Balance. Purpose. Enlightenment.
The Patience path to peace is one approach taught in the Lemurian Philosophy to create a more tranquil life. To those who have not walked this path, it may appear simple: all you have to do is not react to the things that would otherwise frustrate and irritate. Not so! Patience is not passiveness. It requires unusual self-control and is an essential step toward self-mastery.
Here are two stories from today’s Lemurians showing how they are using patience to gain conscious control over their lives and affairs:
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In the Lemurian Philosophy we have a time-honored explanation of the Virtue Patience from one of the Elder Brothers who guide our Work:
He whose rice crop has failed and whose children know want, yet can listen with tolerant understanding to him who has a broken fingernail, knows patience.
As with other statements in the Lemurian Philosophy, I recognized this one as important and even memorized it, but I had no real feeling for its meaning or how such a thing could even be accomplished, until a day when I had a medical appointment.
The weather was frigid, so I decided to take the bus instead of walking as usual. The bus was running very late and I started to worry that I might not make my appointment on time. When at last it came and I got on, I was totally wrapped up in my own concerns. The people getting on and off the bus were no more than impediments holding me back as I counted the minutes to my appointment time.
Recognizing this self-absorbed intolerance for what it was, I decided to make the Lemurian effort to set myself completely aside and focus on those other riders. What were their needs? What were they like? This shift of focus had the welcome effect of eliminating all sense of worry and brought back a measure of calm, further helping me tune into the people and activities around me.
I was amazed at how well this worked and the memory of it stayed with me for days. I felt I had a small but valuable success with patience, and began to think about seeing myself aside and thinking of others as a potential cure for many ills. I went back to the lesson that teaches how to develop patience, and after reading the quotation from the Elder Brother, I wrote in the margin: “He set aside self-interest to think of others before himself.”
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Before I became a Lemurian, I had memorized a Bible verse, but never had a thought about what it meant:
“Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire,” (James 1:4)
After working on the Lemurian virtues for many years, now I feel I can probably delve into that verse for the rest of my life and get deeper meanings every time I do. What a wonderful thing to know that when we do develop patience to the nth degree, we will be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. I am overwhelmed with the power in that verse and determined to keep it as my goal.
I had been enjoying picking my grandkids up at school one day a week for my daughter, but then her work hours changed and now she is delivering the kids to me at 6:30 and I take them to school every morning. Last week it was pouring rain and I had three and a half hours in the car every day. I had such patience, never once feeling stressed or sorry for myself and enjoyed the time with the kids. Actually got them talking about something other than video games a few times! It was so easy to practice patience and so much more fun than exploding with impatience.
When I picked up my grandson at school the other day, I was a little early, and he was ten minutes late. It seemed longer, and I was getting worried . . . not really impatient, but worried that we hadn’t understood each other. He didn’t have his phone so I couldn’t text him. When he finally came, I didn’t show impatience at all but merely said, “Why so late?” He said his binder had been stolen the day before and the teacher was giving him the work that was stolen so he could redo it. I was so grateful I hadn’t shown any impatience with that dear boy!
Patience even has so much to do with grief! I said goodbye to my husband very recently and I have found that expecting to get over someone you have spent 60 years with in a few days or months, or years, or ever, is not understanding patience and letting it have its perfect work.
Dr. Stelle wrote: “When all else has failed, try patience. It will save you many heartaches. It will solve an unbelievable number of your hardest problems, and most of the time, is actually the shortest path to success. It will bring into your environment a peace that can be experienced in no other way.”
Copyright © 2019 Lemurian Fellowship
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I am glad for this article and the good comments. This is one virtue I get an opportunity to use,
(or not), many times a day. I am noticing how my people pleasing tendencies are tied up in this.
The remedy for this confusion and haste comes from the teachings; to focus more on fulfilling
universal law and the principles that underlie so much of the mundane (though still important).
Other virtues are needed, and ‘listening’, so that a greater depth and ability to observe are
given a chance to develop. Thanks!
Thank you for a most thoughtful comment, Tom. The more we can use what we have been blessed to receive in our Philosophy, the more rapid our advancement can be.
Thank you for two enjoyable and thought provoking example of use of Patience. Reminds me of a situation recently putting up a new fence. During the process, I ran into difficulties with the weather and not having the right tools to remove concrete that I came across. However, when I was able to sit back and let patience (with myself) have its place, I could gather peace of mind, learn to ‘smell the roses’ with the process, and also laugh at my difficulties!
It is interesting that both people had memorized a Bible verse or philosophical statement of interest but had only an intellectual or two-dimensional appreciation of it until, through sincere application of the underlying principles, came realization of a deeper and more profound meaning. This, for me, is what makes this training so valuable and practical, and which sets the Lemurian Philosophy apart from a mere reading course for the intellectually curious. It can bring about subtle changes in our natures that accumulate over time, bringing us to new vistas of understanding. It truly is a pathway for Egoic growth and unfoldment.
Great observations and statements on what makes the Lemurian Philosophy so valuable!
“Trying to understand is like straining through muddy water. Have the patience to wait! Be still and allow the water to settle” Lao Tzu
Very good examples of using patience and a timely blog. I got a good lesson in patience yesterday. I have been rebuilding a motorcycle for several months and was installing a set of carbs on the engine. I had them off and on once before a month earlier but had to repair another fault that developed and had taken them off again. Now they were ready to put on and my mind raced ahead to ways I could assemble them quicker than before, as it took a good hour to do it. I decided I needed four hands, so I called my patient wife down to help me and slowly but surely we got them back on in less time. She went back to her tasks and I started to take care of the minor details to finish the job. It then hit me that the very first step was to attach the cables and I was in such a hurry to get on with the procedure that I forgot to do it. There was no way they could be attached with the carbs on the engine. Guess what? They had to come back off again! As I sat there in the “muddy water” and stared at the engine, I slowly got up, put my tools away and decided tomorrow was another day.
Even with those who may slip up with patience now and then, a very appealing quality is the ability to laugh at ourselves!
Mastering patience tends to allow other virtues to shine through. It’s hard to imagine a patient person being unkind or intolerant of another.