Talk On Patience

Nothing can be accomplished without patience. It is the foundation of self-transformative, success, and happiness. In this talk, Guo Gu discusses three levels of patience from the Mahayan and Chan Buddhist perspective that can be applied to both beginners and advanced practitioners.

Transcript

I need more patience.

Sometimes we think of practice of meditation in a narrow way as building concentration,

Developing clarity of mind,

And that's what we consider practice.

But practice is much more nuanced and extends to all aspects of our life.

If you think practice of meditation is simply developing concentration,

Clarity of mind,

Then actually your practice probably will not go any deeper than an occasional feeling of peace,

An occasional feeling of clarity.

We're very complex beings with continual tones of emotions and moods,

Feelings,

And perceptions that are continually shaping our experience,

Life.

And just developing concentration,

Clarity,

Is not enough.

It's not only not enough in order to develop concentration and clarity.

We need to cultivate other aspects in the whole variety,

A whole repertoire of Buddhist practices that target these subtle moods and emotions and thoughts and perception.

It is these mental factors that are actually shaping our lives from moment to moment.

So as meditators in the West,

People may be attracted to meditation,

Cultivation of concentration,

Clarity,

But as we explore more,

We begin to discover a whole range of practices.

And Chan,

Zen,

Tradition is not excluded from this range,

This rich repertoire of practices,

One of which is patience.

In the Buddhist teaching scriptures,

There are analogies,

Metaphors,

Stories,

And formal teachings on patience.

So it's pretty pervasive in the Buddhist text.

And each text would categorize patience,

Talk about patience in different contexts.

Sometimes it's placed within the context,

Say,

The consciousness only tradition,

Yogyakuchara school,

Within the context of mental factors,

Implicitly,

Not directly.

In that context,

It's related to one of the eleven wholesome factors,

Non-hatred.

Non-hatred,

The absence of hatred as a mental positive factor,

Generates patience.

So it's not singled out.

Sometime in another context of the six perfections,

Six practices of a bodhisattva,

It is singled out as an explicit practice of patience.

The first one being generosity,

Precepts,

And then third one is patience.

And then you have diligence,

Meditation,

Concentration,

And wisdom.

In other contexts,

It is spoken about in teaching through stories.

Jataka tales,

Former lives of the Buddha,

And also stories of bodhisattvas,

The avadanas,

Or Buddhist disciples,

Teaching on patience.

So,

Pretty pervasive.

Generally speaking,

Buddhism talked about two or three categories of patience,

Two or three rubrics for patience.

And this can be found in both early Buddhist teachings and also later teachings.

The two rubrics are worldly patience and world-transcending patience.

Under worldly patience and world-transcending patience,

You can split these two into three.

So worldly teachings on patience is patience on patience for people,

Sentient beings,

Including ourselves.

How many of you have no patience for yourself?

Sometimes we don't have patience for ourselves.

So,

Ourselves are included in sentient beings.

Another category is,

This is,

Sounds funny,

But if you reflect on your life,

We all do this.

And that is patience on inanimate objects.

Just think of the table when you ran your foot into the table,

Think of the chair,

You know,

Or think of the weather,

You know,

Inanimate.

So this would be considered.

And that category includes weather,

Which is very big.

That includes calamities and disaster.

Of course,

Also objects,

Inanimate phenomena.

So both of these are very wide-reaching.

They encompass a lot of scenarios that we will talk about.

The third one is the highest type of patience.

Patience in Buddha Dharma.

Patience in the Dharma.

And in the stages of practice of the early teachings,

It's placed second to the last stages for liberation.

There are last four stages.

If I'm going to cultivate,

The early Buddhist teachings talk about four noble truths.

Each noble truth can be cultivated from four perspectives.

So together they are called the 16 victories.

Using the analogy of battle to win liberation.

And at the 16th level,

There are four stages beyond.

Altogether,

20.

The first one is warm,

Or sometimes translated as warmer.

Like you're getting close.

The second one,

It's peak.

Of course,

There are two more,

So you're not really at the peak.

The third one is pacified patience.

Patience,

Essentially,

In the Dharma.

Last one is world supreme.

The world supreme is the stage right before liberation.

From samsara.

So 16 victories plus these last four stages.

They are embodied in seven different Abhidharma texts,

And also sporadically in different scriptures.

In the Mahayana tradition,

The six perfections that I spoke about.

Patience being number three.

It's essential to becoming liberated.

To be awakened.

Essential.

A person who has no patience for himself or herself cannot practice.

He cannot develop concentration.

