Patience and it's Perfection

By Luang Por Ajahn Chah

Peacefulness and tranquility can be incredibly boring, and can bring up a lot of restlessness and doubt. Restlessness is a common problem because the sensory realm is a restless realm; bodies are restless and minds are restless. Conditions are changing all the time, so if you are caught up in reacting to change, you’re just restless. Restlessness needs to be thoroughly understood for what it is; the practice is not one of just using the will to bind yourself to the meditation mat. It’s not a test of you becoming a strong person who has to conquer restlessness—that attitude just reinforces another egotistical view. But it is a matter of really investigating restlessness, noticing it and knowing it for what it is. For this we have to develop patience; it’s something we have to learn and really work with. When I first went to Wat Pah Pong, I couldn’t understand Lao. And in those days Ajahn Chah was at his peak and giving three- hour desanas every evening. He could go on and on and on, and everybody loved him— he was a very good speaker, very humorous and every- body enjoyed his talks. But if
you couldn’t understand Lao...!

I’d be sitting there thinking, ‘When’s he going to stop, I’m wasting my time.’ I’d be really angry, thinking, ‘I’ve had enough, I’m leaving.’ But I couldn’t get enough nerve to leave, so I would just sit there thinking—‘I’ll go to another monastery. I’ve had enough of this; I’m not going to put up with this.’ And then he would look at me—he had the most radiant smile—and he’d say, ‘Are you all right?’ And suddenly all the anger that had been accumulating for that three hours would completely drop away. That’s interesting, isn’t it? After sitting there fuming for three hours, it can just go. So I vowed that my practice would be patience, and that during this time I would develop patience. I’d come to all the talks and sit through all of them as long as I could physically stand it. I determined not to miss them, or try to get out of them, and just practise patience. And by doing that I began to find that the opportunity to be patient was something that has helped me very much.

Patience is a very firm foundation for my insight and understanding of the Dhamma; without that I would have just wandered and drifted about, as you see so many people doing. Many Westerners came to Wat Pah Pong and drifted away from it because they weren’t patient. They didn’t want to sit through three-hour desanas and be patient. They wanted to go to the places where they could get instant enlightenment and get it done quickly in the way that they wanted.

Through the selfish desires and ambitions which can drive us, even on the spiritual path, we can’t really appreciate the way things are. When I reflected and actually contemplated my life at Wat Pah Pong, I realised that it was a very good situation: there was a good teacher, there was enough to eat, the monks were good monks, the lay people were very generous and kind and there was encouragement towards the practice of Dhamma. This is as good as you can get; it was a wonderful opportunity. And yet so many Westerners couldn’t see that because they tended to think—‘I don’t like this, I don’t want that; it should be otherwise.’ And—‘What I think is... what I feel is... I don’t want
to be bothered with this and that.’ I remember going up to Tarn Sang Phet monastery, which was a very quiet secluded place in those years, and I lived in a cave. A villager built me a platform because in the bottom of this cave was a big python.

One evening I was sitting on this platform by candle-light. It was really eerie and the light cast shadows on all the rocks: it was weird, and I started to get really frightened and then, suddenly, I was startled. I looked up and there was a huge owl right above, looking at me. It looked immense—I don’t know if it was that big, but it seemed really enormous in the candlelight—and it was looking straight at me. I thought, ‘Well what is there to be really frightened of here?’ and I tried to imagine skeletons and ghosts or Mother Kali with fangs and blood dripping out of her mouth or enormous monsters with green skin—than I began to laugh because it got so amusing! I realised I wasn’t really frightened at all.

In those days, I was just a very junior monk and one night Ajahn Chah took me to a village fete—I think Satimanto Bhikkhu was there at the time. We were very serious practitioners, and we didn’t want any kind of frivolity or fool- ishness. And of course going to a village fete was the last thing we wanted to do—because in these villages they love loudspeakers. Anyway, Ajahn Chah took Sati- manto and me to this fete, and we had to sit up all night with the raucous sounds of the loudspeak- ers—and monks giving talks all night long! I kept thinking, ‘Oh, I want to get back to my cave—green-skinned monsters and ghosts are much better than this.’ I noticed that Satimanto, who was incredibly serious, was looking really angry and critical and very unhappy. We just sat there looking miserable. I thought, ‘Why does Ajahn Chah bring us to these things?’

