Patient (1st)
The Buddha tells the mendicants about four ways of practice. The impatient practice is to answer abuse, annoyance, or argument with more of the same. The patient practice is not to answer back when someone abuses, annoys, or argues with you. The taming practice is restraint of the senses: when seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, or thinking, not getting caught up in the features and details, so that covetousness and displeasure do not become overwhelming. The calming practice is not to tolerate a sensual, malicious, or cruel thought, but to give it up and dispel it as soon as it has arisen.
The full text
Numbered Discourses 4.164 · 17. Practice · Patient (1st) · translated by Bhikkhu Sujato · public domain (CC0) · about 1 min · on SuttaCentral
“Mendicants, there are four ways of practice. What four? Impatient practice, patient practice, taming practice, and calming practice. And what’s the impatient practice? It’s when someone abuses, annoys, or argues with you, and you abuse, annoy, or argue right back at them. This is called the impatient practice.
And what’s the patient practice? It’s when someone abuses, annoys, or argues with you, and you don’t abuse, annoy, or argue back at them. This is called the patient practice.
And what’s the taming practice? When a mendicant sees a sight with their eyes, they don’t get caught up in the features and details. If the faculty of sight were left unrestrained, bad unskillful qualities of covetousness and displeasure would become overwhelming. For this reason, they practice restraint, protecting the faculty of sight, and achieving its restraint. When they hear a sound with their ears … When they smell an odor with their nose … When they taste a flavor with their tongue … When they feel a touch with their body … When they know an idea with their mind, they don’t get caught up in the features and details. If the faculty of mind were left unrestrained, bad unskillful qualities of covetousness and displeasure would become overwhelming. For this reason, they practice restraint, protecting the faculty of mind, and achieving its restraint. This is called the taming practice.
And what’s the calming practice? It’s when a mendicant doesn’t tolerate a sensual, malicious, or cruel thought. They don’t tolerate any bad, unskillful qualities that have arisen, but give them up, dispel them, calm them, eliminate them, and obliterate them. This is called the calming practice. These are the four ways of practice.”