So let's,
As we prepare for meditation now,
Let's continue with our reflection on the fruits of the Spirit.
We've looked at love,
Joy and peace.
And the next one in the list is patience.
I always get very irritated when people say to me,
You're such a Lawrence,
You're such a patient person.
I don't know why I give that impression.
Or when you're being held on the phone for a long time and they say,
Thank you for your patience.
So we're all aware,
I think,
Of ourselves as being impatient.
Things irritate us,
People irritate us.
Having to wait for something that we want irritates us.
And this patience is a form of anger,
Impatience is a form of anger.
It's a form also of resisting reality,
Of denying reality.
Some things just take time and we have to live with it and accept it.
So what is patience then?
And why is patience one of the fruits of the Spirit?
Why does patience allow us to get things done more quickly and more efficiently than if we are driven by anger and restlessness?
Word patience is also connected through its Latin root with the word to suffer.
It means literally going through something that we have to go through.
Going through it with wisdom,
With acceptance,
Without caking and screaming.
Of course we should try and avoid whatever suffering we can avoid.
But what we can't avoid we have to learn to accept.
So patience is about being real,
Accepting things as they are rather than projecting onto them what we want or what we would have liked.
The filters that we apply to our vision of reality.
Meditation teaches us to be patient because we have to be patient with ourselves,
With our distractions,
With our fidgetiness when we find it difficult to sit still.
We have to learn to be patient,
To go through,
To accept those periods of indiscipline when we stop meditating or we put it to one side.
And the mantra itself teaches us patience because in saying the mantra,
Coming back to it,
Repeating it faithfully,
Is a way of accepting ourselves.
We are distracted.
Okay,
We accept that and the only way we can improve that is by going through it,
By going through our distractedness.
And the mantra becomes a path,
A little gentle narrow path that takes us through into life.
As Jesus describes it,
The path that leads to life is narrow.
Narrow in the sense of being focused,
Paying attention,
Being mindful,
Keeping our attention on one thing.
That's the gift of meditation,
To make us single minded and patience becomes one of the fruits that arise from that simplicity,
That single mindedness.
So let's take a moment to prepare ourselves again physically by adjusting our posture so that we can sit upright and still,
Close our eyes lightly,
Just be aware of your breath,
Be aware of your feet on the ground,
Be aware of your being in this present moment,
Whatever time of the day it is,
This is where you are now.
And then gently begin to repeat your word,
Your mantra with fidelity and with simple attention.
Ma Ra Na Tha.
Ma Ra Na Tha.
Ma Ra Na Tha.
Ma Ra Na Tha.
Ma Ra Na Tha.
Ma Ra Na Tha.
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Ma Ra Na Tha.
Let's end with these words of Jesus and the Gospel of John.
He tells us,
Set your troubled hearts at rest and banish your fears.
Set your troubled hearts at rest and banish your fears.