Because if you see concentration as the attaining concentration,

As some sort of success,

Progress,

Marker,

Benchmarker,

The ingredients of that success is continual failure.

Continual frustration.

Distraction.

So if you don't have the ingredient of patience,

You can't practice.

So sometimes,

For most practitioners,

After a year of practice,

Two years,

Maybe five years,

They wonder why.

They wonder why,

You know,

I practice every day,

I sit,

And I still have a lot of wondering thoughts.

That's a common question,

Right?

Because they're focusing on a very narrow definition of practice.

And us human beings are very complicated.

One little tiny method,

Working with the breath,

Is not going to overcome all the habit tendencies,

Deep rooted patterns,

Negativities.

It may be helpful on an intense retreat in which you're,

You know,

Deprived of life obstacles,

Bills to pay,

Difficult people.

In an isolated,

Simplified space,

You make progress very quickly.

But that kind of progress is not permanent.

That kind of progress is kind of laboratory progress.

It hasn't really been placed,

You haven't really placed yourself in the complexity of life.

So those of you who've done retreats,

Seven day retreats,

You know.

How long does it last after the retreat until you back to the familiar self?

How many?

How many of you have done seven day retreats?

Raise your hand.

Danny?

The longest three days?

Okay,

You gotta do more retreats.

Sometimes three days,

You know.

A week,

Maybe?

A month?

Sometimes it lasts longer.

More relaxed attitude?

Possibly.

Possibly.

Possibly.

Possibly.

It's incremental.

When I say possibly,

Shifting attitude towards yourself is you have that experience during retreats and it lasts for some time.

After that time,

It becomes a memory.

And it becomes a view.

It's no longer experience.

It's a view,

It's an idea.

Like,

Yes I should be more patient.

This is what I know.

I've had some personal experience.

But patience needs to be cultivated.

Explicitly.

Under what circumstances?

Guess.

Under difficult circumstances.

With difficult people.

Difficult.

Difficulty.

Adversity.

So very first attitude we should have very first view we should have and we'll try to cultivate the attitude.

The very first view we should have is how should we cultivate patience?

How can we cultivate patience under difficult situations or with difficult people?

Have gratitude.

Gratitude.

Only with gratitude,

A change in your understanding of the importance of patience.

Because without patience,

We cannot accomplish anything.

Worldly or world transcending.

If we cannot have a way to you know,

You may call it cope,

But I don't really like to use this word.

It's too passive.

If we don't have a way to handle or if we don't have a way to actively cultivate patience,

Then we will not be able to get the job that we want.

Stay in the relationship that we want.

Finish a project that we want,

That we have to.

It's extremely important.

The opposite of which is anger.

It is the opposite of anger,

The opposite of patience.

It's hatred,

Anger.

It derives from that.

It's kind of a splinter fixation.

By anger,

I don't mean becoming irate necessarily,

But kind of resistance,

Resentment,

Oppositional attitude.

That's derivative of anger.

Our need to control things the way that we want and including people.

When we encounter things that don't go our way,

Situations that don't go our way,

That's resentment,

Anger,

Agitation.

So must cultivate patience.

Now back to the categories.

When we talk about patience with sentient beings,

It includes primarily people,

But it includes also animals,

Pets.

Sentient beings,

Ourselves,

And others.

We cannot have patience with others if we don't have patience with ourselves.

You cannot have patience with yourself if you don't learn to face yourself.

You cannot leap into exploring who you are.

Your own habits,

Your own patterns.

Without doing this work,

It's very hard to have patience for other people because you will not have sympathy with others.

If we don't know our own kind of habit,

Tendency,

Of wishing to control things and we get frustrated with ourselves for not being able to complete a project,

Put together something,

Meeting difficulties,

Failures,

Which by the way again are ingredients to success,

Keep on going,

Keep on going,

Keep on going.

You will not discover your own patterns and you will not discover resources that you have.

Resources to overcome.

And you will not be able to relate to other people when you see that they are having difficult times.

All you see will be they are blocking me.

He or she or it.

Does that make sense?

And the best way to understand yourself is to use the Dharma,

Use the teachings on yourself.

And not use it to measure other people.

Use the teaching on yourself.

We don't live in isolated environment.

We're always in contact with people.

But our own resistances,

Our own frustration,

Stress,

Our own anxiety,

That's the time to use Buddha Dharma on ourselves.

To understand.

Even though our frustrations,

Difficulties we encounter come from interaction with others,

It's indispensable.

Like I said,

You learn patience by meeting difficult people,

Difficult situations.

