I Can't Wait To Be Patient!

Patience will just have to wait.

The Struggle is Real

Patience is something we all struggle with. And who isn’t struggling with something?

“When will things change? When will I find what I’m looking for? How long must I wait for the rewards I deserve? How much longer until all this will be over?”

Sound familiar?

I struggle with patience. Well, perhaps it’s more like wrestling. Sometimes impatience has me pinned, sometimes I’ve got a handhold, pressing its sanguine face into the hard of the mat: “Eat it, Patience!”

« Then I take a deep breath »

And realize that patience is more than this. It’s the wise instructor that sidesteps struggle, resists the wrestle, dodges the duel… because patience isn’t a contest. No. Patience is a practice.

Meditation, anyone?

Last year I was preparing an apology. That is, I was preparing a guided meditation on apology for my class at the University of Amsterdam.

In the midst of my preparations, a new focus entered my consciousness. It revealed its qualities by the very nature of its arrival — gently, definitively, at precisely the right moment to pierce my awareness. It required of me exactly what it wanted to offer my class: itself.

So I apologized about my apology meditation — “Sorry not sorry” — and we meditated on patience. Patience as a practice.

And that’s how practice becomes the teacher.

What is Patience?

Patience is the infinite, intuitively present part of ourselves. It’s the place within us where we are eternally at peace. It is our inner self that observes all that transpires within, through and around us.

It is quiet and unhurried. It is sensitive, not numb. Wise, not dumb. Awake. Active. Alert. Alive. It is presence. Keenly interested and on the edge-of-its-seat. Patience sharpens the spear tip of our awareness.

One who is patient trusts, ever-faithful, that all outcomes come to pass as they should; all events occur as they must; all solutions appear when their opportune moment arrives. Patience offers us a gentle unfolding that comes when we embrace its gift.

With patience, ALL is not only possible, ALL is inevitable.

Patience — Worth the Wait?

Patience isn’t waiting for something to happen. Patience is active, not passive. A state of awareness, not boredom. A place of alertness, not aloofness. Focus, not distraction. Decisiveness, not indecision. Certainty, not skepticism.

It is a release, a relinquishment of control. It is an understanding that there are cosmic forces at work with greater acuity and better planning of our future than our own.

Patient as a Feather

If a question burns within us, when we practice patience, the answer falls like a feather, arriving of its own drifting accord precisely when it means to. There is no rushing its descent into our awareness. No expediting its arrival.

« Deep breath »

Our role is to remain open to all the joys, experiences and beautiful synchronicities that cross our path in this state of expectancy. To enjoy the feather’s errant path as it glides to and fro rather than will it into our clutches.

When we release what SHOULD BE and accept BEING.

Then life is a piece of cake. Maybe chocolate layer, maybe strawberry cheese, maybe key lime pie. You never know. And that’s the point: when we release insistence, we relax resistance.

The sagacious Sadhguru

Enlightenment is allowing what IS to be what IS without resistance to what IT is.

Sadhguru tells us that all disappointment and unhappiness arises from feeling that life’s outcomes and events differ from how we think they should be.

When we drop our mental and emotional resistance to what is, to the timing of what is, all of our cognitive and emotional dissonance dissolves.

When we release our expectations and diminish our demands, we free the Universe to surprise us, to surpass our expectations.

Then we can receive everything with equanimity because we’ve made space for contentment. Peace. Trust. Ease. Happiness. Joy. Delight.

Simple. But not easy. (But it can be a piece of cake.)

Divine Timing

Patience, then, is power emanating from the stillness and quiet acceptance of one who trusts that all is delivered in perfect timing for the greatest benefit of oneself and all things in the abundant blossoming of the cosmos.

It is trust in Divine timing. It is confidence in the wisdom of Source. It is faith in the limitless powers of cosmic unfolding that have perfectly organized this infinitude of time and space, matter and non-matter.

It is a (quantum) release. An exhalation. A sigh of proclamation that we can rely on the Divine’s ability to handle things.

Stress is always related to time. ~ Modern Monk

When we act in accordance with its rhythms — no matter what we ask of it — then our request only solicits the minimal: minimal effort, minimal exertion, minimal organization.

Because the Universe has infinitely intelligent presence of awareness to rightfully place opportunities at our feet from its liminal space of becoming.

If we don’t ask on OUR limited human time-frame, but patiently within the Universe’s eternal time-frame, then It takes the least effort and most efficient path to deliver our optimal result — which is what we actually need.

“I’ll take it from here.” ~ The Universe

The Universe has gotcha covered. That’s the paradox. (And paradoxes mean we’re onto something. It’s where the truth lies.)

When we ask for something, no matter the scope — how big, how epic, how grandiose, how dreamy, how pie-in-the-sky-impossible — through patience we ask in a way that demands the least from the Infinite.

Not the most. The least.

Because we allow It to do its thing without our interference nor demands nor sense of “perfect” timing. We patiently trust in the cosmic tempo and voilà — synchronicity!

Patient Power

Have you ever met a powerful businessperson or martial arts master or Head of State or Chairwoman of a movie studio or spiritual leader — like Amma, or the Dalai Lama, or Nelson Mandela?

Does Nelson Mandela seem stressed?

