Letter # 102: "Patience"

Bedraggled by life from childhood onwards, a man told me that he suffers from attacks of anger; people even fear the look in his eyes. He wants to develop more patience. Good idea. We could all benefit from an extra dash of patience.
What is patience?
As a word, patience is interesting for it has the same root as passion, as in the suffering of Christ on the Cross. Latin gave us the word patience, from pati "to suffer, endure," which in turn is from the Proto-Indo-European base pei- " to damage, injure, hurt". But passion does not only mean suffering; it also means angry and emotional. This sense of the word comes from L. passionatus, "affected with passion”, and "amorous".
We aspire for patience for it’s an attractive quality to have. “A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains,” says a Dutch proverb. But handling difficulties, provocation and delays with calmness and fortitude requires guts and poise even for the brainiest of us. And when it comes to food, we humans seem to have worse patience than even our less intelligent cousins, the chimpanzees. [Pubmed/17900899].
All the spiritual texts speak of patience.
That women are generally more patient than men might be the reason why, when it came to patience amongst other things, Lord Krishna mentioned women: “Among women I am fame, fortune, fine speech, memory, intelligence, steadfastness and patience.” BG 10.34.
St. James enjoins: "Be patient, therefore, brothers, ... See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You too must be patient." [James 5:7]
The Holy Koran comforts: “Through every difficulty there is relief. Verily, through every difficulty there is relief.” [94:5-6].
The Dhammapada declares, “The Awakened call patience the highest sacrifice; the Awakened declare nirvana the highest good. The one is not a true ascetic who harms others, who oppresses others.” [14-184].
Guru Nanak sings, “Taisa harakh(u) taisa us(u) sog(u); Sada ananda(u) tah nahi biog(u),” which means, “Joy and grief are alike for him; He’s ever happy being never separated from God.” [SS Asht 9. P 101].
Click the link if you're interested in 12 tips on how to expand patience.

God Bless; Allah Hu Akbar; May The Forces Of The Universe Bring You Harmony; Hare Krishna; Radha-Swami; and Nanak Naam Chardi Kala Tere Bhane Sarbat Dha Bhalla.

I wish to express my gratitude for your comments, which inspire me to carry on writing. Please forgive my fallibilities in presenting this material. Also, feel free to send this message on to someone that you might think would like to receive it. If you do send it on, my only request of you is that you send it as it is, in its entirety, and to not alter or modify any of the text, references or authorship information. Thus you will help to give credit or liability to where they are properly due.
Jas Bhopal
Copyright© 2008
References: "The Holy Bible" Online version; "The Koran" as translated by SV Mir Ahmed Ali 2005 ISBN 0-9761870-0-0); "The Bhagavad Gita As it Is" as translated by Srila Prabhupada ISBN 0-89213-268-X; The Srimad Bhagavatum as translated by Srila Prabhupada ISBN0-89213-259-0; "I Am That. Talks With Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj” ISBN 0-89386-022-0; The Dhammapada ISBN-10:1-84483-344-5; The Sacred Sukhmani ISBN 81-7205-098-4; Wikipedia.