The Perfection of Patience

Once there was a great teacher called Petrul Rinpoche. He did not belong to any monastery but traveled everywhere about the country, without any attendants or baggage. One day he went to visit a certain hermit who had been living alone in a hut for many years; in fact he had become quite famous….Petrul Rinpoche began asking him why on earth he had come to live in such a remote and wild part of the country. He knew the answer to that one, and explained that he had been there for twenty years meditating. “At the moment,” he said, “I am meditating on the perfection of patience.”

“that’s a good one,” said his visitor, and leaned forward as if confiding something to him: “a couple of frauds like us could never manage anything like that.”

The hermit rose from his seat “You’re the liar,” he said. “What made you come here? Why couldn’t you leave a poor hermit like me to practice meditation in peace?”

“And now,” said Petrul Rinpoche, “where is your perfection of patience?”.