But first step is to not to use,

You don't use the concept to replace your frustration.

Concepts like oh,

Buddhism says we should be more patient.

So let me be more patient with this person.

That doesn't work.

You have to turn the light around.

You have to explore deep within yourself our own resistances and learn to resolve that.

Most time when we encounter difficulties,

It's because views are different with people.

Opinions are different.

So in those situations you have to change your mind.

You have to change your mind.

It's what I want to teach you.

Showing the light of your awareness inward and examine this view.

Which is just one perspective.

It's one perspective among many.

Other people have their own perspective.

You can't really examine it when you're in the heat of the moment.

Because a view is always accompanied with emotions.

And it's not divorced from our biological functions.

So stressful moments.

.

.

Danny,

You want something to drink?

It's not warm.

Views are always accompanied by physiological,

Corporeal reactions.

So you have to use buddhadharma.

You have to use buddhadharma.

Telling yourself,

Some of you,

It's not going to help at all.

You have to practice,

For example,

What we do in the beginning of each period of sitting,

Which is progressive relaxation.

Progressive relaxation.

You have to pacify the stress hormones that are already flushed out through your body,

Getting you ready for fight or flight.

You should maybe give one to Danny.

Muffle the sound of your cough.

You have to do that.

Otherwise,

Your body is already primed for anger,

Primed for frustrations.

Tell yourself,

Change your view,

Change your perspective,

Try to examine yourself.

It's not going to be able to do it.

So the things that we learn in sitting meditation must be applied to daily life.

The progressive relaxation,

You have to kind of master it.

You have to master it.

So you short circuit the mechanism,

Physiological mechanism,

That is happening when we are frustrated,

Angst,

Impatient.

Otherwise,

What kicks in is either the physiological mechanism,

Stress hormones,

Fight or flight,

This defense mechanism,

Which is related to the self-referential defense mechanism of our own vexations,

The seed of anger and the self-referential defense mechanism.

Does that make sense?

That's the default.

Do you all realize this?

That's the default mode that we behave and carry ourselves in daily life.

Without practice,

The default mechanism is ignorance.

That's it.

From these three poisons,

Manifests a whole host of vexations.

So you understand the gravity of this.

You may think you are justified.

A lot of people were justified to be anger.

But the situation is still you're vexed.

You may be justified externally by criteria,

But you're still vexed.

And the first person who is harmed is yourself.

It's yourself.

In what way you are perpetuating the seeds of anger?

You're allowing it flow freely.

You're not giving yourself any agency.

You're actually like a puppet on strings.

Whatever the situation you meet,

If it's favorable,

You become more happy.

When the situation is bad,

You become more sad and feel obstructed.

You have no agency.

You may think you have your own feelings,

You have your own autonomy,

But actually,

We don't.

It's this complex chemical,

Habitual,

Emotional pattern that's riding it out.

Does that make sense?

So we actually don't have choices.

If you really have choices,

You can stop the anger.

If you think you're the master of yourself,

You can see through the mechanism and be able to transform it.

That's autonomy.

With ourselves,

We have to begin with ourselves.

That's why the Buddha said when we encounter difficulties in life,

In our practice,

We have to begin with ourselves.

It's not to be passive.

It doesn't mean there's no external criteria.

The situation doesn't justify angry behavior.

But the angry behavior cannot come from vexations.

There's a distinction.

It doesn't mean we cannot be angry.

That's strange.

So we can be angry,

But how?

In what way?

I remember when I was in college I lived above a monastery in New York.

And the abbot,

Master Shouye,

Eminent monk,

He was an ascetic.

He was known as an ascetic.

Every day,

We were in Chinatown.

The first floor is the temple.

The door is open to all.

Every day around a certain time there would be a Romanian big middle-aged man who would come in and just wreck havoc.

Throw the altar fruit around and just talking to himself,

Running around,

Harassing the people.

Basically,

He's innocuous.

He's not harmful.

But he has some mental disabilities.

So he talks to himself and he just gets angry,

A lot.

Usually the time that he comes is when Master Shouye is taking a nap.

So you usually don't encounter him.

And we,

At the door,

He says,

Here comes,

Put away the fruit,

Hurry.

Basically in the middle of the day,

After lunch,

He would come in.

Until one time the abbot stayed behind at the lunch.

He was talking to some person.

The abbot is like 6'1".

He was 80 years old at the time.

This was in the 80s,

Late 80s.

A six-foot Chinese is usually,

In that generation,

In his generation,

Is rare.

So he was a big guy.

