Patience is one of the ten paramis or perfections of a Buddha. To discover
the perfection of patience in spiritual practice is to discover a quality of
resting and waiting. It is in the waiting itself, in the listening, in what the
poet Rilke called “living the question,” in staying with the process of life,
that spiritual practice is fulfilled. Patience–aaah– taking a breath and
resting where we are, in how things are.

Suzuki Roshi taught that a better word is not patience but constancy – a
willingness to be ever present for what is. To simply sit, to breathe out and
in, to be aware of whatever is present–thinking, discomfort, joy, love,
sleepiness, sadness. Allowing what is to arise and pass in its own way and
its own time. There is a resting in the rhythm of life and nature. Really,
what’s the hurry? Where are we going?

Perhaps the opposite of impatience is not patience, but kindness,
contentment and a spirit of wonder. It is the capacity to be kind, to rest
and to trust. Sometimes in spiritual life we strive for progress. That can be
like a bud on a branch deciding it has to hurry up and open. Rather, it fills
itself out slowly and gradually according to conditions, and then one day
it blooms. Patience is very kind. It is like a slow walk in the country, like
holding hands, like sitting in the sun–like planting an orchard that might
take 10 or 15 years to bear fruit. How is patience manifesting in your own
life–can you plant now what may blossom far beyond your own life?