Then I began to see for myself. I remember sitting there thinking, ‘Here I am getting all upset over this. Is it that bad? What’s really bad is what I’m making out of it. What’s really miserable is my mind. Loudspeakers and noise, and distraction and sleepiness, I can put up with, but it’s that awful thing in my mind that hates it, resents it and wants to leave—that’s the real misery!’ That evening I saw what misery I could create in my mind over things that actually I could bear. I remember that as a very clear insight into what I thought was miserable, and what really is miserable. At first I was blaming the people, the loudspeakers, the disruption, the noise and the discomfort—I thought that was the problem. Then I realised that it wasn’t; it was my mind that was miserable. If we reflect on and contemplate Dhamma, we learn from the very situations which we like the least—if we have the will and the patience to do so.


                                

Born in Seattle in 1934, Luang Por Sumedho served as a medic in the US navy and soon after visited Thailand were he received full ordination in 1967.  It was here he met his teacher, Luang Por Chah and remained under his close guidance for 10 years living in remote areas in the Forest sangha style.
In 1975, Luang Por Sumedho, established Wat Pah Nanachat, International Forest Monastery where Westerners could be trained in English. In 1977, he accompanied Luang Por Chah to England and took up residence at the Hampstead Vihara, with three other monks.

Luang Por Sumedho was made an Upachaya (ordination preceptor) in 1981. He was integral in establishing the Forest Sangha tradition in the United Kingdom and was central in establishing Amaravati Buddhist Monastery and Chithurst Buddhist Monastery. He remained as senior incumbent at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery in Hertfordshire until November 2010, at which time he handed over the duties of abbot to Ajahn Amaro. Luang Por Sumedho is now based once again in Thailand, where his monastic life.

Zen Patience

By Shunryu Suzuki Roshi

My master passed away when I was thirty three.  So after his death I became pretty busy.  I wanted to devote myself just to zen practice, but I couldn’t stay at Eihieji monastery because I had to be the successor of his temple.  For us, it is necessary to keep constant way…not some kind of excitement, but we should be concentrated on usual every day routine.  If one become too busy and too much excitement our mind will become rough…rugged.  This is not so good for us.  So, if possible, try to be always calm and joyful and keep yourself from excitement.  That is most important point…thing for us.  But usually we are…we become more and more busy, day by day, year after year.


If I go back to Japan this summer I shall be astonished—the change they make in Japan.  It cannot be helped, but if we become interested in some excitement this change will accelerate and we will be lost and we will be completely involved in busy life, but if our mind is always calm and constant we can keep our self away from noisy world even though we are in the midst of it.  In the midst of the noisy world our mind will always be calm and stable.  Zen is not some excitement, but people practice zen because of some curiosity.  That is a kind of excitement.  Zen is not zen; that is worse…if you practice zen you will make yourself worse because of zen practice.  This is ridiculous.  I didn’t notice that, but many people practice zazen…interested in zazen just by curiosity, and make themselves worse and busier.  I think if you try to come once a week here that will make you pretty busy.  That is enough.  Don’t be too much interested in zen.  Just keep your calm and keep your constant way in everyday life.

Once…young people, especially, interested in zen, they will give up schooling, and they will…some people go to some mountain or forest where they can sit.  But that kind of interest is not true interest.  When I was young I didn’t intend to be…I didn’t like to be a successor of my master but I have to…I had to.  But since then, because I became my master’s successor when I was so young I had many difficulties.  Too much difficulty gives me some experience but those experiences…comparing to the true, calm and serene way of life, those experiences are nothing.  So if you continue the calm ordinary practice your character will be built up but if your mind is always busy there’s no time to build up your character.  To build up…if you want to build up…even though you want to build up your character it doesn’t…you will not be successful if you work on it too hard.  It should be done little by little, step by step.  It is the same thing to make bread.  If you make…if you give it too much heat it will burn…you will not get bread.  It is the same thing…we have to do it little by little.  And moderate temperature…we want, not too much temperature or excitement—little by little.  And you know yourself pretty well…how much heat…temperature you want…you know exactly what you want.  But if you are too much…if you have too much excitement you forget your own way and you don’t know…you forget how much temperature is good for you.  That’s very dangerous.

