VOLUME VIII - II -34

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Contents of Volume VIII:

PART I - BODY AND MIND

Health Physical Condition Physical Culture Control of the Body Balance Balance in Solitude Balance in Greatness Life's Mechanism Harmony Mastery Self-Mastery Self-Discipline Question about Fasting Self-Control Physical Control Vaccination and Inoculation Breath The Power of Silence A Question about Feelings The Control of the Mind The Mystery of Sleep Dreams Spiritual Healing

PART II - BEING HUMAN

Man, Purpose of Creation Character-Building Human Nature Self-Realization The Art of Personality Man likened to the Light Truth Selflessness-Inkisar Indifference-Vairagya Indifference & Independence Overlooking-Darquza Graciousness-Khulq Conciliation-Ittifaq Consideration-Muruwwat Tact Spirituality Innocence Holiness Resist not Evil Resignation Struggle and Resignation Renunciation Sacrifice Ambition Satisfaction Harmlessness Vegetarianism Unselfish Actions Expectations Be a Lion Within Humility Moral Culture Hope Patience Confidence Faith Faith and Doubt The Story of Orpheus Happiness Privilege of Being Human

Volume VIII - The Art of Being

The Privilege of Being Human

Chapter XXXIV
Patience

Patience, the word itself, is the heaviest thing that is. To one who is in difficulties and troubles, to one who is in sorrow, to one who lives in the wish of obtaining his desire, the word patience has a dreadful sound. The sound is dreadful, the thought is terrible, the idea is frightful to us. Yet all our difficulties in life, all our failures come from lack of patience. All the results of life often are lost through impatience. A person may have patience for forty years, and then lose patience, and so lose the result of all his endeavors during so many years.

The impatient person will show his impatience in his speech. When you ask him something, he will not let you finish your sentence; he answers before you have finished because he thinks, 'Why should you still say that half sentence?' The impatient person eats very fast, and all the veins and tubes of his body cannot drink so fast as he drinks. If he walks across the room he will stumble ten times; he walks into chairs, into the table, into the door and does not look into whom he walks. If he intends to take some action, he starts and three times before he reaches the door he will say, 'I am going, I am not going, I am going,' because he does not give time to his decision.

All our errors and faults come from impatience. It is not that the soul wants something which is wrong, but we do not stop to weigh our acts. We seize upon the first thought that comes to us without weighing or considering it. Nowadays the wish for variety has grown so strong that we always wish for new surroundings, new friends, new faces, and our thoughts change every moment. If we could hold our thought, we should increase its power. We think, 'It is only a thought, it will pass.' In reality, by our thought we create a spirit, a jinn, a genius, that acts and works and achieves. The more patiently we think a thought, the stronger the thought becomes.

The lesson of patience is much less taught nowadays as the influence of religion has become much less, and education is mostly given for commercial purposes. So we must look upon the lesson of patience as a lesson we give to ourselves; we must think of all the beautiful results we gain by patience, and be sure that, if we have conquered patience, we have conquered the whole world.