Patience

In the Revealing the Profound Secrets Sutra the Buddha tells World Voice Perceiver Bodhisattva:

There are three kinds of patience. The first is the patience to endure enmity and injury. The second is the patience to endure suffering. The third is the patient acceptance of the understanding [of the non-arising] of dharmas.

T676, 16.705c17-705c18

The Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana describes the perfection of patience as follows:

How do you practice the gate of patience? It is to be patient when other people are being vexatious without harboring thoughts of revenge. Also, it is to be patient when encountering gain or loss, fame or infamy, praise or blame, pleasure or pain.

T1666, 9.581c28-581a01

In the Bodhicharyavatara (Introduction to the Practice of Awakening) by the Indian Mahayana monk Shantidva (c. 685 - c. 763), the following is said about the nature of the perfection of patience:

1. This worship of the Well Gone, generosity, and good conduct performed throughout thousands of eons - hatred destroys it all.

2. There is no evil equal to hatred, and no spiritual practice equal to forbearance. Therefore one should develop forbearance by various means, with great effort.

The Bodhicaryavatara 6.1-6.2 as translated by Kate Crosby and Andrew Skilton (adapted).

Shantidva points out that regarding unpleasant situations there is no need to get dejected:

10. If there is a solution, then what is the point of dejection? What is the point of dejection if there is no solution?

Ibid, 6.10.

Shantideva even states that suffering has value for a bodhisattva:

21. The virtue of suffering has no rival, since, from the shock it causes, intoxication falls away and there arises compassion for those in cyclic existence, fear of evil, and a longing for the Conqueror.

Ibid, 6.21.

Shantideva also argues that we should not take the unpleasant or even hateful actions of others personally because what they think, say, and do is a product of the flow of causes and conditions. At the same time, we should strive to curb the causes and conditions of our own anger and frustration because by doing that we are bringing about the cessation of the causes of suffering. Herein, Shantideva ties the development of patience to a sympathetic understanding of causes and conditions.

31. In this way everything is dependent upon something else. Even that thing upon which each is dependent is not independent. Since, like a magical display, phenomena do not initiate activity, at what does one get angry like this?

32. It it is argued that to resist anger is inappropriate, for 'who is it that resists what', our view is that it is appropriate since there is dependent origination there can be cessation of suffering.

33. Therefore, even if one sees a friend or an enemy behaving badly, one can reflect that there are specific conditioning factors that determine this, and thereby remain happy.

Ibid, 6.31-33.

Shantideva provides many other arguments and examples related to the cultivation of patience. Among these, is the explanation that we should regard our enemies as benefactors because their enmity is what gives us a chance to practice patience.

110. If an enemy is not honored because his intention is to hurt, for what other reason will I be patient with him, as with a doctor who is intent on my well-being?

111. In that case, it is really in dependence upon his malign intention that forbearance is produced, and in that case, it is really he that is the cause of my forbearance. I must worship him as the True Dharma.

Ibid, 6.110-111.

Finally, Shantideva concludes that the bodhisattva should have patience with all the people of the world because they are the very ones whom he is trying to save from delusion, defilement, and suffering.

125. Now, to propitiate the Tathagatas, with my entire self I become a servant to the world. Let streams of people place their foot upon my head or strike me down. Let the Lord of the World be satisfied.

126. There is no doubt that those whose selfhood is compassion have taken their entire world for themselves. Is it not the case that they appear in the form of these good people! It is these people who are the Lords. How can I be disrespectful?

Ibid, 6.125-126.

Among many examples, here is a story in which the bodhisattva who becomes Shakyamuni displayed the perfection of patience:

 In a previous life, Shakyamuni Buddha was practicing patience in a mountain retreat as the Teacher of Patience (Kshantivadi). There he was approached by the wife and maids-in-waiting of King Kali of Varanasi (a past life of Ajnata Kaundinya) while the king was sleeping during a pleasure excursion in the mountains. The Teacher of Patience consented to teach them but when King Kali woke up, he thought the hermit was trying to seduce them. To test the truth of the hermit’s practice, the king cut off the hermit’s ears and four limbs and gouged out his eyes, but the hermit not only remained patient but also showed his supernatural power by restoring his original body. The king then deeply repented and became deeply religious.

A version of the story of The Teacher of Patience is number 313 in the Pali language collection of Jataka tales.

A version of this story is told in the Great Perfection of Wisdom Treatise.

A version of this story is also told The Three Jewels: A Study and Translation of Minamoto Tamenori's Sanboe.

Nichiren Shonin mentions this story in his writings as an example of patience. (e.g. WNS7, p. p. 139)