Buddha says it is same thing with the good driver (driver of a cow not motor car)…cow knows how much load the cow can carry and keep the cow from being too loaded.  You know your way and your state of mind.  So you know how much load you can carry.  Don’t carry too much Buddha says.  It is very good instruction.  Or he says it is the same thing with a…to make a dam.  If you want to make a dam, you should be careful in making the bank.  If you try to do it all at once the water will leak from the bank so you have to make the bank carefully, little by little.  Then you will have a fine, good bank for the lake, reservoir.  This is the way he says.  This is quite true with us.  So, too much excitement is not good.  It looks like very negative way, but it is not so.  It is wise and comfortable way, or effective way…to work on ourselves.  I find it…this point is very difficult for people who study zen…especially young people.

Transcribed from a talk given February 24, 1966

                                     


For more on the late great Suzuki Roshi visit www.sfzc.org and on this site see label: Suzuki

Patience: Angers Perfect Antidote

By Thrangu Rinpoche

Generally, when we experience anger, there are two different types of remedies that we can use for anger and hatred. The first of these remedies is the wisdom that realizes selflessness. This might be realizing the selflessness of phenomena or it might be realizing Mahamudra through the methods of the secret Vajrayana. If we can do this – this comes from wonderful experience and realization -, it allows us to give up all the afflictions that need to be abandoned. This is a way to abandon them completely, to uproot and eradicate them completely. But it’s something that is difficult for us ordinary individuals to do. It’s hard for ordinary individuals to immediately eradicate all the afflictions.

In order to do so we need to develop the wisdom that sees the truth of the path of seeing. Upon seeing, we can give up what needs to be given up and then gradually develop the wisdom of the path of meditation and meditate upon that. But developing the wisdom of the path of seeing and then developing the wisdom of the path of meditation and meditating upon this is not all that easy for ordinary individuals to do. So, in The Way of the Bodhisattva, it teaches a way for ordinary individuals to deal with their afflictions, overcoming and stopping them. This way we can decrease our afflictions.

In particular, we need to decrease and overcome the afflictions of hatred and anger. What is the way to do this? Well, we have imprints from being in samsara since beginningless time, and because there are these imprints within our mind streams, occasionally we have hatred and anger that become manifest. When those become manifest, we will say nasty things and we will do bad and wrong things with our body. When this happens, is there anything we can do about it? Well, taking medicine won’t to help. There’s no other method that will help, but there is a way. If we realize the defects of anger and the problems that anger causes, then we find that we will be able to apply the antidotes.

The temporary antidote for hatred is to contemplate and practice patience. If we just say, “I’m going to be patient,” are we going to be patient? It’s not going to happen like that. First we need to think about the benefits of being patient, about the qualities of patience, and then we will develop interest in it. Through having interest, we will develop faith in the benefits and then we will think that we really need to develop patience in ourselves. With that pure and wonderful motivation, we will be able to realize the defects of hatred and anger and the benefits of patience. Then, gradually, this will help us; we won’t get angry as much and we won’t feel as much hatred. But if it does happen, if we do feel anger, then we will be able to apply the antidote. For that reason we think about and practice patience.

But thinking about patience will not eradicate our anger. It is having a real, pure motivation, seeing the faults of hatred and the afflictions, and thinking about the reasons why we need to not get angry, the benefits of that, and recognizing that, and then practicing that. Through gradually doing that we will be able to decrease the affliction of hatred. For this reason, in the short term it’s extremely beneficial.

Often we think to ourselves, “Anger is no good. Hatred is no good,” but we need to really think about just what are the defects of anger. We need to really know them in detail, to understand them thoroughly. We need to understand how it is that hatred and anger harm us, how it is that they cause us difficulties and problems. Actually, some people think, “Well, anger is not all that bad. It’s like a real hero, a brave person. I can really get things done with it.” They think of it as being like a quality, that the afflictions of hatred and anger are really good, that they help them get things done. They think that if they try to do things in a nice way, sometimes they don’t get anywhere, but if they just go in there and get angry and fight and struggle, then they can really get things done. So they think of hatred and anger as being a quality. But if we think of hatred and anger as being a quality, then that makes an obstacle to actually giving it up. For this reason, the faults of anger are taught here.

First it teaches the problems of anger in terms of the karmic results, So, here there are two different types of faults with anger. There are the unseen faults and there are the seen faults, the faults that are visible in this life. The unseen faults are how it is such bad karma, a bad action, how it is a very strong and bad misdeed. So, in this life, if we have a lot of anger, we will not have any happiness. But also we will not have any happiness in future lives. About the unseen faults of anger, the first verse of the chapter on patience in Shantideva’s text says:


"All the good works gathered in a thousand ages, Such as deeds of generosity And offerings to the Blissful Ones – A single flash of anger shatters them."

