“PATIENT ENDURANCE,” we are taught in the Dhammapada, is “the foremost austerity.” Patience, endurance, forbearance, tolerance, acceptance, forgiveness—these are just a few of translations of the Pali term khanti (Sanskrit, ksanti), each subtly different from the others. Even scholars have difficulty finding consensus on khanti’s complex meaning. And across traditions, khanti is explained through different means: narrative episodes, hypothetical scenarios, philosophical debates, and by inclusion in didactic lists.
Anytime we attempt to translate a concept that originated in an ancient and foreign tongue, there is a danger of superimposing our Western understanding or injecting ideologies prevalent in the American mindfulness movement. Individuals habitually attach their own implications, experiences, beliefs, and emotional responses, which go beyond the literal definition. For this reason, I recommend we attempt to disentangle our intellectual understanding of khanti from how we actually relate to it in practice.
Contemporary practitioners sometimes phrase their understanding of khanti as “letting go.” Put this way, it might be easy to understand khanti as becoming numb, shrugging off oppressive situations or putting up with them until they go away. This “letting go” can suggest simply accepting that suffering is part of life, even surrendering to it. There is a persistent idea that as we move closer to the path of awakening, we turn away from the ways of the world. But what if that’s not it at all? What if, instead of turning away from the world, we can come to see the world—truly, intimately—and, from that place of clarity, bring about great transformation and healing?
To develop khanti, one must possess two basic motives: first, one must have a wholesome desire to attain peace and freedom from suffering for oneself; second, through compassion, one must have a desire to bring benefit for the harmony and welfare of others. So khanti is not only the development of mental habits that purify the mind of negative states like anger, ill will,
