Today is the third day of Higan week, the three days before the equinox and the three days after. As explained in a Nichiren Shu brochure:

For Buddhists, this period is not just one characterized by days with almost equal portions of light and dark. Rather, it is a period in which we strive to consciously reflect upon ourselves and our deeds.

The today we consider the Perfection of Patience. For this Fall Higan week I’m using Hsuan Hua‘s commentary on the Lotus Sutra in which he discusses the 10 advantages of each pāramitā.

Today let’s discuss the ten advantages of practicing the paramita of patience. In this world, the harder something is to do, the more it’s worth doing. If the task isn’t difficult, it doesn’t have too much value. Therefore, even though it’s hard to practice patience, it brings great benefit and is of tremendous value. What are the ten advantages?

If, in the formative stage of practice, one cultivates patience, in the future one will receive in general the following ten benefits:

1. 1. Fire will not burn one. Why? Those who practice patience have no internal fire. If there’s no fire within, then fire from the outside has no way to harm one. If one has fire inside, one will get burned. It’s also said:With no deficiency internally,
      One does not attract trouble from outside.If you have problems inside, you’ll attract sickness from the outside. For example, if you catch a cold, it’s often because you’ve been doing a lot of false thinking internally, which leads to “inner” weakness. You then catch an “external” cold as a result. If you cultivate patience and internally extinguish your fiery temper, so that your nature is like dead ashes, then no external fire will be able to burn you.
   2. Knives will not hurt one. If one cultivates patience, one will not be injured by knives because there are no “knives or guns” within. Without “knives or guns” inside – that is, having no thoughts of harming others – external knives and guns can’t harm one. It’s said:If inside the house there is a superior person,
      Superior people will come to visit.
      If inside the house there are petty people,
      Petty people will stop by.If there are no knives or guns in your inherent nature, you won’t be hurt by knives or guns from the outside. This is genuine philosophy!
   3. Poison will not harm one. Not only can knives not harm one, neither can poison. If one has practiced patience to perfection, then,At knife point, I remain completely calm;
      Even poisoned, I am totally at ease.One will remain unscathed when encountering the danger of knives and poison. Patriarch Bodhidharma was poisoned six times by jealous rivals but didn’t die. Why? He’d practiced patience for countless eons and with its perfection had attained this pāramitā. Which pāramitā? The antidote to poison.
   4. Water will not drown one. One who cultivates patience to perfection won’t drown in water.
   5. Nonhumans will protect one. Nonhumans refers to gods, dragons, and other spiritual beings of the eightfold division. They will all look out for you and watch over your bodhimaṇḍ
   6. One will obtain a splendid and majestic appearance. Didn’t I tell you that if you cultivate patience, you’ll have a sublime appearance? You’ll delight all who see you and will make no one afraid. People will respect and cherish you and won’t be able to leave you even if they want to. They’ll always want to be around you. A splendid and majestic appearance is the physical manifestation of the purity of one’s thoughts when they’re free of defilement. It’s not the kind of beauty associated with glamour and sex appeal. The splendor and majesty of one’s appearance will inspire reverence. It won’t cause people to become emotionally infatuated or have impure thoughts.
   7. The lower destinies will be closed to one. What are the lower destinies? They refer to the three lower realms: the hells, the realm of animals, and the realm of hungry ghosts. The doors to these destinies will be closed to you. You won’t fall into the destinies of hungry ghosts and hell beings or be reborn as an animal.
   8. One will be born in the Brahma heavens. If you practice patience, in the future you can be born in the great Brahma heavens.
   9. One will be peaceful and joyful day and night. Throughout the three periods of the day and the three periods of the night, you’ll be peaceful and joyful. You won’t be worried about your business during the day and then in the evening wonder whether or not you’re going to lose your job the next day or if you’ll have anything to eat. Most people have a lot of worries and afflictions. If you practice patience, you won’t have these kinds of afflictions. Throughout the day and night, you’ll always be very peaceful and joyful, worry-free.
   10. One will never be separated from joy and happiness. You’ll always be in good spirits and will always be very happy. This kind of happiness isn’t based on external events and stimuli. Rather, it comes from within your inherent nature and is not a contrived display of happiness.

   These are the ten advantages of practicing patience.