So, anger is a really strong misdeed and wrong-doing. If we have very strong anger, then it can destroy a lot of the good that we have done. For instance, if we have a very strong amount of hatred, such as the anger that would motivate us to draw blood from a Buddha, then this can have really strong karmic consequences. That’s a very big misdeed, a very big non-virtue. There are many different misdeeds other than anger, but there’s none that is similar to anger.

"No evil is there similar to anger, No austerity to be compared with patience.
Steep yourself therefore in patience, In various ways, insistently."

But does this mean that we have no chance to attain liberation and freedom for ourselves if we have no anger? No, it doesn’t mean that. There’s an antidote for anger, and that antidote is patience. There’s no austerity like patience. If we practice patience, then we won’t feel angry and then we’ll also not experience the karmic ripening of that anger. So it’s important that we don’t lose ourselves to anger and that we are able to practice patience. So, this is pointing out the karmic benefits and karmic results of contemplating and practicing patience. That is the unseen karmic result.
Then there are the results of anger that we see in this life. The stanza says:

"Those tormented by the pain of anger, Never know tranquillity of mind. Strangers they will be to every pleasure; They will neither sleep nor feel secure."

When we get angry, a lot of it is really like a sickness, like an illness and pain. So if we have anger in our lives, then we will have no happiness of mind, and because we have no happiness of mind, we will also have no comfort and health in our bodies. Also, when we get angry at night, we won’t be able to sleep at night. So this is showing how anger and hatred create problems and sufferings for ourselves; but they also create pain and suffering for others.

"Even those dependent on their lord For gracious gifts of honors and of wealth Will rise against and slay A master who is filled with wrath and hatred."

"His family and friends he grieves, And is not served by those his gifts attract. No one is there, all in all, Who, being angry, lives at ease."

If we are angry all the time, then we may have friends and family, but we are always fighting and getting into problems with them. As a result, we do bad things with our body, we give them a hard time, and we say harsh words. Finally, in the end, even our friends and family will be upset with us. They will be hurt by it – they will not like it at all. Also, “... and is not served by those whose gifts attract.” Most people give gifts and people like it. If you are always angry, even if you give gifts, people will take the gifts, but they won’t be happy about it; they won’t like you and they won’t enjoy it. There won’t be any happiness or joy at all. In general, there is just no joy or happiness to anger. It says, “No one is there, all in all, who, being angry, lives at ease.”

"All these ills are brought about by wrath, Our sorrow-bearing enemy. But those who seize and crush their anger down Will find their joy in this and future lives."

If we get angry, then we won’t be happy and we won’t make others happy. We will not bring ourselves temporary or ultimate happiness. If we know that because of anger and hatred we
will have no happiness, then when anger and hatred actually happen, we will realize, “Oh, this is going to cause problems. I’m not going to allow myself to get angry. I’m going to put this anger aside and not act upon it.” It will help us in this way. Also, if we keep the teachings in mind all the time and think, “I’m not going to allow myself to get angry. I’m not going to act on what usually causes me to get angry,” in this way, it will gradually help us not to get angry. So that is teaching the faults of anger and how we can diminish and overcome our anger by knowing this.

This Teaching extracted from "Patience – bZöd-pa Instructions on Chapter 6 from The Way of the Bodhisattva, by Shantideva." Published in Thar Lam - The International Journal of Palpung, New Zealand 

                                  

Thrangu Rinpoche was born in 1933 in Kham, Tibet. He is a prominent tulku (reincarnate lama) in the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism, the ninth reincarnation in his particular line.  In 1976,  Rinpoche began teaching Buddhism in the West and throughout Asia. In the United States and Canada, he established centers in Crestone, Colorado, Maine and California, Vancouver and Edmonton, and has another fifteen centers in ten other countries. He is the Abbot of Gampo Abbey, a Karma Kagyu monastery in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia founded by his dharma brother Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, reflective of his close ties the Shambhala Buddhist community.
Thrangu Rinpoche has written many books and commentaries on the practice of Mahamudra meditation and is uniquely regarded for his open approach and exemplary knowledge of this profound method.
For more information please see: www.rinpoche.com