THE SPIRITUALITY OF PATIENCE

IN OUR DAILY LIVES WE MUST
FIGHT ANGER WITH PATIENCE

www.huffingtonpost.com - Patience is the Mahayana Buddhist virtue that overcomes anger. According to this religious point of view, an angry mind is the result of ignorance, and when we act out of anger, we always cause ourselves spiritual harm. We often harm others when we act out of anger, but we always harm ourselves. So, from this spiritual perspective, we need to eliminate anger from our minds. We do this not by suppressing our anger, but by eliminating the ignorant way we conceive of those persons and things that cause us to become angry. Suppressing anger can cause psychological problems, but eliminating the causes of anger always results in psychological and spiritual health. We become angry because of a deluded view we have of ourselves and the persons or things toward which our anger is directed. When we become angry, we are viewing a thing as permanently bad and hateful by nature - it is as if this thing is pervaded by badness. We also project the characteristic of being "permanently me" onto a collection of body parts and mental states that is continually changing.

We vigorously defend our sense of having a permanent self and become angry with anything we view as causing harm to this self. This false way of viewing a world of permanent things is called a "delusion" in Buddhism. In your daily life, remind yourself that anger is a delusion, and that there are many disadvantages of being angry. I have already explained why anger is a delusion. Now, let's look at some of the disadvantages of anger. Anger is a very unpleasant and disagreeable emotion to experience. No one would choose to experience anger for its own sake. Anger causes us to act in ways that we often eventually regret, because we are not in full control of ourselves when we are angry. We cannot think clearly when we are angry, so we make serious mistakes in thinking and doing as a result. There are many other disadvantages of anger. There are, also, many advantages of being patient, and you can include contemplating them during your meditation sessions to develop patience. To complete your practice of using contemplative meditation to develop patience, you must integrate the results of meditation into your daily activities.

"Anger causes us to distance ourselves from others, because we appear repulsive and threatening when we are angry. Anger is the root cause of all wars, and wars cause widespread death and destruction. Anger can cause us to say hurtful things, even to those we dearly love," explains the author of this article: Tenzin Norbu - pen name of Terrence Moore, a retired professor of Philosophy (USA).  Anger leads to delusion and then towards destruction. Consequently, an aspirant in devotional path, must be wholly wedded to this quality of patience.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

Patience is another essential and favourable quality that is needed for every aspirant after devotion. 'Patience and perseverance will overcome mountains'. We are severely disappointed and nonplussed due to want of patience. Those who lack this quality are undone; they do not prosper in any line. By the influence of patience, an aspirant for devotion gains perfect control over himself, and finally the entire world bows to him. Souls under the thraldom of Maya are the slaves of sixfold passions. Those who can effectively succeed in conquering all these six passions can master the whole world. These impulses are (1) an uncontrollable tendency for idle gossip, (2) various undesirable speculations of the wavering mind, (3) proneness to uncontrollable anger, (4) unusual desire for satisfying the tongue with delicious varieties of food, (5) longing for excessive eating, and (6) sexual appetite. These six impulses are highly detrimental to the development of devotion. Hence, with utmost patience, they are to be abandoned in the daily life of one aspiring after Bhakti.

Śrīla Bhakti Vaibhava Purī Mahārāj:
“Guru and Atma Nivedan”
‘Activities Favourable to Devotional Progress’
Bhakti Vigyan Nityananda Book Trust
Śrī Krishna Chaitanya Mission - http://srilapurimaharaja.org/
http://www.purimaharaj.com/GuruMaharaj.htm