January 31 – Seeing with patience

Dear Friends,

Closing off this month by finishing up the talk by Kamala Masters titled “The Power of Patience.”

I like the way Kamala shows a link between equanimity and patience in this talk. Kamala says that in India, she has heard a colloquial translation of equanimity as “seeing with patience.”

I like that description. Patience – to not jump into our habitual reactivity – and then seeing, with wisdom, what’s needed.

There’s an article on equanimity where Gil Fronsdal that describes this seeing:

For example, when we know not to take offensive words personally, we are less likely to react to what was said. And by not reacting there is greater possibility to respond from wisdom and compassion. This form of equanimity is sometimes compared to grandmotherly love.

~ A Perfect Balance: Cultivating equanimity with Gil Fronsdal and Sayadaw U Pandita

Reflection: Have you noticed more patient seeing in your practice and life?

I’ll close this email as Kamala closed her talk – with a quote from Rilke:

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves …. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.

~Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, as cited in Brain Pickings

Feel free to share your reflections or comments below, or by email.

With warm wishes,
Andrea