Verse 27: Patience
Verse 27 of Gyalse Tokme Zangpo’s 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva, from the section “The six paramitas.” Below: the verse in three translations and what seven teachers say about it.
Open in the study browser →For bodhisattvas who desire a wealth of virtue, those who do harm are like a precious treasure. Therefore, without hostility, be patient with everyone. This is the way of a bodhisattva.
The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to cultivate patience, Free from any trace of animosity towards anyone at all, Since any potential source of harm is like a priceless treasure To the bodhisattva who is eager to enjoy a wealth of virtue.
For bodhisattvas who want to be rich in virtue A person who hurts you is a precious treasure. Cultivate patience for everyone, Completely free of irritation or resentment — this is the practice of a bodhisattva.
Patience begins with one's own parents — refrain from replying at all. The reward is invisible: the preservation of bodhicitta, guarded life after life. "Our benefactor is actually those who harm us." Then "joyful endurance": bear aching legs, heat and cold (Milarepa's austerities); vow a sleep quota (5–7 hours) and use the saved time for practice. Ultimately, emptiness reveals pain and pleasure equally without substance — the "enlightened joy" beyond both.
(Brief; opening garbled in source.) The substance: patience toward a superior imposing on us "is not the real thing" — real patience is forbearance toward an inferior who harms us when we have full power to retaliate.
Patience is not-getting-angry — at harmers, at practice hardships, at the difficulties of helping — and, citing the Dalai Lama, it is strength, not weakness. Distinguish person from act: no anger doesn't mean accepting destructive behavior. "Those with whom we can practice patience are great treasures." Notes the verse's word habit: meditation just is building beneficial habits.
Four qualities of patience (pacifies anger, brings nonconceptual wisdom, generates love, ripens beings). Without harm-doers, patience can't be practiced at all — "whoever or whatever harms us provides the same opportunity for wealth." Story: Milarepa singing to the thieves who attacked him; one became a disciple.
Three kinds: bearing harm without anger, enduring hardship for the Dharma with joy, and facing emptiness without fear — so difficult that 5,000 monks walked out when the Buddha taught it. Deepest patience applies emptiness: harm-doer, harmed, and harm all empty — "who is going to get angry at delusions?" Shantideva: "No evil is there similar to anger, no austerity to be compared with patience"; the leather-soles image again.
Winter Retreat vv25–28 talk · 2020 Six Paramitas talk.
Talk 10. Tricycle v27 (video/subscriber).
HHDL's criterion cuts deepest — patience only counts when you could retaliate. The "harm-doer as treasure" economy (verse's own image) is unpacked identically by AB and KTGR: no adversity, no virtue-wealth. KS's third patience (unafraid of emptiness) links this verse back to 22–24. ---
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche — The Heart of Compassion (Shambhala). A purchased book — no text is reproduced here.