Practicing Patience

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”~ Lao Tzu

Is it possible to never hurry, but to get everything done?

It seems contradictory to our modern world, where everything is a rush, where we try to cram as much into every minute of the day as possible, where if we are not busy, we feel unproductive and lazy.

In fact, often we compete by trying to show how busy we are. I have a thousand projects to do! Oh yeah? I have 10,000! The winner is the person who has the most insane schedule, who rushes from one thing to the next with the energy of a hummingbird, because obviously that means he’s the most successful and important.

Right?

Maybe not. Maybe we’re playing the wrong game — we’ve been conditioned to believe that busier is better, but actually the speed of doing is not as important as what we focus on doing.

Maybe we’re going at the wrong speed. Maybe if we are constantly rushing, we will miss out on life itself. Let’s let go of the obsession with speed, and instead slow down, stop rushing, and enjoy life.

And still get everything done. How?

This requires A Change of Mindset.

The most important step is a realization that life is better when you move at a calm, more relaxed pace, instead of hurrying and rushing and trying to cram too much into every day. Instead, get the most out of every moment.

 A Short Story: Practicing Patience

A man observed a woman in the grocery store with a three year old girl in her basket.

As they passed the cookie section, the little girl asked for cookies and her mother told her no. The little girl immediately began to whine and fuss.

The mother said quietly, “Now Monica, we just have half of the aisles left to go through; don’t be upset. It won’t be long.”

Soon they came to the candy aisle, and the little girl began to shout for candy. And when told she couldn't have any, began to cry. The mother said, "There, there, Monica, only two more aisles to go, and then we’ll be checking out.”

When they got to the check-out stand, the little girls immediately began to clamor for gum and burst into terrible tantrum.The mother patiently said, “Monica, we’ll be through this check out stand in 5 minutes and then you can go home and have a nice nap.”

The man followed them out to the parking lot and stopped the woman to compliment her.

“I couldn't help noticing how patient you were with little Monica,” he said.

Whereupon the mother said,

“I’m Monica . . . my little girl’s name is Tammy.”

Discussion:

Whatever is happening, we still have to keep our balance and composure in that situation.

This HUSH - HUSH is damaging our sensitivity to judge others, its spoiling our quality of life.

Jain Moral:

Our Guru jis and Muni Maharaj are a symbol of maintaining the utmost calmness and never be in a hurry. It’s a human nature TO OBSERVE AND LEARN. Then why are we ‘Jains’ not learning from our Munis, 'the relaxed pace of life and not to react too much to any situation, just flow with the life intelligently'.

Hope it works for all of you…

Regards.

A Young Jaina