If there are no aggressors or harm-doers, patience does not arise. It appears only in the presence of those who attack us. Given therefore that it is precisely an enemy that is the definite cause for the practice of patience, how can it possibly be said that the enemy is an obstacle to our merit and virtue? It does not make sense, for the former is the cause of the latter. It is the absence of the enemy that prevents patience from arising.
-Kunzang Pelden, "The Nectar of Manjushri's Speech," a detailed commentary on Shantideva's Way of the Bodhisattva