He weighed about maybe 230,

250.

He's a big guy.

Okay.

Mike,

How much do you weigh?

190.

So he's about maybe 230.

230.

He's walking with a cane.

He sees this.

Every time he sees it,

What's going on?

And we tell him,

So he's watching this Romanian big guy running around the temple the first floor,

Filming stuff.

He has this,

Actually Master,

He comes every day,

Or almost every day,

And he does this.

He picks up his cane.

My jaw is just dropped.

I've never seen the Master so angry.

He was like a wrathful deity,

Like those wrathful Tibetan form of divinity.

He just picked up his stick and chased after him in the Buddha Hall with his cane speaking Chinese.

And the Romanian guy doesn't know Chinese,

But when you see an old man with a cane chasing after you,

Screaming Chinese,

You are fearful.

Maybe he knows Shaolin Kung Fu or something.

That's all that bit.

Coming after him.

And he was so scared.

I've never seen that man become scared.

And that's when I know maybe he's missing half a screw,

Not a complete screw,

Because he actually recognizes danger when he sees it.

He recognizes and he knows what's going on.

He's just maybe taking advantage of us.

Vent out whatever is going on with him.

He escapes through the front door and all of us are just shocked.

We've never seen the Master that angry before.

He just exploded.

And as soon as he walked out,

The Master put down the cane,

Started smiling like,

He just left.

Meanwhile,

Our jaws are still dropped like,

What just happened?

Is he angry?

Is he not angry?

What's going on?

No anger inside him.

But the situation calls for anger.

You can't negotiate with him.

We've been negotiating for,

At least when I was there,

A couple years,

Okay,

Don't do this,

Take some oranges,

Go.

Did he ever come back?

Oh,

He came back.

But he came back with caution.

He came back,

Looked around,

And see if the abbot is there.

We were going to say,

I'm going to call the abbot.

Take off.

But when we try to do it,

There's still residue of anger.

After he goes to get ourselves all riled up,

We're going to call the police.

He goes,

We're still like,

I'm going to show him.

It's the seed of anger.

Once you begin it,

It's flushed through the stress hormone.

You can't stop it.

It's physiological now.

It's physiological.

Your mind may be full of compassion in the beginning,

But once it's physiological,

It takes over.

So,

Before we can practice patience with others,

While manifesting what seem to be impatience,

Anger,

We have to master the progressive relaxation.

You have to have some emoticum of control of your bodily response.

And our bodily response is like muscle memory.

It's like muscle memory.

When we see certain situations,

See certain people,

It seems like we don't even have to think.

We are prepared.

And in order to be to have some mastery,

To cultivate this,

Relax,

That means most of the day you have to be relaxed.

Most of the day you have to be relaxed.

Most of the time,

Throughout the day,

You have to be relaxed.

You have to learn to relax.

So,

You don't.

.

.

So when frustrating situations come,

It's less likely to manifest.

For example,

I teach the one minute Zen.

How many of you practice this?

Raise your hand.

Not enough.

How many of you do not really practice it,

But have heard me say it?

Don't practice it,

But heard me say it.

Raise your hand.

Those of you who never heard this,

Raise your hand.

Okay.

Every day,

You pick five times or five situations,

Scenarios,

Whether it is ten o'clock,

Twelve o'clock,

Three o'clock,

Seven o'clock,

Or situations.

Same flight of stairs,

Same stretch of walk that you do,

Same bite of lunch that you take,

The first bite,

Just for the first minute throughout the day,

The same period,

Or the same situations routinely that you do.

In other words,

You don't add more obligation or practice on top of your busy schedule.

These are things that you already do.

Brush your teeth.

Five things throughout the day.

For that one minute,

You practice progressive relaxation.

You prime yourself for clarity,

For focus.

Practice relaxation along with the task at hand that you do.

Going down flight of stairs,

The task at hand is be mindful of your steps.

The first bite of lunch,

Be mindful of taste and chewing.

You have to do this and put aside whatever twenty thousand things that you happen to be doing.

Just do one for that one minute.

And these five situations where times will begin to expand,

Extend to other areas of life.

You have to do it.

Do you think you can have you can all do this?

This is the way to incorporate the practice of Dharma.

It's not the cushions.

You have to do this and when situations come you may have a chance of remembering to relax your body.

If you don't practice this,

Just rely on once a week,

Practice sitting or something.

You have to integrate into your life everyday actions in your life.

And then when you face difficult situations for people,

First step is what?

Face yourself.

Examine.

In order to examine,

You have to be relaxed.

