Patience
There is a quote in A Course in Miracles that goes “only infinite patience brings immediate results”. This is one of the most mind boggling quotes of thousands of other mind boggling quotes in the Course and certainly challenges our/my belief system in the extreme. I guess the first step is to really ‘get’ how wrong we have got it all – all being the entire universe and how it functions, not wrong perhaps but more like just so back to front. To apply such a statement to our present reality risks sectioning at worst or just fast disappearing friends or seminar participants that you have made the mistake of quoting it to.
When I first read this quote I just let it go assuming when I had grown enough in consciousness I would have an epiphany and voila! That has not happened and I keep getting drawn back to this quote mainly because I recognize that patience is a bit of an issue for me still. I don’t do delayed gratification very well; I am much more an “I want it and I want it now” kind of guy which I justify as that fine line between leadership and impatience. However the accompanying emotions seem to indicate more impatience than leadership. I recognize the faults in this for it would be much better to learn the art of manifestation or even to practice it. Then there is asking for help but the big one is to learn to have faith. When we are being impatient basically we are not trusting and we lack faith. We are caught in that old chestnut of the independent person of trying to do it all ourselves and naturally to our plan!
But back to the quote; let’s look at the concept of ‘infinite’ for just a moment. I think we are like most people who basically struggle to embrace the scale of such a term and when we try and apply it to our physical universe it does seem a little big for our brains. Going on forever, without end, seems all a little biblical. For me it is much more about coming more and more into the present moment until at some point there is a shift from now in the horizontal with time and space to now in the vertical which is infinite. In this awareness there is profound peace and a feeling of eternity. It is all here and now and it stretches forever!
This is my way of saying infinite patience is not really part of this world of time and space.
Moving on to immediate results, it seems natural that this moment of infinity then matures to encompass eternity, where everything is and therefore so are all the results you could possibly ever wish for, pray for or simply choose and they can come into existence spontaneously.
I hope my ramblings around the universe have given you a glimpse into the power of now and the shift from the horizontal to the vertical. Only one small issue remains and that is how to bring those learnings back into my life on an everyday basis and on that I am still working, seeing the trap of impatience, building my trust and faith, and asking for help from the right places. As soon as I have it handled I will let you know immediately.
Love, Jeff