Patience

Wisdom Teachings
Fundamentals of Spiritual Life
Patience and Perseverance

Many people would like to walk the path of Light and acquire spiritual knowledge. But in order to take the first step on the path, we need a great deal of patience, forbearance and tolerance. For modern people, these are three very difficult qualities to cultivate, because impatience is the keynote of our civilisation, along with growing intolerance. Particularly highly skilled and intelligent people often lack patience. Without patience, we cannot progress on the path. For if an impatient and intolerant person were given the internal implements of wisdom, they would not know to use them with care. This would cause difficulties for themselves and others. Only through patience, tolerance and waiting can we learn love and compassion. These qualities of the heart open the door to our inner selves. And only through patience can we expand our consciousness to greater heights where wisdom resides.

In the lives of disciples, we see that they were able to quietly and patiently endure a great deal of nonsense and personal injustice in their environment. Madam Blavatsky's ‘Golden Stairs’ speak of ‘a courageous endurance of personal injustice’ as one of the basic qualities that learners are to acquire. However, we tend to fight for our rights and think that others are responsible for our difficulties. We look for faults in others; often we are disappointed in them and criticise them openly or covertly. Those who speak or think badly of others are not on the path of Light. Through our critical attitude, we create an insurmountable obstacle to the help that the Divine offers.

The Saturn Principle presents to every student who seeks the Truth their personal limitations. Saturn is considered the “old man”. He is the embodiment of patience and teaches such patience to the students. Through Saturn, we learn to wait and, while we wait, we see how much impatience there is within us. Many are overly anxious; they are not relaxed while waiting, but worried about a possible event. Therefore, they do a lot before the event arrives, and when it does arrive, they react incorrectly. In order to take care of things at the right time, we need a peaceful, balanced mind. That is why patience is advised, and a receptive attitude is preferred to a proactive attitude. A balanced person acts neither too early nor too late, but at the right time. They are open to all possible situations and solutions.

Let's say we are currently studying the teachings of Saturn. A person comes in and interrupts our study. We feel disturbed and think, ‘Of all times, this person comes in unannounced and wants to talk to me. I have something else to do.’ We become impatient, but we should remember that this person is actually Saturn, who wants to teach us a lesson in patience. We must not ignore the lessons that life teaches us.

We are to patiently accept what comes, without reacting irritably and angrily to disturbances in our daily lives. Saturn teaches us the Law of Acceptance. Due to our own limitations, we often have to wait for a long time. When we are asked to wait, it is best to simply just wait. Why should we do other things when it is time to wait? Wanting to be active when waiting is required is a symptom of impatience.

When Hercules was given the task by his teacher to go and fetch the three golden apples from the tree of life, he wanted to set off immediately and get the job done. But his teacher said to him: “No, my son, don't be in a hurry. Work it out with patience. Proceed not at great speed, but at God's speed. God's speed is the speed that is allowed to you by time. Time has a programme for you; if you try to be early, you will miss, and if you try to be late, you will also miss. Meet time as it dictates. Respond to the situations as are offered to you through time. Don't try to be speedy. The labour requires patience”.

We need to keep our eyes and ears open to see and hear the Master from any angle and from any form. In his process of searching, Hercules gradually lost the presence of the Master. Full of compassion, the Master sent him signals through messengers, but Hercules was not alert enough to capture them. The messenger returned to the teacher and said, ‘He pays a deaf ear. What shall I do?’ The teacher replied, ‘We told him to be patient, and we have to be patient also. We should give him enough time till he gains insight.’ Slowly, it dawned on Hercules which direction he should take, and the thought struck him like a flash.

Sometimes, thoughts about how to proceed strike us like a flash of light on the path, especially when we are patient and open. It is best to see the Divine in every situation and that it is HE who has prescribed us a dose of waiting. In this way, we maintain our trust in the help of the Divine, and we fulfil and enjoy our duties with patience.

Master CVV many times humorously remarked that he came to earth to reduce the thankless duty of Saturn. It is a symbolic statement. That means, we the humanity respond to the vibrations of the Saturn often in terms of difficulties and inconveniences, and only rarely in terms of convenience and understanding. For the purpose of Saturn's work is to eliminate impatience, irritability, misunderstandings and hasty actions.

The Master informs us that we are to be patient in order to work with him. Being able to wait and do what needs to be done is often pointed out by great initiates. With Saturn's blessing, our desire nature is slowly overcome, and patience, absence of expectations and a sense of duty remain as an inner attitude. These qualities enable our thought plane to become stable and our way of life to become orderly and ritualised.

Regulating our mind and enabling it to be stable and in a pleasant state requires a great deal of patience. It is an enormous process of taming, and it is easier to tame an animal than our mind. The seers of antiquity found a way to tame the mind by focusing the mind on the respiration.

We observe the inhalation and exhalation and especially the interval in between. At first, it is not easy for us to remain in the state of the observer. Every thought that arises takes us out of the observation and we allow ourselves to be carried away by the thoughts. Consistent, patient practice imprints a new pattern on the mind. Thoughts slow down and retreat to their source, the heart. We keep our attention on the heart and, over time, feel its pulsation. Then we say that the mind is stable and in a pleasant state. Only when thoughts slow down can we truly meditate and pray.

What seemed impossible gradually becomes possible. Thoughts cease to arise and we remain in harmony with the Lord within us. In this deep state of meditation, breathing and all secondary thoughts cease, and even the pulse is only faintly present. Only the original thought, I Am, I exist, remains like a still lake.

For such deep meditation, we are to have organised our personality for a long time. Instead of focusing on the heart, we can also focus our gaze on the brow centre between the eyes. Patience enables the consolidation of awareness and the subsiding of thought waves.

It is recommended to breathe in and out deeply three times before we begin praying. The mind calms down and prayers and meditations become easier for us. We give our attention to the pulsation and we dive deep. 'Dip deep' is Master CVV's mantra for being in the pulsating principle. Those who achieve this are unaffected by the many noises in our environment.

We will recognise the change in the vibrations of our mind by the fact that our irritability and impatience towards other people are transformed into compassion and love, and we feel a brotherhood with all people. For example, when we see bad people, we are to be able to understand that they are not bad people, but only people who behave badly. With this understanding, we give them a greater chance to improve. Many people have weaknesses, just as we have our own weaknesses. If our circumstances permit, we can offer them a helping hand.

Transforming every aspect of life in a positive way requires a high degree of willingness, understanding and patience. What we do today is the groundwork for the future. At the moment, there is great injustice and greed. In times of injustice, we are to call upon the light even more. The prevailing energy is that of darkness, but we are preparing the seeds of light, and when dawn breaks, they will grow. The Hierarchy tells us to be patient and wait for the right moment. And so, we remain patient and continue to work for the Light.

Sources used: K.P. Kumar: Hercules. The Man and the Symbol. Dhanishta, Visakhapatnam, India (www.aquariusbookhouse.com)