In order to relax,

You have to have a habit of relaxing,

Of gaining some mastery to doing this.

In order to do that,

You got to do the one minute Zen.

Now,

Forward,

Press forward.

Examine yourself.

You have to cultivate gratitude.

Like I said,

Right?

Gratitude.

Then you'll have patience.

Gratitude for whatever situation that you have that's within you,

That's coming up.

Never never be impatient with your vexations.

Should I repeat it again?

Never be impatient with your vexations.

Some people think,

Oh I can be patient with others,

I can be nice,

I can send loving kindness to other people,

I can't send loving kindness to myself.

I don't have patience for myself.

I don't like myself.

Then that kind of loving kindness is false.

It's superficial.

So you have to never be impatient with your own vexations.

You don't want to celebrate your vexations.

That's not what I'm advertising.

Never be impatient.

What should we have then?

How should we reflect and examine?

You have to cultivate this.

Gratitude.

Thank you.

Another opportunity for me to practice patience.

Only then will you have a clear head to see what's happening.

Only then will you be able to recognize patterns.

Otherwise you will just be suppressing or glossing over whatever negative emotion you have.

And you will,

After 5 years,

1 year,

3 years,

5 years,

10 years,

You'll be the same person.

You may have some mastery over concentration but it's always impermanent.

And actually you have no idea why sometimes,

This is a litmus test,

You have no idea why sometimes you sit very well and sometimes you don't.

You have no control over that.

It seems like random,

Seems like chance.

That's because you don't know all the subtle emotions,

Perceptions,

Moods that's actually shaping your experience.

You're not trained to do that.

You're just trained to do your little concentration on your breath.

Or your little clarity.

You have no idea how complex we are as beings.

The subtle emotions that's shaping your perception now,

Residue from today,

Your busy day,

During the day,

Leaving imprints on your meditation just now before the Dharma talk.

You don't even know what's going on.

So it's like a blind cat catching a mouse.

And that mouse is a blissful state of meditation.

And you think you get it.

It's like,

Oh my god,

It's totally not of your own accomplishment.

It's just chance.

It just so happens that maybe you were in a good mood before or some thought pattern triggered you to be relaxed about it.

No mastery.

So the more we explore into meditation,

The more we explore,

In other words,

To ourselves our path is ourself.

It's not in books,

It's not in instruction manuals.

In ourselves,

In our interaction with others,

We will be able to discover our path will be able to unfold.

What needs to be done will unfold.

Does that make sense?

So gratitude.

Never be impatient.

If you cultivate this,

You will definitely be sympathetic to other people.

Just as I am impatient and difficult,

A difficult person,

Perhaps,

I project a lot of things on other people,

So is this person doing it now.

So you have more understanding.

Otherwise,

The Dharma will always be external to you.

Practice is like a hobby.

Not really taking effect.

Awakening,

Forget about it.

So,

Only when we integrate Dharma.

So when the Buddhist teaching talks about the six perfections or the mental factors in the yoga chara or in other contexts of the Jaka tales,

The tales of the bodhisattvas in the avadana tales and stories,

They are prescriptions of and prescriptions for practice.

There are models to integrate in your own life.

It's not to be read about.

Have to integrate Dharma.

So the perspective,

For example,

On generosity,

Precepts,

Patience,

Diligence,

Learning to concentrate despite distractions in life,

And wisdom,

Selflessness,

Taking yourself out of situations.

These six perfections are meant to be perfected in daily life.

They're meant to be used.

They're meant to be practiced.

Integrated.

They are angles,

Six different angles,

Entry point or gateways to enter into the realm of the Dharma.

They are doors.

So you can't stand outside the door patching gold,

Make the door look very beautiful.

You have to open the door,

Use it,

Struggle with how to open it,

Because it's locked.

You have to fiddle with it,

How to open it.

Does that make sense?

The more people you encounter,

The more situations you find yourself,

The better.

Then we can talk about practice.

Does that make sense?

And our task as Bodhisattva practitioners is to expose ourselves to as many situations as possible.

Once we get the hang of,

We have some a modicum of mastery over ourselves,

Then we see the hidden seeds of anger,

Frustration.

Learn to work with it.

Learn to work with others.

Okay,

So that's how to work with other people.

As for inanimate objects,

That includes patients for calamities,

Disasters,

Objects.

The table that you bump into by accident.

Or an object that you trip over,

But you left it out in the middle of the road yourself.

Or in your own living room.

The other day,

I hit my toe against the edge of a chair.

We're not used to having that chair.

