Creative Guidance-IASbaba, Inspirational & Educative Articles
Most important life lessons – Patience:
One of the hardest things to understand is the absence of something. Even harder than that is knowing the importance of the absence of something. We can very easily attach meaning to something we can see, touch, smell, taste and experience. It is a lot harder to attach meaning to something that we cannot directly experience. Patience is one such thing.
Patience is simply the absence of activity. When there is nothing happening and you can be perfectly alright with that void and empty space of life, you will know what patience is. Patience is not waiting for something. When someone says I am patiently waiting, you can know for sure that the very thing that is missing there is patience. Again, let me repeat it. Patience is not waiting for something. True patience is the ability to experience nothingness.
Why is nothingness important – it is important because life is exciting only in bits and pieces. Rest of the time, life is simply a grind – we all know that. How we experience moments of non-excitement is the secret to our patience. When we are fully contented with the experience of being in the present moment, patience will find us.
Let us see why patience is important. Patience is important because life is long; it is very long. Just pause for a moment and reflect on all those moments when you lost patience. Reflect on all those moments when you felt your life is absolutely destroyed. Reflect on all those moment when you felt helpless and vulnerable. Reflect on all those moments when you felt there is absolutely no hope for your future. Just imagine if you had a little more patience to handle all those moments. Just imagine if you could have said that this too shall pass.
Patience is the single biggest decider of our happiness and peace of mind. Really, it is that simple. A person who has no patience will land himself in trouble more often than not, simply because he cannot wait – simply because he cannot pause. The difference between happiness and misery is patience. It does not matter where you are, it does not matter what your life situation is – just knowing that life is long can make a world of difference.
It is so easy to get caught up in the ebb and flow of the present momentary emotions & desires and forget that life is a continuous flowing stream that is branching in all directions without your permission. There is no way to control the flow of this stream. The best thing that we can do is hang tight and enjoy the ride and remember that the journey is long – there is so much more to experience and enjoy.
Next time you feel like you have hit a dead end, if you feel like you have lost it, if you feel like there is no way forward, just remember that life is long and this too shall pass. Just remember that patience is everything. If only we can learn how to hold our breath and let a difficult situation pass us by, if only we can learn to be a little more patient…Life would be so much easier.
“This article is a part of the creative endeavor of Meditation Farm and IASBABA.”
