Just a little patience

Last night at meditation class I taught about patience.  I had been thinking about patience as a virtue that had to with time, but when I started contemplating it last night, it took on a new meaning that has only to do with any given present moment.  When I am impatient, I am resisting whatever it is that's happening right now.  When I practice patience, I am looking directly at what's in front of me and making my decisions from there.

All the waiting, all the holding back, that is impatience too.  Patience is receiving, compassion, acceptance, welcome.  Patience is loving, paying attention.

As a meditation teacher, talking about patience is really important because people need to be patient with themselves in order to practice.  If all they time they are aspiring to be in some kind of mental silence, and impatient with themselves when they're not, it's going to be a rough ride.  In my classroom, it's the same way.

Yesterday I got so impatient with my students for not being as fully prepared as I thought they should be.  Maybe they should have been, maybe not.  My impatience just made me unhappy and ineffective.  I just refused to accept that they hadn't done what I'd asked them to do.  Amazing.

Today whatever happens, I'm hoping I can remember this universal patience that receives what there is in the present moment and responds accordingly.  I hope to be patient with my students and myself, and to experience and extend a kind of grand support from that.  We'll see how it goes.