Because our chair used to be kind of straight legs.

But we got this new chair that fanned out on an angle.

So my habit of walking next to it is not used to this thing that's in there.

But I'm the one who bought it.

So,

Hit it.

Very hard.

I was bleeding.

But when I hit it,

I was like,

Gosh!

Right after that,

I had a bitter smile.

I had a short circuit.

A progressive relaxation.

Short circuit.

But many of us do this you know.

We're wire,

We're hard wire to do this.

Our defense mechanism.

Hard wire.

We're angry with objects all the time.

We like to blame it on other people.

Don't we?

But very often we stumble on the things that we create.

Ourselves.

Animate or inanimate.

We set in motion things.

If we have clarity,

We will begin to recognize that.

But in order to gain clarity you gotta learn how to short circuit defense mechanism.

Stress mechanism.

Which comes down to practicing being relaxed in daily life.

Five times a day.

Each time one minute.

One minute's in.

The most difficult part is patience in the Dharma.

And this is whatever kind of scheme for spiritual practice within Buddhism,

It's pretty up there.

Whether in early Buddhism,

I spoke about the four last stages or in the Mahayana tradition.

The meaning of patience in the Dharma is emptiness.

Our deepest resistance to self grasping.

That's the meaning of patience in the Dharma.

And in the Bodhisattva stages of practice,

You know,

In the early Buddhist teachings,

The four liberation,

Full liberation,

Which is arhat hood.

Okay.

I'm not talking about stream mentor.

Full liberation,

Arhat hood.

It's the third to the last fourth.

In the Mahayana scheme,

It's the eighth boomi,

The eighth ground.

The stage of patience,

Endurance,

Of non arising,

It's called.

Being born.

What is that?

Sounds very fancy,

But it means no birth,

No death.

No self grasping.

And shy of this,

There are many different stages.

And there are many different manifestations of self grasping.

Many,

Many,

Many stages of self grasping.

For a person who have seen the path,

Still,

Many,

Many,

Many stages.

In the,

I'll just give you one example.

In one scholastic tradition,

Doctrinal tradition within Buddhism,

It's called Tiantai.

In the Tiantai scheme of practice,

They have something called the ten contemplations.

The eighth contemplation is patience.

And this practice,

Essentially,

Is practice of discouraging the teaching of Buddha Dharma.

What?

Discouraging the sharing of Buddha Dharma?

Yeah.

Even our compassion?

Yes.

That's what it calls patience.

Why?

Because as soon,

The text says,

As soon as sentient beings discover that you know Buddha Dharma and you are their teacher,

That you are worthy of being a teacher,

For most sentient beings,

Their practice,

That's where they stop.

As soon as you're discovered,

People will start gathering around you.

And you will be pushed to become a teacher of Dharma.

Once you assume the role of being a teacher,

It's very difficult,

Unless you are very skilled and very careful,

Because the opportunity of self grasping manifests all the time.

The Tiantai is talking about Bodhisattva practice,

And what it suggests instead,

A lot of people now,

I'm practicing the Dharma so I can become a teacher.

When can I become a teacher?

When can I give Dharma talk?

What it advocates is,

And this is after the experience of seeing self nature,

Meaning after you experience emptiness,

After a long time,

Maybe you arrive at the 8th stage of contemplation,

Maybe.

What it advocates is,

Hide,

Move away,

Act like an idiot.

That's the application.

Go to somewhere,

Move to somewhere where no one recognizes you.

Someone,

And it gives an example,

A Dharma teacher is speaking to Dharma and says something that's maybe inappropriate,

And in a Q&A,

Maybe you raise a question indirectly,

That's very insightful,

And everyone goes,

Oh,

What did I just say?

At that time,

Act like an idiot.

Act like a fool.

So I just said that,

I don't know what I'm talking about.

Soon as you discover people are having eyes on you,

Looking at you,

That's what you should do.

Now you may be wondering,

What the hell is Gua Gu sitting up there?

Do you know what I do?

I repent.

You see,

Every time you see me doing prostrations,

Whenever you see me doing prostrations,

I'm repenting.

I'm doing this out of,

There's no other way.

And out of gratitude for my teacher.

I don't want to be a Dharma teacher.

And after this talk,

You will also see me repenting.

And after I speak any Dharma,

I'm repenting.

Lest I don't repent.

I don't want to be a Dharma teacher.

Lest the culprit comes out.

In any shape or form.

So,

Have to do that.

So,

Like I said,

In the Yogachara class,

There are two things that's very important for a practitioner.

