The paramita of patience in Gampopa’s Ornament of Precious Liberation has gotten me through many a challenge in life, including my entire three-year retreat, a setting that provides many more mundane opportunities for practice than one might expect. Whenever I found myself momentarily annoyed at a fellow retreatant’s habits or behavior, rather than speak or act out of anger I would reread this chapter as soon as I got back to my room, and remember why acting (or even thinking) out of an emotional reaction is 1) not helpful and 2) based on a faulty understanding of the nature of things. Here, in a nutshell, is a concise overview of the paramita of patience, based on Gampopa’s explanation.

Patience is specifically the antidote to anger, which can manifest in a wide spectrum of emotional reactions from mild irritation to frustration to full-on rage. It is said in the sutras, “Anger is not the path to buddhahood.” How does patience counteract anger and keep us on the path? Let’s start by examining what the Buddhist definition of patience is: “to be unperturbed by anything,” “to be upset by nothing.” (page 185, OPL Ken Holmes translation). That may sound like an impossible goal, but fortunately there are some intermediate ways to work toward it.

Three levels of patience: The first level of practicing patience is to refrain from retaliation when someone harms or annoys us. Rather than escalating the situation by returning harm for harm to get even, or speaking harshly so the other party will feel hurt too, or indulging in revenge fantasies, we can interrupt these inpulses before our reaction spins out of our control. We won’t always succeed, but each time we manage to recognize what’s happening and inhibit our habitual reaction before we respond, our habit weakens. The second level is to refrain from holding on to thoughts about the person or situation that has given rise to anger; as Pema Chodron often says, we can simply drop the storyline. This too we may need to do again and again, and it will take effort at first; but through repeated effort over time, our reactive habits slowly weaken and our patience gradually grows. The third level is imperturbable patience: not even being bothered by anything that happens. And the Buddha assured us that we will arrive there eventually through consistent, diligent practice (which is paramita #4).

Three types of patience: Finally, as with the other paramitas, there are three types of patience to be practiced: patience with other sentient beings who do us harm, patience with setbacks and difficult circumstances, and patience in not giving up on profound dharma teachings that may take some time to understand or attain, such as emptiness (and living up to the definition of perfect patience!).

We’ll discuss all of this and more at Palpung-Richmond PST on the first Thursday nights of May and June 2026. In addition, many resources are available any time for deepening our understanding of how to practice this paramita, including the chapter on the patience in Gampopa’s OPL or Ringu Tulku’s Path to Buddhahood.

For more on the paramita of patience, including specific thoughts that can help de-escalate our anger on the spot, 37 Practices of a Bodhisatta, verse 27

Guru Vajradhara Tai Situ Rinpoche on the six paramitas (a series of 10-minute videos; patience begins near the beginning of part 3)

Ringu Tulku Rinpoche short video on the paramita of patience