Patience Meditations

From 16Guidelines

Meditations on patience are resources associated with the 16 Guidelines.

Reflection on Patience from 16 Guidelines: The Basics

• Find a quiet space where you can relax. Sit comfortably. To help you settle, focus your awareness on your breathing. Let go of any thoughts, images of feelings that arise. Whenever you become distracted, bring your awareness gently back to the sensation of the breath going in and out. Spend a few minutes enjoying the experience of coming to rest.
• Allow yourself to connect with the patience and compassion that exist deep within your heart. Imagine your heart overflowing with these qualities and taste the peace that they bring.
• Identify someone with whom you are having difficulty at the moment. Imagine that they are standing in front of you and gently accept their presence. If this is hard to do, go back to watching your breath for a few minutes until you feel relaxed again. Be gentle with yourself and with them. Can you maintain a sense of patience and compassion in your heart?
• Now remember a time when they spoke or behaved in a way that you found challenging or disturbing. Imagine the agitated emotions that were running through their mind. Allow yourself to explore the suffering that they were going through. Proceed slowly and gently, in a spirit of patience and compassion.
• Recall a time when you felt anger, jealousy or any other disturbing emotion towards this person. How did that feel in your heart? What effect did it have on you? What impact did it have on them? Did either of you fan from that situation?
• Now imagine that the person is trying to have an argument with you. As an experiment, decide that you are willing to lose the argument, that you won't answer back, score points, or attempt to control how they behave. Do your best to be genuinely kind, open, patient and compassionate.
• Trust in and enjoy the process. How did it feel?
• Close with the wish "May all beings be happy!"