Someone asked the teacher to explain the verse: "Khanti (patience) is the foremost quality, the cause of virtue that is morality and concentration. All wholesome dhammas grow only through khanti."

Khanti as the Foundation of Morality The teacher explained that this is said because morality and concentration can only stand firm through patience. The three underlying natures — wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral — are constantly competing to take hold. When the unwholesome possesses the mind, it oppresses through wrongdoing, generating hardship and suffering for as long as that state persists. Suffering is a condition that must be endured, and one that is difficult to endure; hardship is something no human being desires, yet when we must face such circumstances, khanti — patient endurance — is the one thing every being needs in order to face suffering and contend with the results of past karma.

The unwholesome oppresses us through two channels. One is old: a time bomb arising from past karmic results. The other is new: arising as it competes to become the "landlord" that takes possession of the mind. Whether old or new, both generate states of hardship and suffering. When beings rely on the virtue of patience to withstand the torment that arises, khanti helps them uphold the quality of morality — the normal proportion of wholesome dhamma — without being forced into wrongdoing through body, speech, or mind. The unwholesome side has exactly one purpose: to pressure and compel us into wrongdoing, in order to push our underlying elements down into a coarser dimension.

But because of khanti, we are able to preserve the proportion of wholesome dhamma within us, keeping it from falling any further. Beauty of character arises precisely through the virtue of patience — even as tears stream down the face from the most severe mental anguish, one still refrains from wrongdoing in body and speech. Without khanti, such endurance would be impossible, no matter how great the suffering. This is why khanti is called the foremost cause of the virtue that is morality.

Khanti as the Foundation of Concentration Khanti is also the foundation of the virtue that is concentration, because once we have established the base of maintaining normal wholesome conduct, we can then rely on a concentration firmly grounded in that wholesomeness to focus and reflect on the present moment, moment after moment. Focusing and reflecting on every present moment in this way requires mindfulness — the act of noting — and clear comprehension, the full awareness of the present state, down to every fraction of a fraction of a second: one-tenth, one-hundredth, one-thousandth, one ten-thousandth, one-hundred-thousandth, even one-millionth of a second. Achieved this way, time itself seems to expand, phenomena come to a halt, and the fineness of the mental factors reveals itself, allowing us to enter those dimensions, to experience and savor their subtlety, their softness and gentleness, their lightness, ease, and comfort — the qualities born of concentration.

Expanding and progressing into each of these subtler dimensions requires khanti — patient endurance of the disturbance caused by impurities, which give rise to problems and obstacles in the many forms of the hindrances, generating confusion and disorder. But because khanti and ascetic effort (tapa) protect us from being overwhelmed by suffering born of excessive impurity, the establishment of concentration becomes possible, drawing in pure energy. Khanti must therefore be the foremost principle, because suffering is a state that must be endured and is hard to endure; every hardship requires khanti and tapa to protect and guard us through it. Concentration can then proceed, moment by moment, drawing pure energy in through the sphere of knowing — mindfulness and clear comprehension — to purify all impurities, acting as a guardian against the danger of hardship, so that the wholesome side can act to rescue us from crisis.

The Subtlest Inner Battle The teacher explained further that at the subtlest level, the wholesome and unwholesome are locked in continuous struggle. As long as the wholesome has not yet triumphed at that subtlest level, the coarse human body must simply endure. Once the wholesome triumphs in that inner battle, it becomes the "landlord," acting for the benefit of the coarse human body. But if the unwholesome or the neutral nature triumphs first and takes possession, it forces the human body into servitude to demerit, pressuring and compelling it to break precepts and act wrongly, dragging our underlying elements down, introducing wrong concentration to draw in the energy of demerit.

So the coarse human body need only remain within khanti, patiently waiting while that subtlest inner battle plays out, waiting for the wholesome side to find a way to win. Once it wins and becomes the landlord of the mind, the human body is freed from that torment and no longer falls into servitude to demerit. Patience has this virtue: it prevents us from carelessly creating the conditions for wrong concentration that draws in demerit's energy, and prevents us from acting through body, speech, or mind in ways that would drag our elements down and seal a completed sphere of demerit, waiting to detonate as a time bomb that destroys our future. All of this is the fruit of khanti.

For every wholesome dhamma to grow, become firmly established, and continue developing, khanti must hold the line, preventing the unwholesome and the neutral from breaking through to destroy it. Without khanti, even the smallest thing brings dissatisfaction, irritation, weariness, discouragement, hopelessness, gloom, restlessness, annoyance, and frustration — and we abandon wholesome practice altogether, overwhelmed by the unwholesome and the neutral with nothing to hold the line. This is why it is said that khanti is the foremost cause of the virtue that is morality and concentration — all wholesome dhammas grow only through khanti.