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Patience
ThailandTom
Veteran
I have read the thread that is in dedicated to 'how long does it take to understand Buddhism' and it inspired me to share something. I have not posted in that thread because even though the question is a totally normal question many people would have, I myself would have way too much to say as it is such a broad question about something that can be looked at in so many different ways.
Anyway I think one of the key aspects to Buddhism and understanding the path is patience, in fact this is so important it is vital one immerses oneself into each unsatisfactory and mundane feeling you may experience such as restlessness, boredom and agitation. These may seem like trivial states of mind but they occur to us all often daily and are a very good starting point for investigating the mind and how we interact with our world.
Ajahn Sumedho says in his book 'The Way It Is' something very profound about his insight into the importance of patience. When he was a young monk up in Northern Thailand he was studying under Ajahn Chah. He could not speak Thai or as that dialect is in the North basically Laotian, but he had to sit for 3 hours and listen to talks Ajahn Chah would give. He speaks about how he sat there getting so angry from the first 5 minutes and how he wanted to just leave the place but could not muster up the courage to do so. He sat there for the duration with all of these feelings of not wanting to be, wanting to change the conditions so he control his setting to be set up for his practice and then Ajahn Chah looked down at him with a smile and said "are you ok?" and in that instant all of his anger went away, it just vanished. It is funny how such a strong sense of anger can simply vanish in an instant like that.
After that day he realised where he was going wrong with his practice, he had no patience and wanted to control things, to set up the world and his setting so he could practice in the way he wanted to. Life is not like this, life is vastly uncontrollable so we have to learn to accept things for how they are, this requires a lot of effort and patience. Ajahn Sumedho made it his duty to sit there every week for those 3 hour talks even though he barely understood a word he was saying, he says that Western Buddhists came and soon left because they wanted instant enlightenment, they wanted it all now. This is a wrong view to have and wanting it will drive you further away from it. Patience is vital in ones practice.
Anyway I think one of the key aspects to Buddhism and understanding the path is patience, in fact this is so important it is vital one immerses oneself into each unsatisfactory and mundane feeling you may experience such as restlessness, boredom and agitation. These may seem like trivial states of mind but they occur to us all often daily and are a very good starting point for investigating the mind and how we interact with our world.
Ajahn Sumedho says in his book 'The Way It Is' something very profound about his insight into the importance of patience. When he was a young monk up in Northern Thailand he was studying under Ajahn Chah. He could not speak Thai or as that dialect is in the North basically Laotian, but he had to sit for 3 hours and listen to talks Ajahn Chah would give. He speaks about how he sat there getting so angry from the first 5 minutes and how he wanted to just leave the place but could not muster up the courage to do so. He sat there for the duration with all of these feelings of not wanting to be, wanting to change the conditions so he control his setting to be set up for his practice and then Ajahn Chah looked down at him with a smile and said "are you ok?" and in that instant all of his anger went away, it just vanished. It is funny how such a strong sense of anger can simply vanish in an instant like that.
After that day he realised where he was going wrong with his practice, he had no patience and wanted to control things, to set up the world and his setting so he could practice in the way he wanted to. Life is not like this, life is vastly uncontrollable so we have to learn to accept things for how they are, this requires a lot of effort and patience. Ajahn Sumedho made it his duty to sit there every week for those 3 hour talks even though he barely understood a word he was saying, he says that Western Buddhists came and soon left because they wanted instant enlightenment, they wanted it all now. This is a wrong view to have and wanting it will drive you further away from it. Patience is vital in ones practice.
3
Comments
Forbearance as 'Tolerance and restraint in the face of provocation' of the ego - to not sit, dictate what is progress, be clever, find false routing etc combines the element of accepting the restraint and patience of time with the acceptance of our innate inaptitude to be patient . . .
In one sense it is two elements of patience, wisdom - time and skill related and compassion, kindness in terms of our and others shortcomings . . . :wave:
Forbearance is a different paramita than patience.
http://www.naljorprisondharmaservice.org/pdf/SixParamitas.htm
Patience forbearance (is joyful) ::snip::
These paramitas are not evident until our samsaric view is totally shaken and our conventional views fall apart.
The paramitas are: generosity, ethics, patience, forbearance, concentration, wisdom.
I can see how joyful forbearance helps concentration and the others.
Can you say something about the relationship of patience to ethics/sila?
Would you say ethical behaviour is a natural arising or inherent aspect of enlightened being? Is there such a thing as 'bad boy Buddhas'? Do we just have to show patient forbearance?
Ethics can be generosity which makes them a gift you give to others. You surely need patience to practice ethics, particularly if you have this 'bad boy' flavor and get carried away. It's all a gift to self and others. All of the paramitas are interwoven in the bodhicitta.
But quite simply if you refer back to the 8 fold path in your practice from time to time it should keep you on your toes and heading in the right direction. Having patience here is to realize that we are not actually trying to get anywhere or become anything, lose anything or destroy anything, we are trying to not try and to just be patient with life itself.
One thing leads to another . . .
We develop confidence in the dharma, we develop a calming practice. We find good company. We encourage virtue etc.
If we shift. The whole balance of potential for others changes . . . all connected . . .