Besides patience and so on,

Humility,

Gratitude.

Do you remember which two?

It keeps the practitioner in check.

Great diligence.

Remember?

Great diligence.

See?

Teacher had to be patient.

They teach this again.

That's another thing about teachers.

They had to be patient.

They teach this again and again.

And yet students don't remember.

They don't remember.

So,

Patience and sense of shame.

Which is humility.

It's not the Judeo-Christian guilt shame.

This is one is diligence,

Advanced forward.

Another one guards virtue.

Like a cup.

Make sure it has no holes on the bottom.

Remember that analogy?

Make sure there are no cracks.

Any good thing you put in this cup,

You got to make sure you contain it.

Any good teachings that we receive,

We have to make sure we retain it.

Reflecting.

Remember it.

If you don't remember it,

How can we practice it?

Right?

Difficult to practice.

Capiche?

So,

And great diligence.

So,

Patience.

These other two are also angles to ensure practice.

So,

Patience in the Dharma means cultivating the ultimate patience in selflessness.

Let the culprit manifest.

And it manifests all the time.

All the time.

Even for practitioners who have receiving sanction from whatever lineage,

Receiving Inca,

Witnessing self-nature multiple times.

Humility.

Patience.

And guarded with diligence and humility.

If a practitioner wants to go beyond to the ninth stage in the tenfold contemplations,

In the ten-tie stages of practice,

Ultimately,

I mean,

They already have practiced beyond,

You know,

Being frustrated by external people,

Situations,

And that's way,

Way beyond that.

They've seen self-nature.

They've seen emptiness.

In order to go beyond that,

Three things.

Not that I'm advocating,

I'm just pointing out so you know what the lay of the land is.

One,

Hide.

Two,

Act foolish.

Three,

Move away.

Avoid teaching.

That's the warning.

That's the warning.

That should be the warning for all teachers.

That's patience in dharma.

Then a practitioner can advance forward.

Let alone people that have not seen self-nature.

Self-grasping is pervasive.

But,

You know,

Clouded by vexations.

But the principle of practice is what?

Never be impatient with our own vexations.

Start with yourself.

Face it.

Expose it.

Embrace it.

Accept.

And then work with it.

Some people practice like this.

They hate vexations,

Wandering thought,

And they want to go after blissful,

Pleasant situations.

And they really get on themselves when they don't practice well.

Maybe they come to me,

Maybe the method is not good,

Maybe I should change the method of practice.

Do you have a better one up your sleeve?

Or this and that?

Or they toy with the method of practice for some time?

I hope the practice will stay with all of you for the rest of your life.

For the rest of your life.

This is the only way that we can fully manifest ourselves as humans.

Our full human potential of wisdom and compassion.

We didn't even get to wisdom and compassion yet.

It's patience.

Patience.

There are three types of patience.

First two of which is worldly.

Third one is world transcending.

First one,

With sentient beings.

Second one,

With inanimate objects or situations.

Third,

In the Dharma.

Any questions?

Don't be discouraged.

Does that sound difficult?

Remember my other teaching.

It's all good.

I.

A.

G.

It's all good.

With this attitude,

Persist.

Diligence.

You mentioned blame and responsibility.

Like accepting responsibility as opposed to blame.

Blame.

I thought you said lame.

Oh no.

Every situation we meet,

Every vexations we have is wholly ours.

To be able to take responsibility and recognize that.

It doesn't mean external environment doesn't provide the opportunity for us to give rise to vexation.

It doesn't mean that.

But the very fact that we generate vexations,

We have to own it.

It's us.

If we do not have the seed of anger,

It doesn't matter what the external environment provokes in us,

It's impossible to generate anger.

Does that make sense?

If we don't have the seeds of covetousness,

Greed,

It's impossible to generate greed.

The mental subtle continuum that shapes our everyday experience,

That's pervasive,

Hidden for the most part.

To us,

The first step is expose.

Accept.

Work through.

Let go.

Four steps.

That's the work.

So blaming others is not taking responsibility.

This is subjectively.

External environment we should always try to change the better.

Change the external environment for the better.

Does that make sense?

When my teacher,

For example,

Really moved me,

When my teacher one time witnessed this,

His disciples were at the breakfast table,

Was arguing about some peanut butter or jam,

Something like should leave the cap open or off for the person who prepares the breakfast.

Small thing,

Arguing right in front of him.

And my teacher slammed the table.

Because they were just on it,

They couldn't see anymore.

So manifest anger.

And then he smiled.

And then what he did was I have no virtue,

I'm sorry.

