Patience

11/28 - Patience and the Paramis

Ten paramis:
Generosity, morality, renunciation, wisdom, effort, patience, truthfulness, lovingkindness, and equanimity.

"Self-absorption blocks their full expression"

Patience - About allowing. Forbearance without being 'numbed out.' Determination, not self-pity. "The most skillful way of responding to that which cannot be changed."

Overcome the initial behavior to get away from the unpleasant.

The limit of endurance is elastic. Stretch it little by little, by being with a little discomfort.

Suffering is not personal. Dukkha is dukkha.

Pain is empty - There is only vibration, pressure, energy, etc.

If you can, let go. If you can't, hold with patience.

Settling back and keeping going in a boring sit is an important practice - builds patience.

The urge to evaluate practice is a form of doubt.

[It's hard for me to (1) take advice without (2) self-judgment.]

[If the goal is shiviti adonai l'negdi tamid -- it's the Tamid that is the challenge now. Earlier it might have been having the experience. But having had them, now it is about being in shiviti when there are not great mind-states. Patience to be present even after missing the subway train. Because only with presence can the truth - whether nondual or just simple appreciation of the moment - be kept in view. I feel unease about how this is sliding around to regular moralism. Why? Clearly enlightened sages do some "purification."]