Patience as a Spiritual Practice

Time is a weirdly funny thing when it comes to us humans. It can drag, it can fly by, it can "take forever" or "happen in an instant". Because of this, time is the first thing we usually associate with being an illusion--once we accept this physical realm as an illusion, anyway.

In my current live-in caregiving gig for 93-year-old Hilbert, I've become more sensitive to time awareness. Hilbert spends his days mostly chair-bound, rarely able to leave his apartment without a lot of help to go to the doctor's office. He has a quip he likes to make: "Another day another 15 cents," as he grins. He ruminates freely about how the "pace of life" has changed so much, and how people have seemed to become so self-absorbed and un-interested in their own activities.

I argue that the stressors of life have rendered so many of us wrapped up in economic concerns and the relational backwash of it, that we are unable to pull our heads out of you know where. It seems the faster technology pushes us to go, the less amount of attention we all have to live full, expansive lives, unencumbered by the worries of modern life.

On a quantum level, of course, time becomes just another dimension--such as width, length and height. In fact, time can run backwards, or suddenly turn into a future that affects a current state. These are considered common quantum quirks. These effects are happening to our human experience, too, but we have that handy tool--the mind--to keep everything in a linear flow, when in Reality, there is no such thing.

Yet, as a major part of the human experience, the forward flow of time is a basic reality, without which there could be no commerce, no language, or perception of manifestation through personal efforts or power. In other words, time affords us a sort of linear playground upon which to express ourselves and to actualize the experiences we desire. This is where the practice of patience comes in.

As some wise person said, "Time exists so that everything doesn't happen at once." True enough, yet if we take into account imagination, it's not quite so true. We have desires that first instantly appear in our imaginations, which then begin their descent into our physical experiences. The "imaginary" fulfillment of a desire is the instantaneous existence of the desire as a certain vibration, or vibratory rate. If we can "hold" that manifestation in our imaginations long enough, the vibratory rate of it will begin to match a vibratory rate of the desire manifested. The crux of the matter is time, of course.

Most of us surround our desires with wall after wall of judgements and conclusions that all but insure the desire remains only in the imaginary realm. By opening ourself up to the possibility of our desire actually appearing in the physical world, then the primary mental and spiritual practice becomes Patience.

We wait. We maintain. We watch. During this sensitive "coalescence" period, we remain committed and pure of intent with our birthing desire. This allows all sorts of blockages to arise to be cleared. Everything from the "how many more miles, Daddy?" to "This is taking forever", to "What if it NEVER happens?" Yes, what if? Good question. The answer is that this is a moot question, because doing the spiritual work of actualizing a desire, that question cannot be entertained, since by asking it, more and more time is injected into the actualization of the desire. Since we are immortal spiritual beings, we actually have "forever", so again, the question is moot.

Treat the practice of patience as the "secret sauce" to the manifestation of your desires, and watch the magic happen!

The Magic of Repetition

In my mind, the most NOT talked about thing about actualizing, manifesting or any form of creative alchemy is repetition. It's kind of magic's dirty little secret.

We forget sometimes that in the creation of our lives, what is repeated the most is most visible. We are all mighty creators, but by constant repetition of our limitations, constant repetition of our frailties, and constant repetition of limiting beliefs, we act and feel far from the mighty creators we started out as.

The subconscious is accessed and programmed by repetition. If we aren't consciously programming our subconscious, then the rest of our experience will program it for us, and because conditions in our life came about through repetition of viewpoints, conclusions, choices and judgements, we are going to be experiencing pretty much the same thing from day to day.

The subconscious can be visualized as a vast array of off/on switches, and these off/on switches are in circuit with the DNA in our genes. The important thing to know is that these switches require the repetition of an exact "command" in order to be switched on or off. A command is formed by our CHOICE. If we CHOOSE to accept or create a certain point of view, or feeling, for example, "I'm just not good enough to get what I desire", this conclusion becomes active.

When this happens, the mind begins to look for corroborating evidence of its truth. When the evidence is found (as it invariably is), this acts as an amplifier for that initial choice of "I'm just not good enough to get what I desire". Now, repeat this enough times, and the subconscious adds this switch to its vast array, and soon the experience of "not being good enough" goes on automatic, adding yet another layer to the subconscious programming.

