Reading Archive (Patience)
Live the Questions Now
Rainer Maria Rilke
In the great silence of these distances, I am touched by your beautiful anxiety about life, even more than I was in Paris, where everything echoes and fades away differently because of the excessive n...
Business Lessons from A Quiet Gardener
William Rosenzweig
The people who know me best know that at heart I am just a quiet gardener. My garden has probably taught me the most about how things grow - and thrive in a vibrant and sustainable manner. These lesso...
My Misgivings About Advice
Parker Palmer
My misgivings about advice began with my first experience of clinical depression thirty-five years ago. The people who tried to support me had good intentions. But, for the most part, what they d...
Being Judicious, not Judgmental
Thanissaro Bhikku
One of the most difficult but necessary skills we need to develop as meditators is learning how to be judicious without being judgmental. An as a preliminary step to developing that skill, it's good t...
The Power of Patience
Sharon Salzberg
If we can be quieter, more in the moment with what is actually happening, a world of perception opens up for us based on where we are, not on where we one day hope to be. "Nobody sees a flower, r...
Seeing Fully
Ajahn Brahm
We were poor monks who needed buildings. We couldn't afford to employ a builder — the materials were expensive enough. So I had to learn how to build: how to prepare the foundations, lay con...
Giving Within For-Give-Ness
Michael Bernard Beckwith
People often say that Jesus taught, "You should turn the cheek if someone smites you; you should turn the other cheek if they wrong you." Many people interpret this as saying that if s...
Lessening the Power of Negative Emotions
The Dalai Lama
I profoundly believe that real spiritual change comes about not by merely praying or wishing that all negative aspects of our minds disappear and all positive aspects blossom. It is only by our concer...
Every Piece is Meant For You
Virgil Kalyana Mittata Iordache
Ever since I was young I enjoyed solving puzzles and having the pleasure to see the bigger picture afterwards. But even after all that, I found that life could be the most challenging puzzle we have t...
To Find Something, Don't Look For It
Robin Wall Kimmerer
Between takeoff and landing, we are each in suspended animation, a pause between chapters of our lives. When we stare out the window into the sun’s glare, the landscape is only a flat projection...
Evolving From Hope to Hopelessness
Margaret Wheatley
[Rudolf Bahro said,] "When the forms of an old culture are dying, the new culture is created by a few people who are not afraid to be insecure." Could insecurity, self-doubt, be a good trait? I find i...
Reflections on Life from Death Row
Moyo
Reggie once told me that we could use these cells like meditation cells used by monks in monasteries. But prison is not a monastery. And although I may do my best to take advantage of the opportuni...
Neighbors Are Our Practice
Tenzin Palmo
Meditation is only one of the many qualities that is emphasized. It's a very important one because we have to understand our mind, and we can only understand our mind by looking at it. But to be a wel...
Doing What You Love
Barbara Sher
You should be doing what you love. What you love is as unique to you as your fingerprints. You need to know that because nothing will make you really happy but doing what you love. Just look at peop...
Anger as an Opportunity
Author Unknown
An alias member (who prefers to stay anonymous) shares these thoughts: "How can I practice patience when there is no one to be angry with." -- Milarepa These simple words by Milarepa, the great ...