Paramitas:
The Six Perfections

Part One: Patience (Kshanti)

by Reishin Denise Leong

The Six Perfections, or Paramitas, are guides for practitioners on the Bodhisattva path. By developing these qualities, we can transcend our concept of self and reach the other shore – Enlightenment. The Six Paramitas, or transcendent Perfections, are generosity, ethical conduct, patience, diligence, meditation, and wisdom.

This month we will focus on Kshanti, commonly translated as patience.

Thank you for your call. Your call is very important to us. Please stay on the line for the next available representative. Your wait time is 27 kalpas…

We often think of patience as hands crossed, silently waiting for something, but patience is not a passive sport – it is NOT simply waiting. It is actively engaging in the process of becoming patient without anger, frustration, or irritation. It is learning to remain calm and composed during difficulties with life or other people without complaint, persevering and enduring with kindness and compassion for self and others.

Have you ever been impatient? Impatience … let us count the ways:

Flight delays
Slow drivers
Waiting at the doctor’s office
Long grocery lines
You are or someone else is late
Traffic jams
He/she/they doesn’t stop talking
Fill in the blank ________

We often become impatient because of personal hardships/pain or because of the actions/behavior of others.

When impatience arises and we feel the bodily sensations of anger, annoyance, irritation, frustration, the practice is to recognize the contractions, pause, take a deep breath, and drop into our heart space, our Clear Deep Heart Mind. From our compassionate hearts, we then need to remember the teachings of radical acceptance – this is the way things are; this is the way this person is. It can be no other than this.

With this clarity of mind, we can now open our hearts and minds to others, realizing our interconnection and responding with compassionate action:

No matter how much I tailgate this slow driver in the left lane,
he is not going any faster, and I will be LATE!
* How will you respond? *

We respond skillfully and wisely to the hardships and pain we encounter:

You receive difficult health news, a relationship ends, you have lost your job…
* How will you take your seat? *

This is Kshanti, the process of patience, forbearance, and endurance. Wanting things/people to be different than they are only leads to suffering. With the discipline of our practice, we can resolve to face our personal challenges with equanimity, to face our pain with resilience and fearlessness, to meet all beings with kindness … patiently, just as they are.

Shantideva, in The Way of the Bodhisattva, says this on the perfection of Kshanti:

“…come what may, I’ll never harm
My cheerful happiness of mind.
Depression never brings me what I want;
My virtue will be warped and marred by it.
If there is a remedy when trouble strikes,
What reason is there for despondency?
And if there is no help for it,
What use is there in being sad?”

Your wait time is now 16 kalpas….