Patience is the sixth parami or “perfection” of a Buddha. To discover the perfection of patience is to discover the quality of taking a breath and resting in how things are, while letting go of the habits and impulses of acting from reactivity. Rather, we pause, even if just for a moment, before reacting to life’s challenges. In waiting, listening, and as the poet Rilke said, “living the question,” we stay with the possibility of new understanding which, with impatience and its concomitant reaction, had not the spaciousness to emerge.

Suzuki Roshi taught that a better word is constancy – a willingness to be ever present for the lawful unfolding of life. Recognition that clarity, peace and love are incompatible with compulsive behavior and reactivity, the need for patience becomes self evident. With patience, we rest in the rhythms of life and nature. We are responsive, not reactive. We let go of expectations and our timetables. Really, what’s the hurry?

Striving in spiritual practice is like a bud deciding it has to hurry up and open. Rather, it fulfills itself slowly and gradually according to conditions, and then in the right season, it blooms. The opposite of impatience is kindness, contentment and the capacity to rest and trust. Patience is generous, kind. It is like planting an orchard that might take 10 or 15 years to bear fruit. How is patience manifesting for you–can you plant now what may blossom far beyond your own life?