Nothing but the Sound of Wind
Shansheng asks how a bodhisattva actually cultivates the third perfection, patience, and the Buddha's answer moves from a plain two-part definition — bearing what is hard at the level of the body, bearing what is hard at the level of the mind — into a sharp philosophical analysis: reviling words, examined syllable by syllable, never actually coexist long enough to form a single graspable insult at all. They are, the Buddha says, nothing but the sound of wind. From there the chapter works outward, through five causes that give rise to patience, a wise person's vow of goodwill toward the very enemies who harm them, and the daily conduct expected of a bodhisattva who has taken this practice seriously — before closing on a plain, almost tender admission: patience is far harder to keep at home, surrounded by family and worldly entanglement, than it ever is for someone who has already left household life behind.
1. Milestone: Shansheng's Question — From Giving and Discipline to Patience
The chapter opens, as every chapter of this sutra does, with Shansheng putting a direct question to the Buddha. Having already heard the Buddha explain the perfection of giving and the perfection of moral discipline, he now asks about the third of the perfections a bodhisattva must cultivate: kṣānti, patience or forbearance.
善生言：「世尊！佛先已說檀波羅蜜、尸波羅蜜，菩薩云何而得修集忍波羅蜜？」
Shansheng said: "World-Honored One, the Buddha has already explained the perfection of giving and the perfection of moral discipline. How does a bodhisattva cultivate and accumulate the perfection of patience?"
Taixu notes simply that "kṣānti" (羼提) is the Sanskrit term this chapter renders as "忍辱" — patience, or forbearance — and places it as the third of the great perfections in the sutra's own sequence, arriving immediately after the giving and discipline covered in the two chapters just before it. The path, as the sutra itself has laid it out, keeps building outward in this way: first what a bodhisattva gives away, then how a bodhisattva behaves, and now what a bodhisattva is able to endure without breaking.
2. Milestone: Two Kinds of Patience — Worldly and Transcendent
The Buddha answers first with a plain twofold definition, distinguishing the patience anyone might practice from a deeper patience that only makes sense within the framework of the Three Jewels and the path itself.
佛言：「善男子！忍有二種：一者、世忍，二者、出世忍。能忍飢渴、寒熱、苦樂，是名世忍；能忍信、戒、施、聞、智慧，正見無謬，忍佛、法、僧，罵詈、撾打、惡口、惡事、貪、瞋、癡等悉能忍之，能忍難忍、難施、難作，名出世忍。善男子！菩薩若值他人打罵、輕賤、毀呰、惡口、罵詈，是時內心無加報想。菩薩雖作如是忍事，不為現在，但為後利。有善報之，惡則不反。
The Buddha said: "Good son, patience is of two kinds: worldly patience and transcendent patience. Bearing hunger and thirst, cold and heat, and both pleasure and pain — this is called worldly patience. Steadfastly upholding faith, moral discipline, giving, learning, and wisdom, holding right view without error, having patient confidence in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, and bearing scolding, beating, harsh speech, injury, greed, anger, and delusion — able to bear what is hard to bear, to give what is hard to give, and to do what is hard to do — this is called transcendent patience. Good son, when a bodhisattva meets with another person's beating and abuse, contempt, slander, and harsh scolding, at that moment no thought of retaliation arises within. Though a bodhisattva practices this kind of patience, it is not for the sake of the present moment but for a benefit yet to come. Good is repaid with good; evil is not returned in kind.
Taixu reads "holding right view without error" as already itself a form of assent — a settled acceptance he identifies with adhimokṣa, resolute conviction, rather than mere passive endurance. On his account the whole distinction can be drawn quite simply: bearing what is difficult at the level of material, bodily circumstance is worldly patience; bearing what is difficult at the level of mind and conviction — holding steady in faith, in discipline, in confidence toward the Three Jewels even under provocation — is transcendent patience. The two are not opposed so much as ranked: anyone can, with practice, learn to bear cold or hunger, but holding one's faith and right view steady under scorn and abuse asks something considerably deeper.
