This is a meditation on patience and coming to trust in the process.
It will start with a spoken section and then we'll go into a short seated meditation to develop patience and trust in the process.
Patience is pertinent.
There are things we can get done a year that we can't do today no matter how much money or resources we throw at it.
We may have to develop the F word.
Yep,
Faith.
Faith in the process.
And when I say faith,
I don't mean it in any kind of religious sense,
Although that can be deeply beautiful true if that's true for you.
I mean faith that things will work out,
That good things will come to us in the fullness of time,
That we can trust in what is right now,
That we can trust in what isn't too,
That we can bear to be with the fact that if something isn't meant for us,
Sometimes it just won't arise for us.
I don't say that as a platitude or some woo-woo wafty simplification.
I acknowledge that not getting what we want can be a bleak and bitter place.
Yet I do mean that despite our immense human willpower,
Sometimes we just can't get reality to bend to our own will.
Ultimately,
Life is the boss of us.
There are many places where our hearts get broken by things that we wanted that did not come to pass.
We get to breathe through it all and to trust over.
Ultimately,
The only thing that we can work with is our own emotional response to things not being the way that we want them to be.
Our frustration may mask our fear of failure.
Our irritation may also be a sign of our impatience,
A sign that we wish that life is different than it was.
This is a surefire way to create suffering in our own lives.
Our society seems currently fixated on clicking through things for a quick fix.
I'm not sure reality works that way.
Sometimes we have to settle.
Sometimes we have to be patient in getting what we want.
Have to take it step by step.
We have to work towards goals,
Towards new ways of being,
Towards changing our thinking or our habits.
We can do things over a period of time that we just can't do in one session.
So let us sit now and practice patience.
Practice trusting in ourselves,
Trusting in the process,
Trusting in divine timings.
Take a breath.
Settle into this moment.
Feel into this body.
And this breath.
Sit where you are.
Sit with what is.
It's one of the four noble truths that life is unsatisfactory,
That things aren't impermanent.
Yet we can sit and breathe and turn towards that.
We can open our hearts towards knowledge.
We can cultivate compassion with the fact that we might be struggling with that.
When you notice impatience or irritation arises,
Soften.
And when I say soften,
I mean that both physically.
Soften your eyes.
Soften your breath.
Soften your hands.
Soften your shoulders.
Soften your belly.
Soften into whatever you're sitting on.
And I also mean soften your thoughts.
Sometimes we have a mind that tells us it should be this way,
Or it should happen in this time.
It's where we cause ourself suffering.
Soften that thought.
Come back to body breathing.
To the present moment as a place of refuge.
If impatience arises,
Soften.
If grief arises,
Soften.
If fear arises,
Soften.
Turn towards your own experience.
In meeting what is unsatisfactory,
We come across compassion,
Kindness.
I'll sit quietly and let things be for a moment.
Let ourselves still.
Practice patience.
Softening into our practice.
Not trying to get it right or perfect.
Simply practicing being with what is and what isn't.
Let the thoughts drop.
Drop into the feeling of being in a body.
Drop into your heart.
Invite in the quality of trust.
Trust in yourself.
Trust that you can find a good way through.
Trust in the process.
Trust in the process.
Trust in the timings.
Trusting in what is.
Trusting that change is coming.
Trusting that things may fruit fully for you in the fullness of time.
Trusting that if they don't,
Then something better is going to happen.
Trusting in the process.
Even though we can't fathom it out,
We can learn to let go into it.
I love these words by Fred Buchner.
Listen to your life.
See it for the fathomless mystery that it is.
The boredom and pain of it.
No less than in the excitement and gladness.
Touch and taste and smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it.
Because in the last analysis,
All moments are key moments.
Life itself is grace.
So as we come to finish,
Put your hand on your heart.
Know that you may need to practice patience time after time.
Know that you may need to develop trust time after time.
Know that we are works in progress.
Know that change does come.
It is a constant.
That things will shift for you.
In the meantime,
We keep coming back to the present moment.
Keep caring for ourselves.
We keep sitting with ourselves.
Showing up on our meditation cushion.
Being with what is.
So I thank you for your practice today.
For turning towards your life.
I wish you wellness and happiness.
And all good things coming to you when the time is right.
