What is Patience? What is Skill?
I
always tell them: to suffer scolding is skill, to suffer beating is
skill, not trying to get a bargain is skill, and enduring losses is
skill. However, nobody knows how to use this kind of skill. You cannot
show that you have this skill because as soon as you reveal it, it's
not skill. As for enduring beating and scolding, this doesn't mean that
the more my Master scolds me, the better. It doesn't mean that I should
endure it shamelessly, not caring whether or not he scolds. If that
were the case, then his scolding would just make me thick-skinned, and
it wouldn't worry me. If you can endure being scolded by those below
you, that counts as true endurance. But if you stubbornly endure
scolding from those above you, that is not forbearance. You all are my
left-home disciples, and it is natural for me to scold you and beat
you. To endure that isn't really endurance. It's only enduring
something you have no way not to endure. For example, if you can endure
being rebuked or hit by someone below you; that really counts. We have
to speak the truth here; we can't just be all mixed-up and say, "The
more I can endure my Master's scolding, the better." The more you
endure it, the worse you become. The more you forbear, the more you'll
fall into the hells, because you have no shame and no remorse! And I'll
tell you another thing: those people who left the home-life and
subsequently returned to the lay-life will definitely fall into the
hells. There is no compromise at all. So don't think that returning to
lay-life is a good thing. In that situation, being alive is more
painful than dying. Anyone who has returned to lay-life now regrets it.
Vajra Bodhi Sea, April 1993
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