I have no virtue to change your behavior.

And you guys are monastics.

I have no virtue to be a teacher.

And then those two,

They were arguing and then he tears,

Come down.

He took responsibility.

Once a teacher accepts a student,

A teacher doesn't really accept it.

Generally they don't accept students,

That should be the rule.

If they accept students,

They take responsibility.

To continue Buddha Dharma,

The transmission of Buddha Dharma.

That becomes the task.

So.

.

.

Okay?

Any other questions?

You mentioned that patience is non-hatred.

Does that mean then that patience is the opposite of rejection or grasping?

Rejection,

Yes.

Rejection,

Resistance,

Opposition.

Opposition.

That's a form of anger.

So non-hatred or non-anger is considered a virtue in terms of Buddhist psychology.

So it needs to be singled out.

But of course aversion is related to greed.

It's related.

But it's strong enough,

Sufficient enough to be singled out as uniquely as one mental factor.

So we should treat it as such.

Otherwise everything will be related.

It's all a blurry thing,

Like everything is related to everything else.

We wouldn't have a focal point.

The mental factors,

The six perfections,

All the Jalaka-tel,

What they provide is models of models for.

In other words,

They are signposts.

Of course the original mind ground,

The original territory of our true nature is without signs.

There are no signposts.

It's originally free.

But people are vexed.

So you put signposts.

Does that make sense?

There are distinct qualities that need to be,

That hinder,

Obstructs practitioners.

In other words,

Practitioners should be mindful of.

Okay?

Thank you.

Reviews

Dear teacher Guo,
Thank you very much. I listened to this talk about a month ago and it really hit me in the right time. I tried the patience practice with myself using the one minute Zen, and it really made a papable shift in me. I feel more joy in my heart ❤️

This dhamma talk genuinely helped me to understand the cultivation of patience and which tools to use/when. So many great tips! I feel inspired and I am looking forward to every opportunity to experience each hinderance with an open sense of being. It is simply more fertilizer for the garden of my heart. Having patience for myself and employing the “one minute zen” technique in my routine will be a wonderful addition to my tool belt throughout the day. Many blessings to you and the Sangha! Boundless Metta!

I enjoyed listening to this talk, end it allow me the opportunity to view my current life through a new set of eyes.

Guo Gu, this is a very helpful talk and I will return to it again. This will be my current practice.
Thank you for helping me understand how to proceed.

That was astonishing! WOW! Every word, every line resonated with me deeply. I’ve been asking to show more patience to others in my meditation practice (I’m a beginner to this). I now realise I need to start with showing more patience to myself and to notice my vexations and what is truest in those moments for m. Thank you for my next steps along this journey. WOW -
I think I’m in love - but I know it’s self grasping Namaste 🙏

Thank you, Guo Gu! Excellent talk! I feel that if I could follow your suggestions, I might make progress in containing anger or even disolve it. I did not connect that clearly before patience with anger. 🙏🏽

A wide-ranging survey of patience in the dharma. Thank you!

Very helpful talk on Patience - for ourselves, for others, and developing world transcending patience.

This talk was helpful in teaching how to understand patience and how to cultivate it. Very interesting in relation to Buddhism and dharma.
Thank You and Namaste 🙏🏻 🌷

Thank you!! So helpful!

Thank you for this dialogue; everyday I practice patience to invite gratitude and wisdom into my life.
This practice has lead me along many paths and I am thankful; the struggle is real - I’m alive with lessons.

I have listened to this on several occasions. It's a great talk, from a great teacher. Clear instruction, funny and touching. I have difficult situations at work at the moment and needed reminding of the importance of patience. Eternally grateful. Thankyou.
🙇🏼‍♀️🌻⚙💖😊

Good teaching, with practical examples, and with a keen sense of humor.

Very interesting

Insightful Dharma

An intro for me - will listen again (and again). Thank you.

In recent days, I started to feel restless with my now-daily meditation practice. I recognised that my regular mindful practice has helped me to start noticing certain mind illusions, yet I also felt "stuck" and unable to proceed. The stillness of certain sittings still percolates an otherwise seemingly random & unfocused overall experience.This talk has empowered me with further understanding in order to deepen & integrate my practice into my life. Thank you! I am grateful for your teaching.

Excellent. Very Helpful. Thank you.

What a wonderful and insightful talk. I will have to put this 'One Minute Zen' to the test.

Thank you.
Namaste.

This talk was exactly what I needed and Guo Gu is masterful at explaining how to achieve patience. I am so grateful for this much needed lesson this morning.