AboutStuart Resnick Expertise I'm a long-time practitioner in a Korean-style Zen school. I can answer questions regarding Zen, formal sitting meditation, self-inquiry, the practice of "koan" transmission, and offer the particular perspective of this school on the great life questions.
Experience 18 years of formal practice with the Kwan Um School of Zen, currently with the Empty Gate Zen Center of Berkeley, currently a "Senior Dharma Teacher" at this center, I give periodic talks and informally answer questions of students interested in Zen practice and teaching style
Question QUESTION: Hi, I know different schools of Buddhism have different ideas. I've come across the term Patient Endurance. I am in constant physical pain and have found the 4 nobel truths useful. But I don't know what patient endurance means. Anything you say would be helpful. Thanks
ANSWER: All of us, in every moment, have an original clear mind. It's like a clear mirror, that reflects the experience of this very moment. If white appears, the mirror is white; red appears, only red.
We often cloud this clarity by holding some idea, clinging to some type of thinking. If we let all thinking appear and disappear like clouds in the sky, returning to just-now... a name for that is "patient endurance."
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QUESTION: I appreciate your response but I have no idea what you mean. What is patient endurance, how is it practiced.
Answer It's wonderful that you have no idea what I'm talking about. Names and ideas aren't so important. One action is better than 10,000 ideas.
"Patient endurance" is just a name for what you're doing at this very moment. What are you doing right now? When you're doing something, just do it. When you're sitting, just sit; when you're walking, just walk; when you're eating, just eat; etc etc.
