Greetings,

This month we'll be exploring the Parami of Patience (Khanti). Patience is the first of what I would consider the "action" Paramis. It arises out of the intertwining of the first five Paramis. In some respects, without the first five Paramis, what patience is asking would be near impossible to cultivate. The first five Paramis actually open the heart. Dharmically speaking, to act within the patience Parami, one needs an open-hearted perception. This means your perception comes through the lens of an open heart. To act with patience, you cannot perceive the world in the ordinary way. The first five Paramis are working on how you perceive the world. When you begin to perceive the world through the lens of generosity, ethical conduct, restraint, and wisdom, and you move through life by your intention to do no harm; patience is the quality of the acts from such a heartmind in a samsaric world. This is very different than the way we normally think of patience. Generally we think of it as a force of will against some negative force or a force of will to do something virtuous when we don't want to. The dharmic quality underlying this Parami, is the recognition of difficulty or dukkha, the ability to remain calm in the face of it, and the conscious choice to allow its unfolding. This is not done by a force of will. It's learning to act in such a way because of the realization that all movement in life is the arising of suffering and its passing away. When one cultivates this fundamental understanding, having the patience to be with life's unfolding is natural. In a world of constant change, it's necessary to cultivate this Parami of patience.

According to Ajahn Succito, in his book Crossing the Floods, Buddha declared patience to be the supreme purification practice. I chose the picture of the ripples from a water drop to represent the nature of patience. First, because water is a naturally calming element. Standing on a beach watching the ocean waves, standing near a river watching the river flow, standing on the bank of a lake - all of these demonstrate the power of calmness inherent in the water element. Two of the main qualities of water are flowing and cohesion. Keep this in mind as you explore patience this month. Buddha often pointed to water in relation to practicing with the hindrances. For instance, Buddha noted that the hindrances overwhelm awareness like rushing water, and with practice we learn to calmly move through the hindrances, thus, the notion of crossing the floods. You can almost feel the strength of patience that one would need to move steadily through rushing water vs. being caught up in the rush of the water. Buddha also spoke of the hindrances as weakening discernment the way water disperses anywhere and everywhere when it's not channeled in a particular direction. When water is channeled it flows smoothly and directly. Again you can hear how patience contains reactivity the way a channel contains water. Finally, the Buddha noted that the hindrances obscure our capacity to see the true nature of a moment. He used bowls of water containing dye, mud, algae, and water that is boiling and water that is stirred up. He used these water analogies to demonstrate how we get caught up in the hindrance rather than noticing the hindrance we are perceiving the moment through. Cultivating patience we learn to see how we are perceiving the moment and the lens we're using to look at our experience.

The second reason I chose the water drops is to illustrate the lawfulness of the flow of ripples from a single drop of water. This is an important point to remember because actions have consequences. From all causes there is a result. We live in our ordinary life as if we have the power to prevent the natural result of our actions and the actions of others. Life doesn't work like this. When we commit an act, whether good or bad, wholesome or unwholesome, skillful or unskillful, there is going to be an impact. Cultivating patience is like watching the ripples disperse from a single drop of water. You learn to see the nature of cause and effect and you learn to see that whatever arises will eventually cease. Think about trying this at home this month. Put some water in a bowl and touch it. Watch how the ripples continuously move towards dispersement and the stilling of water. I often use an analogy of standing in front of a still pond. A pond so still, it's like ice. And then randomly, unexpectedly, a leaf breaks off from a branch (as is its nature) and falls gently touching the water ever so slightly. It creates ripples in our still pond. We habitually drop down to smooth out the ripples to get our still pond back and create more ripples in our efforts to make things right. We can get frustrated at all the added ripples. Patience is about learning to stand there, watch the ripples come into existence and fade away, without creating more ripples.

The third reason I chose this picture is because there is such beauty in the rhythm of water through its natural flow and the dispersement of ripples. This is pointing to the engaging nature of water. It draws us in to just stand there and look at it. It's almost impossible to stand on the ocean's edge and not stare into the massive mightiness of it. It's captivating and yet is it so peaceful. It's not about how big the waves are or how harsh the wind is, it's in the rhythm of it. It's rhythmical. Waves are rhythmical. The water moves in a rhythmical way and we can attune to that rhythm. When we get attuned to the rhythm of water, it's like getting attuned to the rhythm and flow of life. It's not about you, it's not about me, it's about the nature of the world we live in and there is a rhythm to it. Patience helps us see this rhythm because when you have the patience to allow something to naturally unfold, you will see its cessation. If you intervene to fix something and make it turn the way you want, you may very well "win the battle" but you don't realize that you are "losing the war." Without cultivating patience, we cannot see the natural cessation of arising dukkha. You create a belief that you have to "fix something" to make life right. But this is like interrupting causation. It intervenes to prevent the impact or results of previous actions coming together. Like trying to smooth out your still pond, you then create additional action that will have an impact. When an action is done through aversion of not wanting something or the desire to have something be a certain way, or habitually reacting without paying attention, we are in effect creating more ripples, more dukkha.

Ok, I know some of you are freaking out about the state of the world we live in. Your mind is thinking, "What is Tuere talking about? We need to do something about what's happening in the world! This all sounds like hiding away from the world, turning our back on the world and going into our happy place." First, let's be clear - this is not what I'm saying. Remember, we are talking about the Parami of patience, which requires an open-hearted perception. There is a high degree of dukkha in the world. It overwhelms our awareness, it weakens our discernment, and obscures our view. In the cultivation of the Paramis, we are trying to move through the world without adding more dukkha. We know what this kind of patience looks like. We have seen people who have this quality of patience in the middle of something very difficult. They don't have to turn away just because they are patient, but they don't add more difficulty to an already difficult situation. So try this out over the course of this month. See if you can engage with a difficult moment from a place of patience. Allow or accept what is happening, including its difficult nature, from a sense of stillness. Not perfectly still, but relatively still (think about the stillness of flowing water). See if you can recognize a response that's not filled with reactivity through greed, hatred and delusion. Let's talk about what you see and experience on Thursday nights.

With a deep bow,

Tuere