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Chogyam Trungpa: Cynicism & Magic
Dec. 31st, 2021 01:11 pmTONS of great stuff here, and this passage is just so good. Worth reading the whole book though. Highly recommend.
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Patience
The next paramita is patience, which is greatly misunderstood. The colloquial expression is that patience is a virtue, and virtue is grace. But patience is not necessarily a virtue, and patience doesn't particularly belong to the category of virtue or goodness. Patience actually belongs to the category of what is absolute and true, rather than the category of virtue, or grace -- whatever that may be.
It's truth we're talking about when we talk about patience. The truth seems like a very big topic, and everybody becomes very serious as soon as we begin to discuss it. Nobody will smile. But truth from this point of view is reality, reality that can be worked with, reality that is experiential, and reality that does not need any reinforcement. Absolute reality stands on its own, and likewise patience stands on its own.
You don't have to be patient just because you've been taught to be patient, or you feel it would be good to have patience. (...) Patience here is very direct and very definite. It's no a question of trying to be good, or trying to be virtuous, but patience according to (Buddhism) is nonaggression. Nonaggression is the patience.
When we talk about aggression here, we are not talking about losing your temper and suddenly blowing up. Rather we are talking about aggression in the sense of a constant flow of experience in your life, which contains constant little flickers of aggression here and there. We don't like certain things that are presented, or certain things we experience, yet we get caught up in that. Nobody told us to do this, but we do it. And we have /opinions/ of ourselves, certain expectations of ourselves, and if those expectations are not met -- if our hot tea is cold and if our iced tea is hot -- we get made. If we are bold enough we ask to speak to the manager. That is aggression.
I'm not saying that our iced tea should be hot or that our hot tea should be cold. I think you are intelligent enough not to take this too literally. However, there is continual aggression that takes place based on expectations. And expectations are basically aggressive. We expect something. We want to get something out of it. That's not very generous, and it's not open. There's a sense of aggression all the time.
Basically we're very sensitive, even if we regard ourselves as tough. We are softened by our ego when we meet little irritations here and there. When we expect something to go smoothly, and it doesn't, we are devastated. Before we get something we want, we begin to shape ourselves. We do this constantly. If we want an espresso, for example, between the time we order it from the waiter and when we get it, we soften ourselves. We shape ourselves into "an espresso coffee drinker." We /become/ that way. We give in, we are softened, and if we don't get what we expected, if something is the slightest bit wrong with our espresso, we attack.
This process extends in great detail to all kinds of things: we push a button, we shape ourselves, and make ourselves soft very aggressively, expecting we are going to get something out of it. When we don't, we have already worked out our plan of attack, our demands. That is nondiscipline and nonpatience. The highest form of patience is nonaggression, nonexpectation. Patience does not contain expectation.
That doesn't mean that one has to become a robot, or a stone wall. We have some sense of intelligence and openness, as well as a sense of continuity. Our whole life is based on patience, not expecting anything, while being prepared for everything.
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!!!
===
Patience
The next paramita is patience, which is greatly misunderstood. The colloquial expression is that patience is a virtue, and virtue is grace. But patience is not necessarily a virtue, and patience doesn't particularly belong to the category of virtue or goodness. Patience actually belongs to the category of what is absolute and true, rather than the category of virtue, or grace -- whatever that may be.
It's truth we're talking about when we talk about patience. The truth seems like a very big topic, and everybody becomes very serious as soon as we begin to discuss it. Nobody will smile. But truth from this point of view is reality, reality that can be worked with, reality that is experiential, and reality that does not need any reinforcement. Absolute reality stands on its own, and likewise patience stands on its own.
You don't have to be patient just because you've been taught to be patient, or you feel it would be good to have patience. (...) Patience here is very direct and very definite. It's no a question of trying to be good, or trying to be virtuous, but patience according to (Buddhism) is nonaggression. Nonaggression is the patience.
When we talk about aggression here, we are not talking about losing your temper and suddenly blowing up. Rather we are talking about aggression in the sense of a constant flow of experience in your life, which contains constant little flickers of aggression here and there. We don't like certain things that are presented, or certain things we experience, yet we get caught up in that. Nobody told us to do this, but we do it. And we have /opinions/ of ourselves, certain expectations of ourselves, and if those expectations are not met -- if our hot tea is cold and if our iced tea is hot -- we get made. If we are bold enough we ask to speak to the manager. That is aggression.
I'm not saying that our iced tea should be hot or that our hot tea should be cold. I think you are intelligent enough not to take this too literally. However, there is continual aggression that takes place based on expectations. And expectations are basically aggressive. We expect something. We want to get something out of it. That's not very generous, and it's not open. There's a sense of aggression all the time.
Basically we're very sensitive, even if we regard ourselves as tough. We are softened by our ego when we meet little irritations here and there. When we expect something to go smoothly, and it doesn't, we are devastated. Before we get something we want, we begin to shape ourselves. We do this constantly. If we want an espresso, for example, between the time we order it from the waiter and when we get it, we soften ourselves. We shape ourselves into "an espresso coffee drinker." We /become/ that way. We give in, we are softened, and if we don't get what we expected, if something is the slightest bit wrong with our espresso, we attack.
This process extends in great detail to all kinds of things: we push a button, we shape ourselves, and make ourselves soft very aggressively, expecting we are going to get something out of it. When we don't, we have already worked out our plan of attack, our demands. That is nondiscipline and nonpatience. The highest form of patience is nonaggression, nonexpectation. Patience does not contain expectation.
That doesn't mean that one has to become a robot, or a stone wall. We have some sense of intelligence and openness, as well as a sense of continuity. Our whole life is based on patience, not expecting anything, while being prepared for everything.
===
!!!
