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TEACHINGS | EASTERN HORIZON 25
Patience
By Norman Fisher Roshi
Norman Fischer is a Zen priest, poet, translator, and director of
the Everyday Zen Foundation. His numerous books include What Is
Zen? Plain Talk for a Beginner’s Mind, Training in Compassion: Zen
Teachings on the Practice of Lojong, and Opening to You: Zen-Inspired
Translations of the Psalms.
The perfection of patience powerful practice, a prized and the most fruitful time for spiritual
is kṣānti pāramitā in Sanskrit. Kṣānti essential one. A person who develops practice because they are exactly
i can be translated as “patience,” it has strength of character, vision, when the practice of patience comes
“forbearance,” or “tolerance,” but courage, dignity, and depth. She or most into play. When things get
these words don’t capture the he understands something profound tough you should intensify rather
fullness of what kṣānti connotes about human beings and how to than set aside your practice.
because they all imply a kind of love them. I’m using perfection of
quietism or passivity. To be patient patience to denote kṣānti pāramitā It’s natural to turn away in the
can be understood to mean to suffer because we are so profoundly face of difficulty. We come by this
silently, like a patient in a hospital impatient about everything these powerful habit honestly. No one
who can’t affect her own cure and days. We can use a dose of old- wants to go toward pain. We want
so must wait for the ministrations fashioned patience. But understand to go elsewhere, take a break, think
of others. Forbearance has an even that I’m using the word patience in of something else, get rid of it if
greater sense of quietly enduring. this special, fuller sense. we can. We distract, deny, blame,
Tolerance implies a kind of benign or rush around in generally futile
neglect—not correcting, fixing, or Patience is the most important attempts to fix it somehow. With
complaining but being tolerant. of all the bodhisattva practices the practice of patience we train
On the other hand, tolerance because without it all the others ourselves to do the opposite: to turn
also implies broad-mindedness: will eventually fail. It is easy enough toward the difficulty and embrace it
a tolerant person is open to the to practice meditation, generosity, as an ally.
views and actions of others, neither ethical conduct, and other wonderful
condemning nor dismissing. practices when things are going Being with Difficulty
smoothly. But when things fall We all understand that life will at
Though all these words reflect in apart—as they inevitably do from times be difficult. We are aware
part what is meant by kṣānti, kṣānti time to time—we revert to old of the various drastic forms of
pāramitā exceeds them. To practice patterns. Over the years many suffering like illness, death, loss,
kṣānti pāramitā is to patiently, people have told me they regret disgrace, financial ruin, broken
tolerantly forbear hardships and that they haven’t been tending to relationships, addiction, or despair.
difficulties—but not passively. their spiritual practice lately, but In all too many communities there
The perfection of patience is they can’t right now; they’re having are, in addition to all these, socially
transformative. It transforms difficult some personal setbacks and will determined forms of suffering
circumstances from misfortunes get back to their practice as soon as like war, violence, sexism, racism,
or disasters into spiritual benefit. things clear up. What they haven’t homophobia, severe political
For this reason it is a particularly understood is that difficult times are repression, and crushing poverty.