INTERNAL FORBEARANCE AND EXTERNAL FORBEARANCE
Caller: For those who are accomplished in their spiritual cultivation, when they endure humiliation, their heart is in a state of unmoving suchness. As for us with lower-level of spiritual cultivation, though on the surface we may appear to be able to restrain from committing negative karma of speech, but internally we may still feel uneasy and may even sin in our mind. Can this superficial endurance be considered as practice of endurance at all? Or is this just a stage that one needs to go through to be able to truly practise forbearance in the future?
Master Jun Hong Lu: As a matter of fact, forbearance can be divided into external forbearance and internal forbearance. To endure humiliation on the outside is to keep one’s silence and not to scold the other party, while he may be violently active, or even cursing internally. It is as good as not enduring at all except that he has managed to show endurance in his action, not knowing that he has already violated the precept on his conscious level.
It is best for any external manifestation of tolerance to be based on the internal existence of this propensity, as this will have an eventual effect on one’s innermost being. When you cease talking, there is a chance that you will gradually gain control of your mind. This is also one way to help you practise forbearance from inside your heart. That said, what’s best is that one does not even feel like he is tolerating; this is when his external appearance will be most natural.
Caller: Yes.
Source: Shuohua20130308 18:08, Master Jun Hong Lu’s radio call-in program
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