Patience & Endurance (extract)

"So when we talk about acceptance as a part of the path, we have to be very careful about what it means and what it doesn’t mean. It doesn’t mean that you just accept everything as wonderful, learning to be accepting of all things and equanimous around all things. Sometimes equanimity is useful; sometimes it’s not. You accept the fact that your actions do shape your experience, and you accept the fact that there’re going to be a lot of unpleasant things in life because you’ve been unskillful in the past, but you don’t just sit there. You try to figure out what you can do now to act as skillfully as possible, speak as skillfully as possible, think as skillfully as possible, listen as skillfully as possible, respond to pain and pleasure as skillfully as possible.

So make use of the insight that our lives are shaped by our actions. The question is not so much what we are, the question is what are we doing? Actually, what we are is the result of actions, both past and present, so even that issue gets resolved into: What are we doing? How can we do it well? How can we do it coming from a position of strength? Learn how to accept the fact that there will be pleasures and there will be pains. There will be kind words; there will be unkind words. Think of your bones. They don’t react. But you don’t stay with your bones all of the time. When you’re on the receiving end, you learn how to see things as they are with a minimum of reaction. Then the mind can respond in a way that gets actually results that are more acceptable, i.e., more in line with our aspirations."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Patience & Endurance"

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