined the side of light by practicing dharma, so I deserve only nice things now." But there is no supreme being to give us sweeties for joining. Difficulties will emerge from our own resistances, from the ripening of negative habits. We are not going out to find suffering—the Buddha taught the middle way between self-indulgence and excessive asceticism—but when difficulties arise in practice, we develop the spaciousness to overcome them.

Generally, these are the sufferings: making effort to find robes and provisions (for monastics); making offerings to and respecting the Three Jewels and teachers; listening to teachings; giving Dharma teachings; reciting prayers; meditating; making effort in practice late at night and early in the morning without sleeping.

Without becoming sad, tired, or exhausted, voluntarily accept the effort to benefit sentient beings.

This is like accepting the temporary suffering of surgery in order to cure a greater disease. Engaging in the Conduct of Bodhisattvas says:

Yet the suffering Involved in my awakening will have a limit; It is like the suffering of having an incision made In order to remove and destroy greater pain.

By practicing this patience, you gain victory in the battle of samsara. You are a real warrior. Engaging in the Conduct of Bodhisattvas says:

The victorious warriors are those Who, having disregarded all suffering, Vanquish the foes of hatred and so forth; Common warriors slay only corpses.

C. Patience in Understanding the Nature of Phenomena

The Bodhisattva Bhumis says:

Aspiration for the eight subjects, such as the good qualities of the Triple Gem and so forth.

Aspire to and patiently practice the realization of inherent emptiness—the absence of the two types of self in the ultimate nature.

Lama Jampa Thaye's note: We are frightened of emptiness. Our mind cannot tolerate it, so we grasp at the idea of substance, that phenomena have true existence, that I have a real self that cannot be deconstructed.

But there is nothing to fear. I am already empty; all phenomena are already empty of intrinsic nature. Phenomena are not destroyed by being interdependent—the world does not vanish. Appearances arise but simply lack intrinsic nature. We need to cultivate patience toward what is already here, what we already are.

This will be discussed in detail in the chapter on the perfection of wisdom.

V. Increase

Patience will increase through primordial wisdom, discriminating awareness, and dedication, as explained before.

VI. Perfection

The perfection of patience is supported by pervading emptiness and compassion, as explained before.

VII. Result

Ultimate Result

One attains unsurpassable enlightenment. The Bodhisattva Bhumis says:

If he depends on this vast and limitless patience to produce the result of enlightenment, a bodhisattva will attain unsurpassable, perfect, complete enlightenment.

Conventional Result

In the conventional state, one will have a good complexion, be famous, have a long life, and attain the state of a universal chakra monarch—even if one does not desire it. Engaging in the Conduct of Bodhisattvas says:

While in cyclic existence patience causes Beauty and so forth, health, and renown. Because of these I shall live for a very long time And win the extensive pleasures of the universal Chakra Kings.

Conclusion

The perfection of patience stands at the fulcrum of the bodhisattva path. Without it, generosity and moral ethics are destroyed by anger. Without it, perseverance, meditation, and wisdom cannot develop. The patient mind—spacious, flexible, at ease—creates the conditions for all other qualities to flourish.

Through the nine investigations of Shantideva and the five perceptions of Asanga, we learn to re-read situations that would normally trigger aggression. We see harm-doers not as intrinsic enemies but as beings caught in the network of causes and conditions, as our benefactors who give us the opportunity to develop this supreme quality. And ultimately, we develop patience toward emptiness itself—the true nature we have feared and from which we have hidden since beginningless time.