Kshanti

Canonical sources

Examples in the Pāli canon identify using forbearance in response to others' anger, cuckolding, torture, and even fatal assaults.

Dhammapada verses

pi is the first word of the pi (Pāli for "pāṭimokkha Exhortation Verse"), found in the Dhammapada, verse 184:

Elsewhere in the Dhammapada, khanti is found in verse 399:

insult, assault, & imprisonment. His army is strength; his strength, forbearance: :he's what I call :a brahman. }}

Lord Sakka's restraint

In the Samyutta Nikaya, the Buddha tells of an ancient battle between devas and asuras during which the devas were victorious and the asura king Vepacitti was captured and imprisoned. When the deva lord Sakka visited Vepacitti in prison, Vepacitti "abused and reviled him with rude, harsh words," to which Sakka did not respond in kind. Afterwards, Sakka's charioteer questioned Sakka about this, expressing concern that some would see Sakka's response as indicative of fear or weakness. Sakka replied:

That I am patient with Vepacitti. How can a wise person like me Engage in combat with a fool? ...Of goals that culminate in one's own good None is found better than patience. ...One who repays an angry man with anger Thereby makes things worse for himself. Not repaying an angry man with anger, One wins a battle hard to win. He practices for the welfare of both, His own and the other's, When, knowing that his foe is angry, He mindfully maintains his peace. When he achieves the cure of both— His own and the other's— The people who consider him a fool Are unskilled in the Dhamma.}}

The Buddha then praised Sakka to his followers for "patience and gentleness" (pi).

A cuckold's forbearance

In a Jātaka tale, Exposition on Patience Birth Story (pi: J 225), the Buddha tells of a former life when he was Brahmadatta, a king of Benares. At the time, a courtier of the king "fell into an intrigue in the king's harem." This same courtier was being similarly betrayed by one of his own servants and complained to the king about that servant. In response, the king disclosed his knowledge of the courtier's betrayal and stated:

Shamed by the king's awareness of their deeds, the courtier and his servant henceforth ceased their betrayals.

Parables of torture

The Majjhima Nikāya has a classic parable of Buddhist forbearance, the Buddha's Simile of the Saw:

Similarly, in the Jātaka Tale Patience Teacher Birth Story (Khantivādī Jātaka: J 313), a jealous king repeatedly asked an ascetic what the ascetic taught, to which the ascetic replied, "Patience," which the ascetic further defined as "not to get angry when injured, criticized or struck." To test the ascetic's patience, the king had the ascetic struck two thousand times with a whip of thorns, had the ascetic's hands and feet axed off, cut off the ascetic's nose and ears, and then kicked the ascetic in the heart. After the king left, the ascetic wished the king a long life and said, "Those like myself do not feel wrath." The ascetic died later that day.

Mahayana

Kṣānti (Tibetan: bzod pa; Chinese: 忍辱, renru; Japanese: ninniku) is one of the six pāramitās in Mahayana Buddhism and is thus a central aspect of the bodhisattva path. In the path of preparation (prayogamārga), kṣānti serves as one of the "aids to penetration" (nirvedhabhāgīya), marking a transition to the direct vision of the Four Noble Truths (darśanamārga). It bridges mundane cultivation and supramundane realization, leading to deeper insight into these truths.

Anutpattikadharmakṣānti

Mahāyāna and some northern Buddhist sources also teach a special doctrine on the term anutpattikadharmakṣānti (Tibetan: mi skye ba’i chos la bzod pa; Chinese: 無生法忍, wushengfaren): "receptivity to the non-production of dharmas." In Mahāyāna, this denotes a bodhisattva's unwavering conviction that all phenomena (dharmas) are intrinsically "unproduced" (anutpāda) and "empty" (śūnyatā), lacking any inherent essence (niḥsvabhāva).

This realization is crucial for attaining the stage of nonretrogression (avaivartika), often identified with the first or eighth bhūmi on the bodhisattva path. It empowers the bodhisattva to persist in benefiting others, recognizing that ultimately there is no self to liberate and no beings to save. This insight inoculates the practitioner against the temptation to prematurely abandon the bodhisattva path for personal liberation and emphasizes the nonduality of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa.

In non-Mahāyāna contexts, the term anutpattikadharmakṣānti aligns with the realization of no-self (anātman) and the Four Noble Truths, marking the darśanamārga.

Citations

General sources

• A general on-line search engine for this dictionary is available at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/pali/.

References

1. Buswell, Robert E; Lopez, Donald S. The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, p. 446. Princeton University Press, Nov 24, 2013.
2. {{harvtxt. Thanissaro. 1997b
3. (1994). "A Chanting Guide". Dhammayut Order in the United States of America.
4. {{harvtxt. Bodhi. 2000
5. {{harvtxt. Rouse. 1895
6. Buswell, Robert E; Lopez, Donald S. The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, p. 55. Princeton University Press, Nov 24, 2013.