Tricycle | Awake in the World

When asked about the problem of responding to violence, the Dalai Lama replied, “Tolerance and patience do not imply submission or giving in to injustice.” What is most important, he says, is not to give in to anger or hatred. If we cannot control others’ actions, we can control our responses to them. Sopa, the Tibetan word for patience, comes from a root that means “able to withstand.” The truly courageous person, says the Dalai Lama, is able to withstand harm without the mental suffering that hatred and anger bring. The violence I suffer every day is the slow, niggling kind committed by a degenerative illness bent on emptying me out one teaspoon at a time. Every day, I relearn that suffering is an activity of the mind. My hours fill with torment or bliss depending on my own degree of sopa, my ability to withstand physical harm while maintaining an inner calm.