3. Milestone: Patience and the Perfection — Four Distinctions
The Buddha then sharpens the definition further, distinguishing "patience" from "perfection" (pāramitā) as two categories that overlap only partially — some patience never rises to the level of a perfection, and some perfections have nothing to do with patience at all.
「善男子！有是忍辱非波羅蜜，有波羅蜜非是忍辱，有是忍辱是波羅蜜，有非忍辱非波羅蜜。是忍辱非波羅蜜者，所謂世忍，聲聞、緣覺所行忍辱。是波羅蜜非忍辱者，所謂禪波羅蜜。亦是忍辱亦波羅蜜者，所謂若被割截頭目手足，乃至不生一念瞋心，檀波羅蜜、尸波羅蜜、般若波羅蜜。非忍辱非波羅蜜者，所謂聲聞、緣覺持戒布施。
"Good son, there is patience that is not a perfection; there is a perfection that is not patience; there is what is both patience and a perfection; and there is what is neither patience nor a perfection. Patience that is not a perfection is what is called worldly patience — the patience practiced by śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas. A perfection that is not patience is what is called the perfection of meditative concentration. What is both patience and a perfection is this: even if one's own head, eyes, hands, and feet were cut off and severed, still not a single thought of anger would arise — this same quality, carried into the perfection of giving, the perfection of moral discipline, and the perfection of wisdom, is what makes each of those, too, both patience and a perfection. What is neither patience nor a perfection is the moral discipline and giving practiced by śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas.
Taixu illustrates the third category — patience that genuinely rises to the level of a perfection — with the well-known story from the Diamond Sutra: in a past life, when the Buddha was the ascetic known as the Patience-Teaching Sage, King Kalirāja cut his body into pieces limb by limb, and still not a single thought of anger arose in him. It is precisely this — patience carried through, without exception, to its own ultimate consummation — that earns the name pāramitā. Ordinary forbearance that simply gets a person through a hard moment is not yet this; what makes patience a perfection is that it holds even when tested at the most extreme point imaginable, and holds without residue.
4. Milestone: How to Cultivate Patience — The Emptiness of Insults and the Five Causes of Forbearance
The Buddha now turns from definition to method, first dismantling an insult itself down to its component parts until nothing solid is left to be angry at, then naming five concrete causes and conditions that actually give rise to patience in daily practice.
「善男子！若欲修忍，是人應當先破憍慢、瞋心、癡心，不觀我及我所相、種性常相；若人能作如是等觀，當知是人能修忍辱，如是修已，心得歡喜。有智之人，若遇惡罵，當作是念：『是罵詈字不一時生，初字出時後字未生，後字生已初字復滅，若不一時，云何是罵？直是風聲，我云何瞋？我今此身五陰和合，四陰不現，則不可罵，色陰十分和合而有，如是和合念念不停，若不停住，誰當受罵？然彼罵者，即是風氣。風亦二種：有內、有外。我於外風都不生瞋，云何於內而生瞋也？世間罵者，亦有二種：一者、實，二者、虛。若說實者，實何所瞋？若說虛者，虛自得罵，無豫我事，我何緣瞋？若我瞋者，我自作惡。何以故？因瞋恚故生三惡道。若我於彼三惡道中受苦惱者，則為自作自受苦報，是故說言一切善惡皆因我身。』
"Good son, one who wishes to cultivate patience should first break through pride, an angry mind, and a deluded mind, and should not view a self, what belongs to a self, or any fixed mark of caste or lineage. If a person is able to contemplate in this way, know that this person is able to cultivate patience; and having cultivated it in this way, the mind attains joy. A wise person, upon encountering harsh abuse, should reflect: 'These reviling syllables do not arise all at once — when the first syllable is uttered, the following syllable has not yet arisen; once the following syllable arises, the first has already ceased. Since they never exist together at the same time, how can this truly be called "abuse"? It is nothing but the sound of wind — why should I be angry at it? This body of mine now is only a coming-together of the five aggregates; when four of the aggregates are not manifest, there is nothing there to be abused; the aggregate of form itself exists only as a coming-together of countless parts, and this coming-together never holds still for even a single moment — if it never holds still, who is there to receive the abuse? As for the one abusing me, that too is merely a movement of air. And air itself is of two kinds, inner and outer: toward outer wind I give rise to no anger at all — why, then, should I give rise to anger toward this inner wind? Worldly abuse, too, is of two kinds: true and false. If what is said is true, what is there, in truth, to be angry about? If what is said is false, then the false speech belongs to the speaker alone and has nothing to do with me — on what grounds should I be angry? And if I do become angry, I am the one creating evil. Why is this so? Because anger itself, as its own cause, gives rise to the three evil destinies. If I then undergo suffering within those three evil destinies, this is nothing other than my own deed returning its own retribution upon me — and this is precisely why it is said that all good and evil ultimately trace back to this very body of mine.'