The conscious mind now begins to observe all sorts of ways this "I'm not good enough" command is true in life, and without any countering commands, it just keeps getting re-enforced and soon, our life experience is in a miserable, downward spiral.

That's why when we CHOOSE to change our life into something exciting and worth living, all the reasons why that can't happen immediately show up. This is the "switch" that we had previously carefully and skillfully installed! Now it becomes a matter of repeating the choice--over and over--until the subconscious program is overwritten--that switch is turned off, and a new switch is turned on: "My life is exciting and worth living."

The complicating factor is ego. Our sense of self has a dark side that basically campaigns for the subconscious. Whatever the dominant program is that is running in the subconscious, the ego owns it, makes it personal, and defends it. That's why after we've made the CHOiCE to change, experiences will come up that seem to invalidate that choice, and we take it personally. That's the dark ego talking. The trick is to get the ego on your side. Get it to be a cheerleader for your positive choices.

We can do that by simply noticing that the sheer act of making the choice to change caused life experiences of the opposite. If we frame those negative experiences as progress, and are, as a result, encouraged, the ego will soon jump on board and start telling you how great it's all going!

I've been studying with a powerful shaman lately, and she keeps repeating, "Why would you continue to choose to feel BAD about your circumstances after you have already CHOSEN the circumstances you desire?" Good point. And it has everything to do with training the conscious mind to train the subconscious mind toward what we truly desire.

So it all boils down to CHOICE and REPETITION, folks. Pretty damn simple, actually. Although some would argue simple is not easy, and this is true...at first. The hard part is feeling those old feelings that jump up to try to re-enforce the program you are choosing to change, and the ego is taking it personally (before it switches over to your side). At a certain point, after much repetition, these feelings and experiences fade away, and are replaced by the joy and ease you are choosing. It's a process. Enjoy it, and the magic that is sure to follow!

Be the Magician

One of the most basic skills in magic is to entrain the audience into suspending their disbelief of their own senses. If the audience no longer disbelieves what they are seeing, what you do as a magician seems like real magic. The trick is to convert the skepticism of disbelief into the wonder of true believing.

And this is how we actually create our lives. We become true believers of our own magic. We don't like a certain situation, or we want to change what we are experiencing in our lives, so we reach out with a new vision of how we want our lives to be, and refuse to disbelieve when things are slow to change or barriers and apparent obstacles block our choice to change.

Last week I had an experience with the crowdfunding app, GoFundMe. I had made a choice that I was going to raise the money for my cause, no matter how long it took, or what I had to do to make that choice come true. I thoroughly suspended my own skepticism about fundraising and "other people's intentions"--all the reasons that prevented me from using the service in the past. And with that mindset, lo and behold, it only took 48 hours to achieve my GoFundMe goal. In retrospect, it did seem like magic. In fact, many of the partcipants in the fundraiser were surprised how fast everyone chipped in.

My guru/coach said something that got me going on this: "The energy of wonder--the amazement of creation--is one of the most attractive qualities you can show the Universe. The intelligence of the particles and waves swirling around you, are just waiting for you to want something amazing they can be a part of."

Most of us have had the experience of deciding to accomplish a project or get something done, then sitting down with pen and paper to write down all the plans necessary to bring the project to fruition. We list out all the steps that we can see from the perspective of not having the project completed. We then proceed to trudge through the steps, one by one, and then realize a lot of the steps have to be revised, or new steps added, and after a while it seems overwhelming.

Of course, the problem started when we wrote down the steps we thought we needed to do. That's a problem because it was done from the viewpoint of not having what it is you're shooting for. In fact, a very wise person told me once, "It's not your job to figure out how to get something done. That's the Universe's job."

All we need to do is put the vision out there and suspend our own disbelief about it happening. The fact is, as creators, once the vision is released it IS existing within the quantum energetic structure of the subtle energy fields permeating us all. And, these subtle energies are independent of space and time and instantaneously connected to all particles and waves in the entire Universe. They are, literally, the MAGIC of life.

We can just as easily spontaneously STOP everything by disbelieving. If you don't believe in your own creation, then the intelligences of the particles and waves in the subtle energy field of your life, won't believe them either, and nothing changes.

So, as the magicians of our own life, we must entrain our monkey minds to be true believers in what we are creating. And in doing so, wha-la! Magic.