As I lie next to Sophie, on her bed, as I untie yet another drool-soaked bandanna from around her neck, as I comfort the boys, telling them that the dent in the wall made by Sophie's head when she fell tonight is because it's a soft spot in the wall, as I go back and forth in my mind on how to eradicate the fleas on our dog and in our house should I use pesticide or not?, I think of patience. I take deep breaths in. I let them out.
I found this quote about patience at Tricycle Magazine. It arrived in my inbox, serendipitously, tonight as I cleaned it up.
Patience, or khanti, is the sixth of the ten perfections, or paramis (the virtues that one has to perfect in order to fully awaken; there are ten paramis in the Theravada tradition, six paramitas in the Mahayana). The clarity of wisdom and the softness of compassion are the companions of each of the perfections. Patience is motivated by our desire for inward and outward peace and by faith in our ability to accept things as they are. In Buddhism patience has three essential aspects: gentle forbearance, calm endurance of hardship, and acceptance of the truth.
The rest of the article can be found here.