「善男子！生忍因緣有五事：一者、惡來不報，二者、觀無常想，三者、修於慈悲，四者、心不放逸，五者、斷除瞋恚。善男子！若人能成如是五事，當知是人能修忍辱。若人軟言，淨身、口業，和顏悅色，先意問訊，能觀一切苦樂因緣，當知是人能修忍辱。若能修空三昧，觀諸眾生悉是無常、受苦等想；彼罵辱時，能觀罵者如狂如癡，稚小無智，當知是人能修忍辱。智人當觀：『勝我者罵，我不應瞋。何以故？我若瞋者，或奪我命。若不如者，瞋亦不應報。何以故？非疇匹故，我若報者，辱我身、口。譬如有人授毒與他，人無責者，如其自服，人則嗤笑；我亦如是，若瞋彼者，當於未來受大苦惱，一切聖人悉當責我。以是因緣，我身若被截斫分離，不應生瞋，應當深觀往業因緣，當修慈悲憐愍一切。如是小事不能忍者，我當云何能調眾生？忍辱即是菩提正因，阿耨多羅三藐三菩提即是忍果，我若不種如是種子，云何獲得如是正果？』
"Good son, the causes and conditions that give rise to patience are five things: first, not repaying evil with evil; second, contemplating the perception of impermanence; third, cultivating loving-kindness and compassion; fourth, keeping the mind free of heedlessness; fifth, cutting off and eliminating anger. Good son, if a person is able to accomplish these five things, know that this person is able to cultivate patience. If a person speaks gently, keeps their bodily and verbal conduct pure, maintains a warm and pleasant countenance, greets others first with a kind inquiry, and is able to contemplate the causes and conditions behind all suffering and pleasure, know that this person is able to cultivate patience. If a person can cultivate the concentration on emptiness, contemplating that all sentient beings are impermanent and bound up in suffering — so that when reviled and insulted, they are able to view the reviler as though mad, as though foolish, as a small child without wisdom — know that this person is able to cultivate patience. A wise person should reflect: 'If someone superior to me reviles me, I should not be angry — why? Because if I grow angry, they might well take my very life for it. If someone inferior to me reviles me, I likewise should not answer with anger — why? Because we are not equals, and if I retaliate, I only disgrace my own body and speech. It is like someone who hands poison to another: if the other refuses it, no one blames them for it; but if they drink it themselves, people only laugh at them. I am just the same — if I grow angry at another, I will undergo great suffering in the future, and every sage will find fault with me for it. For this reason, even if my own body were cut apart, limb from limb, I should not give rise to anger, but should instead contemplate deeply the causes and conditions of past karma, and cultivate loving-kindness and compassion for every being. If I cannot even bear a small matter such as this, how could I ever hope to tame and guide sentient beings? Patience is itself the true and proper cause of bodhi; unsurpassed, perfect enlightenment is itself the fruit of patience. If I do not now plant a seed of exactly this kind, how could I ever come to obtain such a true fruit?'
