Speaking Tree, TOI, 23.09.2012
PRACTICE OF PATIENCE –
One of the Six Perfections in Buddhist Teachings. One of my students, a young girl then awaiting her medical entrance results, mailed to me. Her question was simple. Her mother asked her to be patient and the girl wanted to know the real meaning of the word.
This is what I wrote back to her.
The Oxford dictionary defines patience (noun) as: "the ability to stay calm and accept a delay or something annoying without complaining." Maybe this fits quite perfectly into the expectations most mothers have of their children!
In the Buddhist teachings, however, the explanation is a bit more deeper. It is something like this:
As we know afflicted emotions (pride, wrong views, greed, jealousy, anger, desire) originate in our untrained mind, play havoc with us and lead us into all kinds of suffering. Infact they are the root cause of our suffering. They are the very reason why we continue to wander in samsara for many many lifetimes. And now that we have this precious human rebirth, there is a way in which we can train our minds to rid ourselves of these causes of suffering, purify our minds of them, generate antidotes for these afflicted emotions and try and abandon these afflictions totally.
Each of these five poisons have the capacity to push us into lower rebirths where suffering is far far greater than we have in this human realm. In particular, anger, is such that is pushes us into the lower most realm of rebirth called the hell realm. Unimaginable suffering awaits us there.
So obviously, it would be unwise to conduct ourselves in a way that will land us down there. So the wisest thing to do is to control our anger. But how do we do it? Just as when a person is bitten by a snake, the doctor administers an antidote to fight the poison, so also in the case of afflicted emotions. Each of these emotions have an antidote given elaborately in the teachings. In order to overcome the poison of anger we develop, through practice, an antidote.
This antidote is Patience.
A great Indian Buddhist master of 16-17th century C.E., Shantideva, says:
All the good work gathered in a thousand ages,
Such as deeds of generosity,
And offerings to the blissful ones,
A single flash of anger shatters them.
And further advices us by saying:
No evil is there similar to anger,
No austerity to be compared with patience
Steep yourself, therefore, in patience, I
n various ways, insistently.
And how do we develop the antidote of patience? There are several ways suggested in the teachings depending on the students' capability. One of the easiest ways is by watching our mind when anger arises. When we 'see' it arising we immediately turn our focus towards our breath. Controlling our breathing when anger arises helps in settling anger to some extent. Developing compassion, release of expecting things to always go our way are other ways we can train ourselves in. This antidote can also be applied to various minor afflictions such as irritability, anxiety, over-excitement, undue hurry etc. Other skillful methods based on identifying the base nature of mind and treating all arisings to be sport of the mind are also mentioned in the teachings. However, such techniques require years of training under the guidance of accomplished masters.
Go on then. Get yourself to live a life without anger. It is an assured step towards nirvana!
(The girl referred to in the article, Axxxx (name withheld), hails from Bihar and used to follow my blog and Speaking Tree pieces. She wrote to me one day pouring out all her personal problems. I responded over email to try and sort them out for her. There was lull for many months thereafter and i thought all was well. Until one day an email landed in my inbox. She said she was on the verge of taking her life following a failed love affair and failed medical entrance test. Although keen to pursue medical studies, Axxxx did not wish her parents to cough up huge money towards a donation seat although they were willing to. An email in the nick of time (just one night before she would have taken that disastrous step), followed by several more, guiding her thru a traumatic life seems to have worked. Axxxx got over this phase and has since begun living a far more peaceful and confident life, ready to face the world boldly with all its vagaries. This year she cracked the exam and now studies medicine at Manipal University as a merit student.)
One of the Six Perfections in Buddhist Teachings. One of my students, a young girl then awaiting her medical entrance results, mailed to me. Her question was simple. Her mother asked her to be patient and the girl wanted to know the real meaning of the word.
This is what I wrote back to her.
The Oxford dictionary defines patience (noun) as: "the ability to stay calm and accept a delay or something annoying without complaining." Maybe this fits quite perfectly into the expectations most mothers have of their children!
In the Buddhist teachings, however, the explanation is a bit more deeper. It is something like this:
As we know afflicted emotions (pride, wrong views, greed, jealousy, anger, desire) originate in our untrained mind, play havoc with us and lead us into all kinds of suffering. Infact they are the root cause of our suffering. They are the very reason why we continue to wander in samsara for many many lifetimes. And now that we have this precious human rebirth, there is a way in which we can train our minds to rid ourselves of these causes of suffering, purify our minds of them, generate antidotes for these afflicted emotions and try and abandon these afflictions totally.
Each of these five poisons have the capacity to push us into lower rebirths where suffering is far far greater than we have in this human realm. In particular, anger, is such that is pushes us into the lower most realm of rebirth called the hell realm. Unimaginable suffering awaits us there.
So obviously, it would be unwise to conduct ourselves in a way that will land us down there. So the wisest thing to do is to control our anger. But how do we do it? Just as when a person is bitten by a snake, the doctor administers an antidote to fight the poison, so also in the case of afflicted emotions. Each of these emotions have an antidote given elaborately in the teachings. In order to overcome the poison of anger we develop, through practice, an antidote.
This antidote is Patience.
A great Indian Buddhist master of 16-17th century C.E., Shantideva, says:
All the good work gathered in a thousand ages,
Such as deeds of generosity,
And offerings to the blissful ones,
A single flash of anger shatters them.
And further advices us by saying:
No evil is there similar to anger,
No austerity to be compared with patience
Steep yourself, therefore, in patience, I
n various ways, insistently.
And how do we develop the antidote of patience? There are several ways suggested in the teachings depending on the students' capability. One of the easiest ways is by watching our mind when anger arises. When we 'see' it arising we immediately turn our focus towards our breath. Controlling our breathing when anger arises helps in settling anger to some extent. Developing compassion, release of expecting things to always go our way are other ways we can train ourselves in. This antidote can also be applied to various minor afflictions such as irritability, anxiety, over-excitement, undue hurry etc. Other skillful methods based on identifying the base nature of mind and treating all arisings to be sport of the mind are also mentioned in the teachings. However, such techniques require years of training under the guidance of accomplished masters.
Go on then. Get yourself to live a life without anger. It is an assured step towards nirvana!
(The girl referred to in the article, Axxxx (name withheld), hails from Bihar and used to follow my blog and Speaking Tree pieces. She wrote to me one day pouring out all her personal problems. I responded over email to try and sort them out for her. There was lull for many months thereafter and i thought all was well. Until one day an email landed in my inbox. She said she was on the verge of taking her life following a failed love affair and failed medical entrance test. Although keen to pursue medical studies, Axxxx did not wish her parents to cough up huge money towards a donation seat although they were willing to. An email in the nick of time (just one night before she would have taken that disastrous step), followed by several more, guiding her thru a traumatic life seems to have worked. Axxxx got over this phase and has since begun living a far more peaceful and confident life, ready to face the world boldly with all its vagaries. This year she cracked the exam and now studies medicine at Manipal University as a merit student.)
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