What is the Tolerance of Non-Arising (anutpattika-dharma-kṣānti)?

Non-arising (anutpāda) has two meanings. One meaning refers to the worldly dharma of the five aggregates: although, from the perspective of surface phenomena, there is arising and ceasing, in essence they are empty and non-arising; arising is merely an illusory false appearance—arising yet non-arising. This cognitive wisdom is the wisdom of realizing the selflessness of persons (pudgala-nairātmya) with respect to the five aggregates. Accepting and acquiescing to the selflessness of the five aggregates is a great wisdom called the patience of non-arising (anutpattika-dharma-kṣānti); this is the Hīnayāna patience of non-arising. The other meaning of non-arising refers to the true reality of the dharma realm, the tathāgatagarbha, which is non-arising, inherently existent, and neither arising nor ceasing. Being able to accept and acquiesce to the non-arising of the tathāgatagarbha is an even greater wisdom, also called the patience of non-arising; this is the Mahāyāna patience of non-arising. When the Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna non-arising are observed together, one knows that all dharmas, worldly and transcendent, are non-arising, all are nirvāṇa and quiescent, and there is not a single dharma that can confront the mind—and those whose minds are confronted and those whose minds are not are also non-arising.

Why is it called "patience" (kṣānti)? In the past, one always believed the five aggregates to be truly and solidly existent; although they could arise and cease, one felt that the phenomena of arising and ceasing were also real, not knowing that the five aggregates are non-arising. Now, having realized from both the Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna perspectives that the five aggregates are empty and selfless, being able to accept this extremely difficult-to-fathom principle and patiently bear and take it upon oneself requires very great wisdom. Without wisdom, one cannot patiently accept and acknowledge it. Therefore, patience is a kind of wisdom.

For the Hīnayāna to attain the patience of non-arising, one needs to study and cultivate the principle of the Four Noble Truths, engaging in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) on the five aggregates to eliminate self-view and realize the emptiness and selflessness of the five aggregates. Although the phenomenon of emptiness exists, this emptiness is also empty, and therefore it is also non-arising. If a Hīnayāna practitioner can patiently accept this principle, it is called the patience of non-arising. The wisdom realm of this patience of non-arising is somewhat inferior and coarser than the Mahāyāna patience of non-arising, and even more inferior and shallower than the wisdom of the patience of non-arising dharmas (anutpattika-dharma-kṣānti) realized by bodhisattvas who have attained the bhūmis.

The Mahāyāna patience of non-arising is the wisdom realm of Mahāyāna bodhisattvas who have realized the fundamental mind, the tathāgatagarbha. At the moment of sudden enlightenment to the tathāgatagarbha, one also suddenly awakens to the principle of the non-arising of the five aggregates: both the tathāgatagarbha and the five aggregates are non-arising. When the mind bears, accepts, and patiently acquiesces to this principle, the wisdom of the patience of non-arising appears. Previously, one did not know that within the operation of the five-aggregate body there exists a tathāgatagarbha that neither arises nor ceases; now one knows that the tathāgatagarbha exists. But before realization, this was merely intellectual understanding; only after realization does one know that the fundamental mind truly does not arise—this is true knowing. At the same time as this true knowing, one also realizes that the five aggregates are generated by the tathāgatagarbha and exist in dependence upon it. The five aggregates arise and cease moment after moment, and the karmic actions they create exist as seeds within the tathāgatagarbha. Only after those seeds take root and sprout in later lives do new five aggregates come into being. Therefore, the tathāgatagarbha cannot cease; and since it cannot cease, it is naturally not a dharma that is generated.

Patience (kṣānti) means to endure, to accept, to acquiesce; it also carries the meaning of abiding. Patience under insult means to endure and accept others' humiliation without striking back. The patience in the four aids to penetration (nirvedha-bhāgīya) means that the mind accepts, acknowledges, and acquiesces to the emptiness of the grasper and the grasped, the emptiness of the five aggregates of grasping, and the emptiness of the eighteen elements (dhātus). The patience in the patience of non-arising and the patience of non-arising dharmas also carries this same meaning: having accepted, acknowledged, and acquiesced to the non-arising and selflessness of all dharmas, there is no longer any resistance or doubt in the mind—this is the manifestation of great wisdom having been born.