Taixu walks through the "reviling syllables" argument with a concrete example: scold someone as "chusheng" (畜生, "beast") — when the syllable "chu" is spoken, the syllable "sheng" has not yet arisen; once "sheng" arises, "chu" has already vanished. Since the two never coexist for even an instant, the insult never actually comes together as a single, graspable thing at all. He identifies this as a contemplation carried out through what the tradition calls analytical emptiness or inherent emptiness — breaking a thing down piece by piece, or simply seeing directly that it was never solid to begin with. But he is careful to flag the danger built into this kind of reasoning: used skillfully, it genuinely blocks affliction from taking hold; used unskillfully — treated as license to deny cause and effect altogether — it collapses into exactly the kind of nihilistic distortion the Dharma elsewhere warns against.
He backs the point with a story from the Sutra in Forty-two Sections: a man reviled the Buddha at length, and the Buddha simply did not answer him. When the man had finished, the Buddha asked him: if someone offers a gift and the person it is offered to declines it, whose gift does it remain? The man answered: it goes back to the one who offered it. The Buddha replied: you have reviled me, and I have not accepted it — so, in exactly the same way, it goes back to you. Taixu holds this up as the finest working model there is for actually enduring an insult in real time, not merely reasoning about one afterward.
5. Milestone: Accomplishing the Virtue of Patience — Rewards, Vows, and Daily Conduct
Having shown how patience is cultivated, the Buddha now describes what it actually looks like once accomplished — beginning with the visible warmth it brings to a person's whole bearing, and moving into the concrete daily conduct expected of a bodhisattva who has taken this practice seriously.
「善男子！若有智人樂修忍辱，是人常得顏色和悅，好樂喜戲，人見歡喜，覩之無厭，於受化者，心不貪著。智人見怨以惡來加，當發善願：『願彼怨者，未來之世為我父母、兄弟、親戚，莫於我所生憎怨想。』復當觀察：『若人形殘，顏色醜惡，諸根不具，乏於財物，當知皆從瞋因緣得，我今云何不修忍辱？』以是因緣，智者應當深修忍德。
"Good son, if a wise person delights in cultivating patience, this person will always have a warm and pleasant countenance, will be genial and take joy in playful company, will be seen with gladness by others, and will never grow tiresome to look upon; and toward those they teach and guide, their mind holds no attachment. When a wise person is met with hostility and injury from an enemy, they should give rise to this good vow: 'May this very enemy, in a future life, become my father, my mother, my brother, my sister, or my kinsman — may no thought of hatred or enmity ever again arise between us.' They should further reflect: 'If a person's body is maimed, their appearance ugly, their faculties incomplete, and they are lacking in wealth, know that all of this arises from the causes and conditions of anger — how, then, could I fail to cultivate patience now?' For these reasons, a wise person should cultivate the virtue of patience deeply.
