The Supreme Incinerator of Defilements
Patience is extremely important. Before I talk about the personality trait of patience however, I want to give some background info by discussing a related topic – patiently enduring discomfort. “Patient endurance is the supreme incinerator of defilements.” How many times have you heard that statement? If you study and practice in the Thai Forest Tradition, it comes up from time to time. It is a translation of a line from the Dhammapada – “Khanti paramam tapo titikkha.” This line says that patient endurance is the supreme tapas. A tapas is a spiritual activity that burns away defilements. Obviously, our defilements are a major obstacle hindering us from advancing along the magical path. If patient endurance really is the supreme incinerator of defilements, then we should be really grateful whenever we find ourselves having to patiently endure some form of discomfort.
This is something Ajahn Jayasaro mentions in several of his dharma talks. In the Thai Forest Tradition, everyone knows that patient endurance is the supreme incinerator of defilements. But, as Jayasaro points out, sometimes people find themselves having to patiently endure discomfort during some experience and then saying “Well, at least I got to practice patient endurance during that experience.” It’s almost as if they view the opportunity to practice patient endurance as some sort of consolation prize they’re given for going through their bad experience. This is the wrong attitude. The opportunity to practice patient endurance is more like the first place prize. It’s something extremely valuable.
Patient Endurance is Mindful Endurance
In the first chapter of his book Arahattamagga-Arahattaphala, Ajahn Maha Buwa states that, when it comes to pain, stoic endurance doesn’t benefit us. Of course the Dhammapada states that patient endurance is of great benefit. At first, there may seem to be a contradiction here, but this contradiction goes away when you realize that stoic endurance and patient endurance are not the same thing. In Wherever You Go, There You Are, there is a chapter about patience, and in that chapter Jon Kabat-Zinn explains that patience and mindfulness are deeply intertwined. In fact, they are inseparable. When you stoically endure discomfort, you bear with it, but you don’t necessarily embrace it with mindfulness and look deeply into it in order to understand it. With patient endurance, however, you do just that. Patient endurance is mindful endurance.
Mindfully enduring discomfort is sort of what Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction is all about. Therefore, as a starting point for learning to mindfully endure discomfort, I highly recommend learning MBSR. MBSR can be learned from Jon Kabat-Zinn’s book Full Catastrophe Living, and also from the standard eight-week course. Thich Nhat Hanh’s book No Mud, No Lotus also provides good guidance on mindfully enduring discomfort.In this chapter, I write a lot about the importance of mindful/patient endurance, but I don’t really give practical guidance for mindfully/patiently enduring discomfort. The reason is that I think it’s better to learn the instructions from experts like Thich Nhat Hanh and Jon Kabat-Zinn than from a non-expert like me. Please note that different Buddhist traditions may teach different ways of mindfully/patiently enduring discomfort. When I read the instructions in the chapter on patient endurance in Ajahn Succito’s book Parami, I notice that his way of mindfully/patiently enduring discomfort seems a bit different from Thich Nhat Hanh’s way. Yet both are valid ways. They will both lead to insights into the nature of suffering, although perhaps to different insights.
To find out more about Virgil see his author page. View his titles here:
