Exploring “The Pāramī of Patience” with Benjamin Hohl this Sunday at Minneapolis Insight

Dear Community,

Sunday 10am Community Practice & Discussion

This week brought a close to a very emotional and turbulent election process. As we have always done, this Sunday we will continue to take refuge in practicing in community and exploring the teachings of the Dharma together. This week Benjamin will continue our exploration of the pāramīs (heart/mind ”perfections”) with a focus on the pāramī of patience, drawing from Ajahn Sucitto’s book Parami: Ways to Cross Life's (freely available here). Two quotes from the chpater on patience below:

• The mind/heart (citta) habitually creates suffering and stress through reacting to, holding onto or getting caught up with what life throws at us. All the perfections contribute to the lessening or dismantling of that dukkha, but the specific quality of patience is to carry the heart through the turbulence of existence so that it no longer shakes, sinks or lashes out.
• Patience may at first strike you as a teeth-gritting ‘hang on until it’s over’ quality. But this would not be perfect patience, because in such a case, the mind is still longing for the end of the experience — aversion hasn’t been relinquished. Perfect patience has the soft and heartful strength of having ‘all the time in the world’ to rest in an experience. It relaxes the edge of time. The transformative power of patience is such that, as the mind relaxes its defensiveness and bristling, the annoying delay becomes an occasion for spaciousness, and the other person’s irritating behaviour is something you can meet, with empathy, as their unfortunate problem. Naturally it also includes the wisdom to know what one just has to bear with, and when there is the occasion to act in a clear and responsible way. Patience is not meant to transform you into a doormat, but to act as a firebreak on immediate impulses that will not bring around your welfare. And as our conditioning is often one of getting things done as quickly as possible, it’s skilful to check that attitude with wisdom.

All are welcome to join this exploration on Sunday! Registration and Zoom information available here.

With metta (loving-kindness),

Minneapolis Insight