Originally recorded: 2020/05/06
… Patience is an invitation to be present for what is so, here and now. It’s not waiting for something better. It’s the presence for each moment unfolding.
Zen Master Suzuki Roshi, when he was alive, said that patience isn’t even the right translation of this word, a better word is: constancy.
Our meditation, our love relationships, our political activism, our work in community, our care for our body and families, all ask for a constancy, a willingness to be present for what is.
So what’s a helpful thing to do with our impatience? Notice the impatience. WOW! That’s humbling. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been humbled by my impatience for many years.
In part, it is understanding that difficult times are the most fruitful times in practice because that’s when the practice of patience comes most into play. It’s natural that we want to turn away from difficulty. No one wants to go toward pain, nobody.
We distract ourselves, we deny and blame others, we rush around in a futile attempt to fix it somehow. To be able to practice patience we have to do the opposite, we have to turn toward the difficulty and embrace it like an ally.
Impatience doesn’t mean passivity, there is an active quality to patience. It has a persistence to it, a gentle persistence with connecting to experience. A constancy. A steadfastness….