Thoughts on the The Perfection of Patience chapter from The World Could be Otherwise, by Norman Fischer.

Preview on Google Books. Click the Front Cover button, then click The Perfection of Patience

Frodo sighs “I wish it need not have happened in my time.” Gandalf nods, and then drops this wisdom: “So do I. And so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

The Most Fruitful Times

From Norman Fischer's book on the boddhisattva path:

Difficult times are the most fruitful times for spiritual practice because they are exactly when the practice of patience comes into play. When things get tough you should intensify rather than set aside your practice...With the practice of patience, we train ourselves...to turn toward the difficulty and embrace it as an ally.

What comes up when you hear "practice"?

First Practice: Sit in meditation

How many of us have a regular practice?

What comes up when you hear "do you have a regular practice?" :-)

If you don't have time to sit for 15 minutes, sit for 30.

I meditate the least when I need it the most!

Second Practice: Turn toward the suffering

What do you feel or think of when you hear the word "patience"?

Santideva:

If you can find a solution, what's the point of getting upset. If you can't find a solution, what's the point of getting upset?

But of course we do get upset!

Sticks and stones....names will never hurt. But...they do.

We tend to avoid feeling any suffering - how?

• Repress
• Blame
• Numb out

Instead: Turn toward it, locate it, feel it in the body.

Third practice: Expand the suffering

Guided expansion from self to local to province to country to continent:

• Take a few deep breathd, settle in
• Identify a (manageable & small) sadness, frustration, pain
• What does it feel like? Colour? Temperature? Texture?
• Now expand out one step at a time, each time asking, "How many people feel this same pain right now?" and feeling the answer:
  • Your neighbourhood
  • Your town or city
  • Your province or state
  • Your country
  • Your continent

From a few to hundreds, thousands, millions.

Why: it isn't your pain, it's the pain. Human pain.

How does this leap, shift in perspective, from my pain to the pain happen?

All maple tree leaves turn colour in the fall, but that change doesn't belong to any one leaf. It is just part of what it means to be a maple leaf. Our suffering is the same, not ours but an inseparable part of what it means to be human.

The three marks of existence (suffering, impermanance, Non-Self); there's a reason they aren't the three marks of being you (or me).

We are human, in this together, not alone. Our shared suffering is a way to more clearly see that.

Fourth practice: Gathas

Dogen, the founder of Soto Zen (paraphrased by Fischer):

Always do beneficial actions for others, using whatever skillful means are at hand...The are acts of oneness, they always benefit self as well as others, because there is no difference between self and other.

Fischer:

The practice of patience amounts to "just keep going".

A gatha a short verse to call ourselves to the present moment. Join the breath, the mind, and the activity of the body. So a gatha you can use:

Just keep going. Be of benefit to others.

Insights from the Group

Thich Nhat Hanh said, "The next buddha will be a sangha". We could say the next entity that inspires and moves the spiritual life forward will be a team, not a person. A network, not an individual. In that spirit, here are home insights that came up during the evening:

• The gift of Pema Chodron's teachings on going into the body to uncover deeper layers of what the suffering is actually about
• The word "patience" can come across like an order, command, or judgement.
• How patience can mean "to allow", to make space for what is.
• How patience can be felt as a softening, a letting go or relaxing.
• Pondering the role of patience in the meditative/mindfulness path.
• That the shared feeling of suffering, when noticing its roots in systemic oppression, may generate even greater pain.
• That resistance can come up when asked to see the suffering as “not mine”. Who is resisting? Why?
• Life of Pi: Patience! Training the tiger to live together on the boat, how that connects to our practice and training.