「善男子！菩薩摩訶薩修忍辱時，常樂觀察生死罪過，樂修法行，勤於精進，讀誦、書寫如來正典，供養師長、有德之人，能瞻病苦，修於慈悲，憐愍一切，見苦惱者，能令遠離。常樂出家，乃至盡壽持戒、精進，攝持六根，不令得起煩惱因緣，寧捨身命，終不毀戒。若他有事，樂為營理，常有慚愧，樂讚忍德。為調眾生堪忍眾苦，於怨尚能忍於惡事，況復親所？能忍二瞋：一、眾生瞋，二、非眾生瞋。捨己樂具，令眾得樂，不念多惡，不忘少善，遠離兩舌，前後默然不說彼短，說煩惱過令眾得離，他所不喜不為說之，淨身、口、意，了諸罪業。若客煩惱因緣作罪，作已慚愧，心生悔恨。
"Good son, when a bodhisattva-mahāsattva cultivates patience, they constantly delight in contemplating the faults of birth and death, delight in cultivating the practice of the Dharma, and apply themselves diligently to vigorous effort. They recite and copy out the Tathāgata's true scriptures, make offerings to their teachers and to persons of virtue, are able to attend to the sick and suffering, cultivate loving-kindness and compassion, and hold every being in mind with pity — seeing those in pain and affliction, they are able to lead them away from it. They constantly delight in the life of a renunciant, and to the very end of their life uphold moral discipline and vigorous effort, guarding and restraining the six sense faculties so that the causes and conditions of affliction are never allowed to arise, willing to give up their own body and life rather than ever break a precept. When another has some matter to attend to, they delight in managing and seeing to it; they constantly hold a sense of shame and conscience, and delight in praising the virtue of patience. In order to tame sentient beings and enable them to bear every kind of suffering, they can bear even ill treatment from an enemy — how much more, then, from those close to them? They are able to bear two kinds of anger: anger directed at sentient beings, and anger directed at what is not sentient. They give up their own comforts so that others may have ease; they do not dwell on another's many faults, nor forget another's smallest good; they keep entirely apart from divisive speech, remaining silent both before and after rather than ever speaking of another's shortcomings; when they do speak of a fault born of another's affliction, it is only so that others may be freed from it; what another does not wish to hear, they do not say; they keep body, speech, and mind pure, and fully understand the nature of all wrongdoing. Should they, through some incidental affliction, still commit a wrongful act, having done so they feel shame, and their mind gives rise to remorse and regret.
Taixu's one pointed gloss on this section clarifies the "two kinds of anger" the text names: "anger at sentient beings" is anger directed at beings capable of feeling — a person, an animal, anyone who can be genuinely wronged; "anger at what is not sentient" is anger directed at anything without feeling at all — an object, a circumstance, the weather — any occasion at all capable of provoking a flash of irritation, whether or not there is truly anyone behind it to blame. A bodhisattva's patience, on this reading, has to cover both categories completely, since an undisciplined mind can just as easily lose its temper at a broken tool as at a hostile person.
Read as a whole, this section marks the turn from the private, almost meditative discipline of the previous milestone — dismantling an insult syllable by syllable — into patience as it actually shows up in a bodhisattva's outward life: a genuinely warm bearing that others enjoy being around, a vow of goodwill extended even to active enemies, and a long list of concrete daily practices — tending the sick, guarding the six senses, avoiding divisive speech, feeling real shame at one's own lapses — that give the abstract virtue a visible, livable shape.
6. Milestone: Householder and Renunciant — Why Patience Is Harder at Home
The chapter closes with a short, plainly stated distinction between the two kinds of bodhisattva this sutra has addressed throughout — and a candid admission about which of the two actually has the harder task in practicing patience.
「善男子！菩薩二種：一者、在家，二者、出家。出家菩薩修淨忍辱，是不為難；在家修忍，是乃為難。何以故？在家之人多惡因緣所纏遶故。」
"Good son, bodhisattvas are of two kinds: householder bodhisattvas and renunciant bodhisattvas. For a renunciant bodhisattva to cultivate pure patience is not difficult; for a householder to cultivate patience is truly difficult. Why is this so? Because a person living at home is bound about, on every side, by so many evil causes and conditions."
Taixu's own gloss on this closing line is brief and to the point: it exists specifically to make clear how much more difficult — and, by implication, how much more praiseworthy — it actually is for a householder to accomplish real patience, entangled as they are by far more numerous adverse conditions than someone who has left ordinary household life behind.
The observation lands with particular weight given who this sutra is actually spoken to. Every chapter so far has been addressed directly to Shansheng, a lay disciple, not to an assembly of renunciant monks. Closing the chapter on patience with this frank admission reads less like an abstract doctrinal note and more like a direct word to Shansheng himself, and to every householder listening alongside him: family friction, business dealings, and the constant daily press of desire and possession are exactly the "evil causes and conditions" a monastic's life is structured to minimize — which is precisely why the patience this chapter has just spent so long teaching matters most for someone who cannot simply walk away from any of it.