Khanti - Wat Pah Nanachat

we’re stuck in the realm of samsara 30 . The definition of
“bhikkhu” which Luang Por Chah liked to quote and expound
upon is that the bhikkhu is “one who sees the danger in
samsara”. He was not advocating we practice discursive
meditation on the danger of birth into different realm, or a
contemplation of Buddhist cosmology, as much as talking
about samsara as we experience it moment by moment. In our
daily practice, samsara as that simple conditioned and
undiscerned movement towards the pleasant and movement
away from the unpleasant. A bhikkhu is one who goes against
the stream of that habit.
There is another beautiful traditional story about khanti
that I’d like to relate. The story begins with a certain arahant
who loved solitude and didn’t fulfil certain obligations to the
Sangha. He was, as I remember, living in a cave and refused to
attend an important meeting. As a consequence, he was called
before the elders and given a punishment. He was told that he
should start going on almsround to the house of a certain
brahmin who had wrong view, great anger against, and
contempt for Buddhist monks. The monk asked, ‘And how
long shall I do this for?’
The elders said, ‘Just keep doing it, just be patient.’
So every day the monk would go to this brahmin’s
house and stand in front of the house. When the brahmin saw
this Buddhist monk he got very angry and shut up all the doors
and windows and told all his family members under no
circumstances should they ever give food to Buddhist monks
and to this Buddhist monk in particular. So the monk stood
there in front of the shut-up house for a reasonable length of
time and then returned to the monastery. He went the second
30 samsara: the round of repeated birth in different lives
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