An alternative translation of this eighteenth practice is "Do not retaliate." When someone is insulting, hostile, or just thoughtless to us, this practice entails not retaliating, neither manifestly in actions of body or speech, nor even with our minds. As Shantideva says, there is no greater austerity than patience. A dharma practice certainly should be focused on developing this inner fortitude; insofar as we can bear the brunt of others' hostility and aggression, our dharma practice is acting as an antidote for our self-grasping. Anything that helps us to measure the present level of our self-grasping is to our benefit, and one such measure consists in noting how easily we are insulted. Being easily affronted by others' hostility indicates a strong sense of self-grasping, that surfaces as self-importance or indignation. When a vicious word produces just the slightest flutter but no contorted fist in our hearts, it is a very good sign indeed.

Excerpted from: A Passage from Solitude, by B. Alan Wallace. 1992 by Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca, New York 14851.