Patience by Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Author:Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wisdom Publications

A Little Pain Now Rather Than Great Suffering Later

72Wouldn’t it be fortunate if a man condemned to death

were freed after only cutting his hand?

Would it not be equally fortunate if one were to suffer pain

in this life instead of ending up in hell?

73If you are not able to withstand

even the insignificant pain of today,

why don’t you destroy anger,

which is after all the cause of suffering in hell.

74Thus, because of my own anger

I have suffered in the hells thousands of times,

but I did not achieve anything

for myself or others with this suffering.

75My present pain is nothing comparable to the pains of hell,

and it will produce great benefits.

It is therefore reasonable that I rejoice in this suffering,

which will free the whole world from its suffering.

As Shantideva said, it is better for a person to have a hand cut off than to be killed. When we practice the Dharma there will be hardships, but no matter how difficult it becomes, it is much better than having to face the suffering that will be the result of our negative karma, the result that will certainly happen if we don’t practice the Dharma. No matter how exhausted we feel or what problems arise in our practice, that is much better than experiencing the results of all those negative karmas.

We don’t need to talk about the lower realms — even if we were to be reborn as a human, we have to go through problems again and again: feeling hunger, being unable to find a job, running out of money, experiencing disharmony in relationships, fighting, and other difficulties. We take rebirth again and again and experience this kind of life again and again, going through the same problems, without any opportunity to practice the Dharma.

Therefore knowing that any hardships we face while practicing the Dharma are purifying so much negativity in our mindstream, why shouldn’t we happily bear them? Even if we get very sick, there is no reason for unhappiness; it is like having a hand cut off rather than being executed. This is the core of the thought-transformation practices. Rather than feel aversion for any problems we face, we see them as a means to get rid of our negative karma and accumulate positive karma, and so they are a source of all our happiness. In short, we transform suffering into happiness.

In the past, we bore hardships for possessions, reputation, and so forth, and all it brought us was rebirth in the lower realms. Now we are accepting a much lesser suffering in order to be free from that great suffering.

If we do a practice such as tonglen, where in meditation we visualize taking the suffering of all sentient beings and giving them all our happiness, possessions, and positive qualities, when we experience hardship we can think that we have prayed to take on the suffering of others and now it is happening. Now, because this suffering — cancer, relationship problems, or whatever — is manifesting, our prayers are being actualized. We should rejoice in that.

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