Does their demeanor seem rushed and harried, stressed to get things done? Worried that they’ll miss an opportunity? That there isn’t enough time in the day? That they must hurry along for fear of missing out? That they could possibly lose an opportunity, forgo a possibility, overlook an imperative, or allow an epic engagement to slide? Must they be in continual pursuit?

No. Their quiet power stems from confidence and trust that everything will naturally come their way.

If you’re the CEO of major enterprise, all the important deals flow to you.

If you’re the leader of a nation, all pertinent matters of the day requiring your attention land on your desk.

If you’re a guru, the student appears when you’re ready to teach.

If you’re a movie studio boss, all the best projects come your way for the greenlight.

There is power in patience. And true power is patient.

Those in power know that all paths lead to them. All energy arises as required. All spiritual insight makes itself known at precisely the right moment for its greatest efficacy. All things miraculously show up for those who practice this sacred art of trust and faith.

Masters of patience are masters of the miraculous. They are often themselves miraculous.

Truly powerful people are patient. The truth is, that’s how they became powerful in the first place.

The truly powerful are in an unhurried state to negotiate, to force a decision or rush to judgement. They frustrate opponents and challenge students by merely waiting them out. Knowing that the true nature of their opposition, their issue, their intention, will reveal itself in time.

One doesn’t become powerful and then learn to be patient. First, comes patience. Then power.

And this is the kind of power that is true power. Not exerting one’s will over others. Not demanding something from the Universe. Not insisting on an outcome ahead of schedule or according to one’s own perception of when things must happen.

Power is when one resonates a vibrant force that magnetizes all the best opportunities to oneself. Patience magnifies this effect.

« Deep breath »

Lessons from the Best

Siddhartha—the titular character from Herman Hesse’s classic novel of enlightenment—drew his power from three things.

Before being educated in business and becoming enormously successful in matters material he told his mentor-to-be that he possessed just three skills: “I can fast. I can think. And I can wait.”

That’s it: Fast. Think. Wait.

Wait a minute! He had patience. And in time, all things came to him. Including enlightenment. Which poured into him alongside a sacred river. An illustration of how all good things flow to those who wait — like Siddhartha.

As water flows downstream, each molecule in unhurried fashion awaits its turn, knowing that it will get pulled along by gravity on its descent to its lowest point, the sea, as all things are pulled into the gravity well of a patient consciousness.

All things are pulled into the gravity well of a patient consciousness.

Gandhi, India’s colossus of peace, well-known for his daily meditation practice, once famously said “I have so much to do today I shall have to meditate twice as long.”

So much to do. And in no rush to do it.

Gandhi went opposite: he sat in quiet meditation knowing that all that needed to be accomplished would be accomplished. He enlisted the still, timeless aspect of himself to leverage the Universe on his behalf.

That is patient power: Not inaction, but patience in action.

Good vs. Best

Typically, when we want something, we want it NOW. We think we know what’s good for us and we want it immediately. But the Universe knows what’s best.

Not just good. But BEST.

And It has ALL POSSIBILITIES at its disposal: an infinite supply of invention, all the hard-to-come-by concert tickets, unlimited wine in its cellar, perpetual partners to fit your profile, limitless locales to call home.

And It doesn’t just want what’s good for you, it wants your OPTIMAL. Better than you could ever conceive or imagine for yourself. It wants your peak, pinnacle, apex because then it’s optimal for everyone else and optimal for the great cosmic unfolding of ALL THAT IS.

The best things in life are worth waiting for. That’s what makes them the best. Instant gratification leaves as quickly as it arrived — instantly! So you gotta exercise patience. You gotta practice. You gotta train that muscle.

When you absolutely, positively have to have it overnight

But what about when you can’t wait? You want to. You’d like to. But you just… CAN’T. Well, get ready to settle for less than the best.

We’ve all heard the adage that if we need something done, we can get it two of three ways: 1) Fast 2) Good 3) Cheap.

The remarkable thing about master practitioners of patience is they actually receive this: 1) Perfectly timed 2) Best quality 3) Priceless.

So, Impatient One, take your pick. Choose your poison. Or its antidote.

Or else, as David Letterman once jokingly admonished viewers of his show, “If it’s less than you expect it’s probably more than you deserve.”

Late Night humor.

Patience = Feathery Trust

Without fail, that which we are patiently anticipating feathers its way toward us. With the same reliable inevitability as the sun rising, the moon setting, the tides pooling in and out, the turning of life to death and returning to birth anew.

The answer or decision or information or event or person or opportunity that we are patiently awaiting comes to rest—almost imperceptibly—into our open palm. Our duty is to extend an outstretched hand, relying on the feather to find its way to us, meandering an elusive path though it may seem.

Palm It

So make your query. Put in your order. Proffer your request. Ask the Universe. Then open the palm of your awareness. Visualize your witness, your all-seeing eye, your childlike “presence” transforming into the open, outstretched, up-turned palm of a soft, receptive hand: your own.

Then trust that your request or question or wish or dream or desire will loft its way into your heart like a downy feather from the heavens above.

As Axl Rose himself tells us… all it takes is patience.

Some more patience. Just a little patience.

« Deep breath »

Can’t wait? Yeah, me neither.