Kshanti

Kṣānti (Sanskrit) or khanti (Pāli) is patience, forbearance and forgiveness. It is one of the pāramitās in both Theravāda and Mahāyāna Buddhism. The term can be translated as "patience," "steadfastness," or "endurance," and encompasses meanings such as "forbearance," "acceptance," and "receptivity."

Kṣānti has several applications: It can refer to patience with others, that is, the ability to endure abuse and hardship inflicted by sentient beings while maintaining compassion and commitment to their liberation. Kṣānti can also refer to endurance on the path, the resolve to withstand the difficulties encountered during the long journey toward Buddhahood without losing focus on liberating all beings from saṃsāra. Finally, it can also mean receptivity to the truths of reality. This is a profound acceptance of the ultimate truths, including impermanence, suffering, emptiness, and non-self, as realized during advanced stages of meditation.

Examples in the Pāli canon identify using forbearance in response to others' anger, cuckolding, torture, and even fatal assaults.

Khanti is the first word of the ovāda-pāṭimokkha gātha (Pāli for "pāṭimokkha Exhortation Verse"), found in the Dhammapada, verse 184:

Elsewhere in the Dhammapada, khanti is found in verse 399:

He endures—unangered—
insult, assault, & imprisonment.
His army is strength;
his strength, forbearance:
he's what I call
a brahman.

In the Samyutta Nikaya, the Buddha tells of an ancient battle between devas and asuras during which the devas were victorious and the asura king Vepacitti was captured and imprisoned. When the deva lord Sakka visited Vepacitti in prison, Vepacitti "abused and reviled him with rude, harsh words," to which Sakka did not respond in kind. Afterwards, Sakka's charioteer questioned Sakka about this, expressing concern that some would see Sakka's response as indicative of fear or weakness. Sakka replied:

It is neither through fear nor weakness
That I am patient with Vepacitti.
How can a wise person like me
Engage in combat with a fool?
...Of goals that culminate in one's own good
None is found better than patience.
...One who repays an angry man with anger
Thereby makes things worse for himself.
Not repaying an angry man with anger,
One wins a battle hard to win.
He practices for the welfare of both,
His own and the other's,
When, knowing that his foe is angry,
He mindfully maintains his peace.
When he achieves the cure of both—
His own and the other's—
The people who consider him a fool
Are unskilled in the Dhamma.