Someone asked Pra Ajarn to explain his grandmaster's teaching on patience, and followed up by asking how one can build more of it.

The Grandmaster's Teaching: A Single Moment of Restraint Extinguishes Defilement

Our revered grandmaster once taught on patience: when greed or covetousness (abhijjhā) arises — the wish to take what belongs to another as one's own — simply stay still, hold steady, and endure it for just a moment; before long, that craving fades away on its own. He said that extinguishing covetousness even once in this way is, quite literally, a direct cause of nibbana. The same applies when anger or ill will arises: stay still, hold it in, never letting it break through into body or speech, letting it die away within the mind itself. Whenever we manage this, that moment becomes an exceptionally lofty cause of nibbana — no other form of merit-making can compare. As for delusion, or wrong view: when it arises, likewise stay still, and before long that wrong view fades away too — a cause of nibbana that brings us right to its very edge.

Patience: The Indispensable Sixth Perfection

There are ten perfections (pāramī) in all: generosity, morality, renunciation, wisdom, effort, patience, truthfulness, resolution, loving-kindness, and equanimity. Patience is the sixth, and it is an especially crucial one — without it, one simply cannot reach the truth within, because the unwholesome side gathers up every past mistake it once led us into and builds them into a wall of suffering, blocking our way to the truth within — since reaching that truth means slipping one level further from its control.

The Perfections Build in Sequence, Each Supporting the Next

Each perfection supports the one that follows. Generosity supports the keeping of morality; morality supports renunciation and the purity of the holy life; that purity in turn opens access to the inner knower who guides and teaches, giving rise to wisdom; wisdom brings vision and the inspiration to change one's life, which needs the perfection of effort to drive it toward its goal. But when the unwholesome side sets up impurity as a wall in the way, effort alone cannot break through — patience must step in to hold steady and carry us through that wall of suffering. Patience comes paired with austerity (tapa), a shield that keeps us from being overwhelmed by states that are hard to bear. Breaking through one such wall brings us closer to the truth; and at each subsequent, subtler dimension, ever subtler forms of wisdom and patience are needed to help carry us further.

Our Resolve Must Match the Buddha's Own

Since we were born to realize nibbana and to build our perfections, our resolve must match that of the Buddha himself: when greed arises, hold steady; when anger arises, stay still; when wrong view arises, stay still. Doing just this extinguishes defilement, moment by moment.

Follow-Up: How Can We Build More Patience?

Asked how to build more patience, Pra Ajarn explained that suffering comes in two forms — as cause and as result — both arising from the unwholesome side. When the unwholesome side possesses the mind, it comes bearing pressure through body, feeling, mind, and mental objects, because suffering — a state that is hard to bear — is its very nature. It lures and misleads us into craving, through sensual craving, craving for existence, and craving for non-existence. Most people fear only the result of suffering, and so turn away from it. What's harder is facing the cause of suffering directly — the craving and dissatisfaction themselves. This requires wisdom to first recognize clearly that the unwholesome side has taken control, and then gradual practice in facing it. Mistakes in the beginning are only natural; the wholesome side will gradually point out where we went wrong so we can correct course, little by little.

The Seven Wholesome Mental Factors as Tools

Seven wholesome mental factors — faith, mindfulness, moral shame, moral dread, non-greed, non-aversion, and equanimity of mind — are the tools that draw merit in, and develop further into six paired qualities of body and mind: tranquility, which calms body and mind; lightness; malleability, which brings gentleness and refinement; workability, which brings agility fit for the task at hand; and uprightness, which keeps one honest and true to the path. All of these are tools of the wholesome side — and learning to use them well makes it possible to attain both liberation of heart and liberation through wisdom, each of which depends on patience as its foundation at every step.

The Ten Perfections as the Ministries of a Country

Pra Ajarn likened the self to a country, with the ten perfections as its ministries, each one needing to be managed to keep the country running. Each perfection can turn clockwise — toward progress — or counter-clockwise — toward decline. Giving generously while breaking precepts means the perfection of generosity moves forward while morality slips backward. Indulging every whim turns renunciation backward; lacking diligence in staying wholesome turns effort backward; lacking patience turns patience itself backward. We must regularly check which direction each of our own perfections is turning, and correct course so that all of them turn the right way — so that our life, like a country, can keep moving steadily forward.