Today I was in line at the post office waiting to send off a CD that someone ordered from my website. There was one clerk who was serving a customer and a woman waiting to be served. I observed how the woman waiting grew frustrated internally with each minute that passed. Every time the person being served asked the clerk a question I could see this woman fidget and sigh as if her precious time was being squandered.
It’s interesting how internal frustration out of impatience begins to overflow into the external. First the agitation begins in the mind, then it starts to affect the organs, adrenal glands, heart rate and breathing. With the nervous tension built up it spills out into visual signs that other people can witness, like the rolling of eyes, frowns, and other body language.
What this tells me as a yogi is that the person who enters into this state has allowed poison to enter into their mind-body. And just like any poison it contaminates the entire organism and its destructive effect lingers for a time. As yogis and seekers we meditate to keep the mind still so that these poisons do not enter into us and disturb the bliss we have earned. I say earned because non-bliss, which has been learned and accumulating over one’s life, has become the state of being for most people.
Without patience perpetual bliss is impossible. Patience brings about a feeling of contentment in any situation, a calm, relaxed state. With impatience we have short tempers, we feel the pressure of time, we think everyone is stupid, we diminish the radiance of the aura, and we hurt our bodies. When you feel impatient you also lose your natural sense of common courtesy, the ability to joyfully open the door for a stranger or let someone go ahead of you at the checkout line. It is a condition that fosters the ego and the positive mind which relates to future. The ego contracts and the mind projects concepts of what should be, ie, “I should be getting served by now, but this fool is wasting my time!” Thus you lose your enjoyment of the here-now by the thought-clouds the mind imagines.
It is good to note that impatience is relative to the presupposed value of your time at any given moment. That is, impatience works on a sliding scale: if you go out for a casual drive with no imposed time limit you may feel a hint of frustration if you catch a red light, but if you perceive your time as extremely limited you will grow increasingly agitated at that same red light with every moment wasted. But I say to you that every moment spent in agitation, frustration and impatience is truly a moment wasted.
Patience can be cultivated. Practice walking slow, taking your time to eat, offering common courtesies that you would not normally give. Patience is such a beautiful virtue to possess and from it so many other virtues arise: kindness, compassion, a joyful spirit, helpfulness, playfulness, and the ability to see the miracles that abound when you take the time to look.
Blessings,
Johannes ~ Sevaji